PEERCOIN (PPC)

Introduced in August 2012, PEERCOIN (PPC) is one of the oldest in the community of Altcoin cyiptocurrencies and represents an important competitor of Bitcoin.

The PPC was created by Scott Nadal and Sunny King, developer who also created the Primecoin. Peercoin was the first to combine proof-of-work and proof-of-stake in a hybrid system that aims to address and resolve the weaknesses of Bitcoin, including using less energy and therefore in opposition to the “big brother” also like Green alternative.

 GREEN ALTERNATIVE
 Bitcoin has often been criticized for its heavy consumption of resources in terms of energy consumption, we refer of course to the mining activity and continued halving of profitability, which require increasingly powerful and expensive equipment in fuel efficiency to earn the same amount of BTC through block rewards. Currently, it is estimated, the Bitcoin network consumes about $ 150,000 of energy in a single day. Peercoin takes a different approach, using a hybrid algorithm that initially uses proof-of-work, but, little by little, in proportion to the development of the network switches to implement proof-of-stake transitions. The generation of new currency, then, is not exclusively assigned to the activity of mining, but the Peercoin network rewards users with a new currency that simply possess Peercoin and execute his client on your computer. Thus the term “proof-of-stake” literally means that rewards users who maintain a stake, a “stake” on the network, and then keep up the network. That’s why Peercoin uses far less energy than the Bitcoin network, and is touted as a sustainable and environmentally altcoin. As evidence of this, the consumption data available from January 2014, indicate that the Peercoin network is using only 30% of the energy it uses Bitcoin. And this parameter will decrease further in time. As an added benefit, users “proof-of-stake” are rewarded with a 1% interest a year to maintain their active share on the network. The mechanism operates substantially as interest on a checking account and encourages people to stay active in the network. This particular, would result in an inflation rate of 1%, but in reality, this potential ,, inflation is counteracted by 0.01 PPC that apply to every transaction, and this is not the case in terms of earnings for the miners, as happens to Bitcoin network, but “burning” commissions. Peercoin, therefore, actually destroys the fees and removes the amount of the circulating currency, thus creating a deflationary chain. The joint mechanisms of 1% annual interest and 0.01 PPC commission creates a particularly interesting dynamic and original from which it Peercoin is primarily designed to discourage frequent transactions and encourage the possession. This feature makes Peercoin uninteresting as a payment platform, making its purpose is significantly different compared to the other currencies that are certainly more transation-friendly.

 PEERSHARES: DECENTRALISED SHARES
The Peercoin development community has also introduced Peershares, it is a decentralized solution for companies that want to issue shares and dividends without having to resort to a third stock trader. A company should convert a certain amount of Peercoins in a new blockchain representing all the shares of this company. The new blockchain will be divided among the shareholders, allowing the company to raise funds and, to holders of Peershares, to get dividends.




 SPACE FOR GROWTH?
Peercoin currently has a market capitalization of nearly $ 50 million making it the fourth most popular cryptocurrency in terms of wealth. Although we are far from the market cap of Bitcoin and despite the market dynamics are very complex, with many factors that come into play in determining the value of a cryptocurrency, it can certainly assume that the various features green and constitutive of the Peercoin make cryptocurrencies one of the most sustainable and reliable on the market. Of course it remains to be seen whether the characteristics of Peercoin, sometimes to the prize possession and penalizing with transactions, is not perceived as a bug in the eyes of users, or there will be a space for this original approach in an overall market that will likely continue to be dominated from transaction-centric coins as Darkcoin, litecoin and Bitcoin.