DigiByte is a secure, decentralized blockchain solution that will provide users with fast, scalable transactions. It is focused on security since its inception, and is one of a handful of truly forward-thinking blockchains.
DigiByte Review: What makes DigiByte Different?
The DigiByte Blockchain is perfectly positioned towards building a secure and decentralized digital future with its unique combination of problem solving experience, pioneering new innovations and resilience through more than 4 full-time years of development.
The DigiByte blockchain and coin were launched on January 10, 2014 by Jared Tate, a programmer and entrepreneur who was interested in developing a faster and more secure version of Bitcoin. The primary goal of the project was to reach a larger decentralized community than Bitcoin.
DigiByte Development
As one of the oldest and fastest blockchains DigiByte is already beyond 7 million blocks and has seen and overcome challenges most projects have yet to face. With a focus on security, decentralization and speed DigiByte is a suitable blockchain solution to issues of peer-to-peer commerce, secure decentralized applications and the avoidance of cybersecurity threats.
DigiByte is quite popular, currently (August 2018) sitting in the #35 spot on Coinmarketcap.com with a market capitalization of just over $271 million. It is traded in over 100 countries and has seen its popularity continue rising for several reasons.
Unlike other cryptocurrencies there are no fees for using DigiByte. And transactions are nearly instantaneous. Compare that with other cryptocurrencies that can take many minutes or even hours to validate. Any user can send DGB to a verified DigiByte address anywhere in the world without registering or paying any fees.
Even after four-and-a-half years of development DigiByte continues to see its developers working hard to make improvements and upgrades to the blockchain.
DGB transaction notifications happen within 1-3 seconds and blocks are discovered every 30 seconds currently, with transactions being completed every 3 minutes. Yet developers are planning to increase transaction speeds further.
DigiByte remains unique by using advanced, modern, and cutting-edge blockchain technology for securing necessary data, documents, and contracts in a way which hasn’t been possible previously.
DigiByte Transactions have been engineered to a precise size and scope in order to maximize speed, throughput and efficiency.
Innovations that have made DigiByte more Secure
Advanced difficulty stability – DGB was created with one of the most advanced difficulty stabilities of any existing cryptocurrency. This came about through the innovations of DigiShield and MultiShield technologies built into this cryptocurrency.
Five mining algorithms – DGB has employed the use of five different cryptographic mining algorithms to avoid centralization in mining operations. Almost all other cryptocurrencies use just one mining algorithm and suffer from centralization issues in their mining base as a result.
Global decentralization – DGB is considered to be one of the most decentralized and secure cryptocurrencies. The DigiByte blockchain currently consists of over 200,000 servers, nodes, computers and smartphones spread out across the globe.
Decentralization through Mining of DigiByte
It is the miners who keep blockchain networks secure and decentralized, and DigiByte has created one of the largest decentralized networks. Mining is done with the well known Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus mechanism, but unlike Bitcoin this has not led to centralization issues.
Like any PoW blockchain, mining is carried out by solving complex cryptographic problems. The miner who solves the problem first “discovers” the next block in the chain and is rewarded with some cryptocurrency.
Because the cryptographic problems are very complex they require the use of computers processing units to solve. In the case of DigiByte this can be either the central processing unit (CPU), the graphics processing unit (GPU) or specialized computers using application specific integrated circuits (ASIC).
Most cryptocurrencies have only one type of hardware being used in mining, but DigiByte is unique in that all three processing units can be used. In addition, miners need specialized mining software, and of course a DigiByte wallet.
Choosing the Mining Algorithm
The reason any type of processing unit can be used is that DigiByte allows for five different mining algorithms to be used in mining. These five are SHA-256, Scrypt, Skein, Groestl, and Qubit.
So how do we know which to use?
Each algorithm is best suited to a different type of hardware. The advanced ASIC mining units use the SHA-256 and Scrypt algorithms. Home miners using their computers GPU can use either Skein or Groestl. And finally, the Qubit algorithm is used for a combination of different types of hardware.
Solo or Pooled Mining?
You can go it alone and solo mine DGB, or you can join forces with others and pool mine DGB. Solo mining can yield far greater rewards when a block is found, but is more erratic in the timing of finding blocks. Pooled mining yields smaller rewards, but they come more frequently, which gives a smoother return.
Most people will find pool mining to be better because they have a less powerful rig, or simply because they like the regular payouts that come with pooled mining.
Choosing the Mining Pool
The next step is to find a good mining pool. There are quite a few available for mining DigiByte. You’ll want one that is both reliable and trustworthy, and if it offers low fees that’s even better.
There are some DigiByte mining pools, such as MiningField, which as fee free. That’s a great choice, but if you want to support the DigiByte project you should mine with DigiHash.
DigiHash is the official DigiByte mining pool, and while it does take a 5% fee, that fee goes to maintain the DigiByte network.
Your decision will also be influenced by the algorithm you’ll be using. Below is a short list of some mining pools for DigiByte based on the algorithm:
Groestl Mining Pools
Skein Mining Pools
Scrypt Mining Pools
SHA256 Mining Pools
Qubit Mining Pools
DigiByte Review: DigiByte Wallets
Before you can start mining you’ll also need a DigiByte wallet to store your coins in. The mining pool will also need your public key or wallet address so they know where to send your coins.
If you already have a Digibyte wallet, great! If not, you can download official and third-party Digibyte wallets from the official Digibyte website. And while I don’t recommend it, you could also mine directly to an exchange wallet if you have an account at one which supports Digibyte.
Configuring Mining Software
Now you can go ahead and download and install the specialized mining software needed for DigiByte mining. Home miners who are using their GPU will have to choose the software that works best with their GPU. If you have an Nvidia card it’s best that you use CCMiner, but if you have an AMD card then the Claymore miner is best. You can download either of them from GitHub.
Configuring the mining software consists of making changes to the .bat file that starts the miner. You’ll add the address of the pool server to connect to, the username of your account, the username of your pool worker, and the password of the pool worker. You can use Google to find more detailed instructions and screenshots as going into more detail is beyond the scope of this article.
DigiByte Review: Buying DigiByte Coins
Some people prefer to go an easy route than mining and simply buy their DigiByte coins. First you’ll need to get a DigiByte wallet to store the coins in. You could keep them in the exchange wallet, but it isn’t recommended due to security vulnerabilities.
Remember, you can download official and third-party Digibyte wallets from the official Digibyte website.
You won’t be able to buy DigiByte with fiat currency, so you’ll have to make sure you have some BTC or ETH first to exchange for DGB.
There are many different exchanges that deal in DGB, but by far the largest is Huobi. Bitrex and Poloniex also have small volumes of DGB trade, and then all the other exchanges are well under 1% of the DGB volume.
DGB versus Bitcoin
DGB was a fork of the Bitcoin blockchain, so how do the two compare:
- In 2017 DGB increased in value by 40 times more than BTC.
- DGB is an established altcoin and is listed on many different exchanges, but it isn’t as popular as Bitcoin.
- DGB can still be mined using the GPU in your home computer. BTC requires expensive specialized hardware for mining.
- DGB is more secure and faster than its parent Bitcoin.
There are some cryptocurrency experts who believe that the use of faster and more secure cryptocurrencies such as DigiByte will increase in the future, while Bitcoin usage will be reduced. As a transational coin, DigiByte is a good choice since it is fast, secure and nearly fee-free.
DigiByte Price History
As of late August 2018 DGB is ranked #35 on Coinmarketcap.com with a market capitalization of just over $271 million. It reached its all-time high back on January 6, 2018 at $0.135, but has fallen significantly since then as the entire cryptocurrency markets have been in a dramatic bear market throughout 2018.
As of August 26, 2018 one DGB is worth $0.025311, which is still above its 52-week low. It does appear to have reached a bottom around this level, and with a recovery in the overall market could appreciate quite rapidly.
A Bright Future
The development team behind DigiByte suggests that the improved blockchain technology can fix roughly 90% of security vulnerabilities on the internet today.
The founder of DigiByte and his team are now investigating the possibilities in automation and data analysis that can be achieved by combining blockchain technology with artificial intelligence.
By innovating in this way and applying the security features of DigiByte to internet applications, services and IoT devices, DigiByte looks to have a very bright future.
DigiByte Review: Conclusion
In existence for more than 4 years already, DigiByte has been listed on many exchanges and is already being bought, sold, stored and traded in many of the developed countries of the world. It has continued to innovate and has several unique new projects in development. This is expected to attract new users to the DigiByte ecosystem, and to increase the adoption rate of the cryptocurrency on a worldwide basis.
It is the goal of the DigiByte team to eventually provide merchants, consumers and even banks with a new and more secure payment system. And by doing so they will help connect these legacy institutions with the tech-savvy cryptocurrency users from around the world.
DigiByte was created as a flexible, innovative and adaptable system that will bring new services and features to blockchain technology users. This will allow DigiByte to keep up with, and even lead, the rapidly changing world of blockchain technology.