It defines itself as a private, decentralized cryptocurrency based on open source code, which allows everyone to access the network according to the most advanced security standards. This is how Bytecoin got its space in the crypto universe. Opinions are divided between those who reject it as scam and those who consider it an innovative project: let’s try to to know it better.
Bytecoin, whose trading code is BCN, is a cryptocurrency created in 2012, which uses the CryptoNote algorithm. It imposed itself as an altcoin that focuses entirely on anonymity and on the maximum possible decentralization of mining.
It also caught eyes on itself in May 2018, when its listing on Binance was declared, the biggest exchange platform in the crypto market. Yet, immediately after the listing, its price has risen upwards by increasing 1000%. Then it fell into nothingness. Nobody, in fact, seems to have been able to take advantage of this increase due to the fall of the of the Bytecoin network. It declared “out of service” by its developers. But let’s go in order.
What makes Bytecoin an innovative project
Bytecoin mining works through an egalitarian Proof-of-Work algorithm, the Scrypt: this detail makes the BCN minable both from CPU and GPU. In fact, Bytecoin is one of the few cryptocurrencies that can be easily mined (at a rather slow pace) even from PC. Not only through ASICs hardware.
BCNs can be traded on some of the most popular exchange platforms, like Binance, HitBTC, Poloniex and OKEx; they are usually associated with BTCs, but they can also be traded with ETH and USDT.
Bytecoin is based on the CryptNote algorithm, promoting itself as a cryptocurrency also accessible from a computer, and safer than Bitcoin in terms of source code.
The controversial points of Bytecoin mining
That most controversial episode of the Bytecoin project goes back to 2014, when it was discovered that more than 80% of BCN were already pre-mined by its developers. The total offer of Bytecoin announced at that time was of 184.86 billion coins, with a production frequency of 120 seconds: However, the investing public had a strange surprise: around 150 billion coins had already been mined at the time the total offer was made available.
This led the public to accuse Bytecoin of scam and to declare the launch date of the new coins late, to be able to pre-mine the majority before making them available on the market: a behavior that contravenes the democratic principles on which cryptocurrencies are based on.
Another episode that caused a sensation happened in May 2018, when Bytecoin’s entry on Binance generated an immediate 1000% price increase and, following that, the fall of the network, which prevented investors from selling. The developers justified the fact associating it with the surge in popularity of BCN, that the network could not manage. Another version is that of miners using a vulnerable version of the mining software, thus causing the fall of the network.
So, if Bytecoins are confirmed on paper as an interesting alternative, decentralized and safe project, some of the events that have characterized its “career” on the market cast a shadow on its convenience.