In an exclusive interview with CryptoSlate, Justin Sunerok, the founder and lead developer of Verge Currency (XVG), delved into his motivations, the project's evolution, and the transparent facts surrounding the network's early 51% attacks. Sunerok provided a candid look at the journey of one of the cryptocurrency space's most resilient privacy-focused projects.
Verge's story began in 2014, when Sunerok initially launched it under the name DogeCoinDark. It was subsequently rebranded to Verge Currency, a privacy coin engineered for practical, everyday use. The project positions itself as a significant evolution of the original Bitcoin protocol, promising transactions that are not only rapid and efficient but also fundamentally private.
"Verge started in 2014 as a fun, privacy-centric alternative to Bitcoin," Sunerok explained. "It was designed to improve upon the core concept, but it has since evolved into something much more significant and community-driven."
Justin Sunerok, a veteran network administrator and software developer based in Florida, brings a wealth of technical experience to the Verge project. He shared his background before immersing himself in the world of digital assets.
When asked about his early career, Sunerok highlighted his lifelong passion for technology:
"I got into programming when I was 8 years old. I attended a gifted school in New York, and it was the only class I genuinely loved and connected with."
He continued, detailing his path from a corporate role to entrepreneurship:
"After high school, I went into network security and worked for a Fortune 500 company in Boston. After a few years, I decided to start working for myself. I ran my own small network security company for a very long time."
It was this foundation that led him to discover Bitcoin, an event that would ultimately shape his future:
"Then, around 2010, I started hearing a lot more about Bitcoin from friends. Eventually, I just jumped in headfirst."
According to Sunerok, the privacy coin landscape in 2014 was nascent. Besides Bytecoin and the early stages of Monero, most projects were merely clones of Bitcoin. His experience running a mining pool exposed him to the flaws of these emerging projects:
"As the admin, every day I was adding two or three coins, and every day I was removing two or three because they were failing. They had fancy announcements promising incredible things, but nobody was delivering. They all had a pre-mine... I decided maybe I should create my own project for fun, but do it fairly—set goals and actually work towards them."
This led to the launch of DogeCoinDark, the first iteration of Verge, with a commitment to a fair launch and transparent development.
Sunerok asserts that Verge has been a pioneer in several key aspects of blockchain privacy:
"We are pioneers in many senses. We were one of the first to implement I2P (Invisible Internet Project) nodes. We have always focused on the most advanced aspects of privacy to protect our users."
When pressed on what makes Verge a better choice compared to mainstream privacy coins like Zcash and Monero, he offered a nuanced perspective:
"You can’t really say one is necessarily better than another; there are mixed opinions on how privacy should be implemented. For example, Monero uses a type of cryptography that makes it difficult to see double-spends or other exploits like a 51% attack."
Sunerok elaborated on Verge's unique focus:
"We focused on user privacy by obscuring their physical location and IP address. Our first goal was to eliminate IP addresses from the network. At the time, this was one of the most common ways to track transactions on Bitcoin or Litecoin by tracing them back to a user's IP."
Unlike many projects funded by an ICO, a developer tax, or a massive pre-mine, Verge operates on a volunteer-driven model. Sunerok sees this as a core strength:
"We have a huge team today, and it’s all volunteers. Everyone contributes because they believe in the vision. We are one of the only major coins without a pre-mine or an ICO, which I believe makes us one of the safest. You don't have to worry about a founder dumping a billion coins or a foundation halting the project."
Despite skepticism from some quarters, Sunerok remains steadfast:
"I've been hearing since 2014 that I'm going to dump on everyone and disappear someday. Yet, here we still are."
Transparency about the project's history is crucial. When asked to elaborate on the 51% attacks that Verge has suffered, Sunerok was direct:
"We’ve had a few 51% attacks. In 2016, we were Script-based [mining algorithm]. We had our first time-warp attack then, and it was devastating. We were one of the first coins to get hit because we had started to gain real monetary value, which made us a target."
To combat this, Verge adopted a multi-algorithm mining approach. However, a subsequent exploit, a time-warp attack, exploited how the network calculated mining difficulty. Sunerok explained the challenge:
"An attacker could manipulate the difficulty by mining in private and then submitting a long chain to the network. Nodes would accept this as the valid chain. We didn't have a perfect fix immediately, but we closed the attack vector to make it unprofitable for them. This bought us time to rebase and upgrade Verge to be compatible with the latest Bitcoin codebase."
In a follow-up, Sunerok was asked if the attacks undermined community trust. He felt the opposite was true:
"I think most people see an attack like that and realize it happens because Verge has value. We didn't lose our community over it. Our community is as big as it has ever been. All our chat platforms are filled with tens of thousands of people. Verge is valuable because we have a massive community that remains active even during a bear market."
A major point of discussion has been Verge's partnership with MindGeek, the world's largest adult entertainment company. Verge crowdfunded 75 million XVG to reveal the partnership. Sunerok addressed accusations of impropriety:
"The wallet we raised the funds for belonged to MindGeek, so I never had access to those assets. I saw it as a massive opportunity because they are one of the biggest companies on the internet. It was a great move because it brought us attention in every major media outlet."
A more recent partnership with NetCents, a cryptocurrency payment processor, was also highlighted as a significant step toward real-world adoption.
Looking ahead, Sunerok provided updates on Verge's development timeline, including the integration of RSK smart contracts and a new codebase:
"We started talking with RSK six months ago. Now that our updated codebase is done, integration is almost plug-and-play. RSK is definitely going to happen. We also released the alpha of our newest codebase... we expect to have it in beta very soon."
He stated that this overhaul, while challenging, is fundamental to Verge's long-term stability and feature set.
Despite setbacks and fierce competition, Verge remains very much alive. The combination of its committed founder, a powerful and dedicated community known as the "VergeFam," and a clear focus on privacy and utility has allowed it to endure. Sunerok's ultimate goal is simple:
"I want Verge to be the best. Whether it reaches number one or settles for two or three, I want to know I did my best."
With a new codebase on the horizon and a community that continues to stand by the project, Verge's story is far from over.
