Namecoin Cryptocurrency: Is it worth investing in Namecoin?
It's very easy to get lost in the world of cryptocurrencies today – the new ones appear much faster than we even remember them. Actually, many of them disappear quickly too. Anyway, that's really difficult to find something worthy among such a number of options.
Namecoin is certainly a good choice for investing money, especially if you are inspired with the idea of cryptocurrency itself. Its operating principles is very close the principles of Bitcoin. Furthermore, experts consider Namecoin to be one of the most protected and secure cryptocurrencies.
Namecoin transactions are handled by peer-to-peer network without any centralized administration. It means that if a government of a certain country or a private company wants to influence Namecoin somehow (including illegal ways) they will fail. It's simply impossible to do anything with Namecoin and its processes. Probably it is the most significant reason for the people with rebellious temperament – they want to stay out of someone's control and they have the right for that.
Security
Let's imagine that a government of a really powerful country wants to stop emission of Namecoin or just wants to destroy the entire system. Hackers will then have to do one of the following things:
- Attack Namecoin system
- Close down the operation of all Internet providers.
The second option is absolutely impossible and that's rather obvious, isn't it? As for the first way it's impossible either. The issue is that hackers will need to have more capacity than all computers included in the Namecoin network. As we have already mentioned Namecoin system is absolutely decentralized and in order to hack it you need to attack each and every user whose computer is involved in the network. That's absolutely unrealizable. As Namecoin doesn't have any other vulnerability its users can rest assured that no one can steal data or break the system down. Therefore top level security is definitely the main advantage of Namecoin.
Doubtful future
Namecoin is still a young cryptocurrency. Its price can become incredibly volatile as it totally depends on the demand. If we take a look at the graphics we will see that Namecoin started with $0.38 per unit. Quite soon users decided that Namecoin is something that has good prospects and started buying it. Couple of months later Namecoin cost already more than $0.58 (March, 2016)! But it was the peak and the price has been going down since then. Today 1 NMC is sold for approximately $0.23.
Anyway, as Namecoin appeared not that long ago it could be a good cryptocurrency to invest. Really, NMC can be bought or sold on any big exchange service which is an indicator of promising outlook as well. Capitalization has been increasing as well, so there are enough reasons to expect gradual growth.
But please keep in mind that Namecoin is still a rather risky asset. It has many advantages, but there are also things which could make an investor feel suspicious. For example, Namecoin developers keep silence regarding Namecoin client update. It's a normal thing that software is updated on the regular basis, however there were no updates yet for Namecoin.
The second issue is that there is still no approval from ICANN for Namecoin root servers. Finally, as there are dozens or even hundreds various cryptocurrencies nowadays users can suddenly change their opinion about Namecoin and turn to something they consider to have better outlook. With such a number of cryptocurrencies where each is promoted and marketed professionally is not an easy thing to make the right choice.
Actually we believe in Namecoin as we see huge potential in this cryptocurrency. But none of us can predict the future, unfortunately. So investing into Namecoin looks a decent and sensible idea but you should always consider the risks. The best way to avoid big losses is to diversify your portfolio as much as possible.
How to work with Namecoin
Namecoin mining still remains a popular way to obtain Namecoin and the best thing here is that one can mine Bitcoin and Namecoin simultaneously. There are lots of manuals for that available online – they are just too big to publish them here. We highly recommend users with powerful computers to consider mining and to find a good pool for it.
After downloading Namecoin client you will need to register a domain (a .bit domain) and pay for the registration. Unfortunately, there is no possibility for free registration. You could pay for it with NMC so it's better to have some on your wallet. That's not expensive, anyway. If the domain name you chose is free you'll need to pay 0.005 NMC only.
Then you will need to specify some technical things like IP address etc. During the entire process of configuration your Namecoin-Qt should be connected to the Internet. Usually it doesn't take longer than 2 hours.
Where can one use Namecoin?
More and more online stores and services accept various cryptocurrencies including Namecoin – they also want to earn on accepting and selling them. So the most obvious way to use and spend Namecoin is to purchase things online.
Of course, Namecoin is also worth considering it as an investment when you mine or buy a certain number of units and wait until they cost more. The example of Bitcoin and many other cryptocurrencies perfectly shows that it's really possible to earn a lot if you know where to stop and when to sell.
Namecoin could be a way to diversify your investment portfolio – many people buy quite risky assets where they can lose a moderate sum and win a fortune. The NMC/USD exchange rate has been getting worse and worse for Namecoin owners recently. Maybe it's the time to buy some? It cannot become cheaper all the time – more and more people think about buying some Namecoins. If you will be the first you will benefit more than everyone else!
It's up to you to decide whether Namecoin is worth investing into it. We think that it rather is especially as an additional asset in your investment portfolio.
