Do you know that MaidSafeCoin is older than mighty Bitcoin? The Scottish Crypto will be 11 years old in February. Frankly, its performance in 2016 was something to write home about. The security conscious digital currency made a strong statement when it stormed the top 10 on CoinMarketCap in the last quarter of the year dislodging digital assets like NEM, Augur and even Steem to the bottom.

Nick Lambert, Chief Operating Officer of MaidSafeCoin, attributes their notable success to changes in the technical team and how they work. Before 2015, 10 percent of their developers were based outside Scotland but in 2016 that changed to 75 percent.

"We have been decentralizing our developer base to recruit worldwide and we were able to get a much better caliber of developers," Lambert revealed to Cointelegraph.

While Bitcoin Price is fluctuating, Altcoins take time for improvements

MaidSafeCoin's initial focus in 2017 is enabling non-technical people to use encryption technology like PGP, run their own servers, anonymize, and so on to make sure their data is secure and private.  

Lambert also mentioned the development of a mobile wallet but when asked whether the crypto community should expect a MaidSafeCoin mobile wallet in 2017, he declined to make a commitment. It is clear the focus has been on the desktop wallet to make sure everything works precisely.

He says:

“We are now changing our API so that we'll cater for people to run on mobile devices which are always essential. Most of Africa runs on Smartphones and we need to cater for all those markets.”

While the Chief Operating Officer of MaidSafeCoin agrees that their primary focus is security, however, he differs in that the crypto is the most secure but in the echelons of the most secured.  "Everything we do around the network is focused on security. MaidSafeCoin is hopeful it will be one of the most secure," Lambert assured.

The company sees underfunding and lack of enough developers as the most pressing problem. But the COO does not think there will be an ICO sooner or later.

Fargocoin and Byteball added to CoinMarketCap

CoinMarketCap added two Cryptos a couple of weeks before 2016 ended that deserve mentioning. Fargocoin and Byteball have got something new and unique to enrich the ecosystem. They deserve our attention and resources.

With its unique Blockchain platform designed to increase network security and improve the limitations and functionality of initial cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Fargocoin’s Proof of Stake concept allows mining without massive hash power.

A Spokesman of Fargocoin told Cointelegraph:

"Proof of Stake is the best alternative solution to the original Proof of Work system that Bitcoin pioneered. A proof of stake system provides increased protection from a malicious attack on the network."

The Crypto company claims since Proof of Stake is less energy, it is seen as a greener way to run a cryptocurrency network. Actually, the concept requiring spending no electricity to mine, creates an incentive for all to keep their wallets running 24/7.

Tony Churyumoff, CEO of Byteball, believes they are on board with a number of technical differences, which are important, but most of all ease of use, which is commonly neglected in the crypto market. As at the time of filing this report, Byte was at number 26 on CoinMarketCap. That is very impressive for a digital currency that was listed less than two months ago.

To expand beyond the narrow niches that the industry currently occupies there is the need for user experiences that appeal to average users who are not experts in cryptography. Byteball makes payments easier with an integrated communication making most interactions in Byteball wallet conversational.

Churyumuff revealed:

“We have a built-in chat which allows users to accomplish tasks quite fast and in the lightweight interface with payments that can be done in two clicks. ”

The cryptocurrency's decentralized platform for payments gives users the degree of control that they never had before. It allows to be connected to payments of events happening in the real world, and this is achieved through smart contracts that are user readable, easy to understand, and don’t require to trust a developer.