Have you ever wanted to send a completely anonymous payment to someone, then realised your method wasn't so anonymous after all? Security is a huge issue in this time and age, and while things are being done every day to make payment sending faster and more secure, Umbra has done a great job of creating an anonymous cryptocurrency that offers features similar to Skype and Bitcoin; it's completely hassle-free, and it's about as private as you can get. Let's take a look at it, shall we?

An umbra is the darkest part of a lunar eclipse, and it's almost as dark as the Umbra is in terms of security- Umbra's a privacy centered coin that originated as a fork of bitcoin. With similar intentions to Monero, although slightly more privacy-centered, it was not intended to directly compete with bitcoin in terms of standard sending and recieving; it's simply not what the coin was primarily made for, and you have to realize that about the coin.

While designed for privacy and security at its core, Umbra also targets an easy to use GUI and more, with simple buttons that do exactly what they say and no more. Fortunately, the setup process was well thought through and it's very easy to connect yourself to Tor or L2P and get where you need to be going; Umbra states that they've reached an equibrilium between being too basic and being too advanced, and it's visible in their Shadow Client- there are settings for more basic functions, and there are more for advanced functions. After setup, you'll be almost completely ready to go. Some integral features included in the Shadow Client include both a message sender and a wallet with both private and public functions. The message sender is similar to Skype and Telegram in a way- you just need a few details and you're good! You can opt in for both public and private chat channels if you wish- it's great for teamwork and more, too! As with many things on Umbra, all messages are completely encrypted for your convenience and security- you can even further encypt messages if you wish with your own software and settings.

Umbra Wallet

Want to recieve money and even create entire marketplaces? ShadowCash is there! The main currency of Umbra, ShadowCash offers ring signatures and dual-key stealth addresses in order to complete both the most secure and most easy transactions you need. With similar encryption methods as Monero, your transactions will be silky smooth and completely encrypted. If you wish to send and recieve money normally, you can use their public wallet, and if you want to send private payments and recieve private payments, the private wallet is your thing. Both are included as standard with the wallet software, and the only major difference with the two is that the public wallet offers slightly better than basic privacy than bitcoin, and the private wallet offers the highest grade security you can get.

This is ideal for marketplaces and exchanges; the anonymity allows one to do whatever they want to do, and there are practically no bounds with Umbra. If you're concerned about your security and want to opt in for a more secure pathway to sending transactions without the hassles of creating and mixing coins like with Bitcoin, Umbra may just be your thing.

-