Full disclosure before getting into Luxcoin : I do own Luxcoin and therefore I'm biased and stand to profit from any reader acting on my information, additionally I'm not a financial advisor so please make your own due dilligence before considering getting into Luxcoin.
Luxcoin uses a hybrid P-o-W/P-o-S consensus algorithm.
"LUXCORE’s PHI1612 presents the most efficient ASIC-resistant GPU mining algorithm, with faster hash rates and reduction of power and heat consumption by 10%. This is scientifically verifiable the details of which will be made available in the technical paper."
Source: https://luxcore.io/pdf/luxcore_commercial_wp_v2.0.pdf
Perhaps obvious from the name, Luxcoin's network is being run by Proof-of-Work miners, alongside connected nodes staking their coins via Proof-of-Stake, and from larger contributors hosting Masternodes. Something important to include here is that rewards from the staking process are static, meaning that the rewards are always the same, currently placed at 1 Luxcoin per reward, increased number of coins being staked results in more regular rewards being received rather than larger dividends.
They have just launched an upgraded wallet, and they are about to enable staking at block 180k (currently at 178k). I sent Luxcoins from Cryptopia to the wallet on 3 different transactions on different days, each time I had them in my wallet and spendable within 60 seconds which gives support to their claim of instant transactions. The design and features of the wallet gives a serious impression and provides impressive functionality.
They are about to launch an upgrade to implement Segwit (Possiblity for integration of Lightning network upon successful launch on the Bitcoin network), and also Smart contracts. They are a enterprise solution oriented privacy coin, this raises a possible downside since institutions might want to stay away from using privacy coins in their businesses, on the other hand, privacy coins have been a hot feature lately. Lux coin have recently done a hard fork to upgrade their network. Additionally Lux will enable Dapps (Decentralized applications). They have just recently made information regarding the team available (keep in mind not posting team info is not unfamiliar when it comes to privacy coins), however looking at the team they have now published, it seems like a serious and legit team with LinkedIn profiles and personal GitHub profiles being linked.
The biggest unique selling points of Lux from my point of view are their features called Parallel Masternodes (PMN) and LuxGate. Parallel masternodes is directed as a enterprise solution, solely directed at institutions that have been vetted and verified. Institutions that require increased security features can use this service to ensure optimal security and privacy. LuxGate will allow for communication between validated blockchains, combining the parallel masternodes with LuxGate can enable for example the Bitcoin Blockchain to interact with the Ethereum Blockchain. LuxGate can communicate with centralized networks and functions such as banking institutions current it-system. Here are some more of their value propositions:
Source: https://luxcore.io/pdf/luxcore_commercial_wp_v2.0.pdf
Furthermore, looking through their GitHub repository provides additional confidence in the development effort being put into Lux. They are actively updating the repository with over 500 commits and 19 releases dating back to October of 2017, with code being added by 9 contributors. These are primarily wallet updates but a lot of the commits are also regarding the smart contract development and masternode hosting.
The launch of Segwit + Smart contracts is scheduled to take place at the 15th of february, alongside a token burn.
Source: https://coinmarketcal.com/?form%5Bdate_range%5D=08%2F02%2F2018+-+01%2F09%2F2021&form%5Bcoin%5D%5B%5D=LUXCoin+%28LUX%29&form%5Bsort_by%5D=&form%5Bfilter_by%5D=&form%5Bsubmit%5D=
Some remarks regarding communication - I find that they have handled communication with the community during updates very well. On their Telegram they have continuously updated the community of current issues they are facing, and when wallet launch was delayed they listed the reasons as to why (kinda respect that). They have a Discord channel were moderators are very active and very helpful, I have had multiple questions answered within minutes.
Hosting a masternode in Lux requires 16,200 coins, this comes at a price of $243,000 (current price at $15 per coin). The rewards of hosting a masternode comes in at 288 coins per day ($4,000), this will however fluctuate based on number of masternodes being hosted and the 288 coin reward is calculated based on only 1 masternode running.
Rewards stats - https://masternodes.online/currencies/LUX/
More rewards stats - http://whattomine.com/coins/212-lux-phi1612
CMC - https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/luxcoin/
Website - https://luxcore.io/
White paper - https://luxcore.io/pdf/luxcore_commercial_wp_v2.0.pdf
GitHub - https://github.com/216k155/lux
Twitter - https://twitter.com/LUX_Coin
Reddit - https://www.reddit.com/r/LUXCoin/
Bitcointalk - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2422372
Telegram - https://t.me/LUXcoreOfficial
Closing remarks - Doug Polk have recently posted a positive coin review of Luxcoin. For those of you that are not familiar with him, he has one of the biggest cryptocurrency YouTube channels
Link to the clip -
Boxmining have also covered Luxcoin with a bit more negative view on Luxcoin, not finding anything fishy or faulty with their technology but rather enlighting the fact that the features that Luxcoin aims to offer is already available in bigger cryptocurrencies.
Link to the clip (Jump to 13:40) -
These are just a handpicked few reviews available on Luxcoin but there are plenty with most of them recommending Luxcoin as a up-and-coming altcoin for 2018. Luxcoin have recently seen a 50% price correction alongside most of the market due to the Fud-fiesta that just taken place. At their current market cap of $15.7M, benchmarking their technology , team, available code repository etc; I think that Luxcoin could be a contender for some stable growth during 2018.
If you want more reviews of low market cap coins or ICO reviews, I encourage you to follow me here on Steemit. Also if you want daily updates of market events ranging from developer updates to relevant mainstream media coverage you are welcome to follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/CyphLex