DeepOnion was released in June 2017 as an "anonymous" cryptocurrency.
Like most of the Bitcoin rip-offs, it's based predominantly on the "Bitcoin" functionality - allowing you to send "money" from one party to another. The main difference - however - lies in the way in which the system has been built on top of the "TOR" network to provide privacy & anonymity.
The TOR network ("The Onion Router") is a network of computer systems which are all tied together with special software that turns them into "routers" ("proxy servers"). In other words, whenever someone uses the TOR network, they are actually using a huge, decentralized proxy network which sends their request through 3 separate layers of encryption in order to encode mask their IP address and other credentials.
Whilst this functionality works without "TOR", it's only due to the way in which TOR employs massive numbers of servers that it's able to actually provide the multi-layer encryption that has set it apart from all the other "privacy" solutions out there.
The reason this is important is that TOR is associated with privacy. It's most well-known as a means to access the "Dark Web", which whilst not illegal in itself, certainly provides access to many illegal pieces of functionality, from illegal pornography to contraband products such as drugs.
Ironically, TOR was developed and primarily funded by the US government, who wanted to protect the network traffic of any of their internal defense / government contractors who may inadvertently release information to enemy agencies.
DeepOnion (the "onion" coming from TOR's "onion" analogy) is a "crypto" system built on top of this network. It works by essentially obscuring the various aspects of a transaction, from the IP address of the sender to any further metadata their system may have attached to it.
Although it does not have a huge amount of difference to the way Bitcoin works (indeed, their underlying framework is based on Bitcoin's infrastructure - making their "coin" entirely compatible with BTC), there are several pieces of functionality which have been created to ensure that the system is able to keep any transactions completely secure:
• DeepSend
The most important feature of the system is undoubtedly "DeepSend" - the ability to "mix" transactions to obscure their IP address.
Typically, Bitcoin transactions will always maintain their IP due to the way in which they will come from one peer ("node" on the system). Whilst this is fine, it will give people a way to trace your transactions (removing the anonymity aspect of the system).
DeepSend essentially uses a combination of different [pre-existing] technologies to obscure a user's IP. Rather than sending the transaction directly to the user, it basically sends it to a "temporary" pool from which a random "relay" node is used to obscure the IP. This relay node will display on the transaction, not the user's IP.
The main reason DeepOnion has promised this is because this is only possible with the TOR network. By integrating into their vast network, users are able to gain the benefit of having an IP of one of the systems in the network act as the underlying IP for their transaction.
• DeepVault
This is used to provide "document" storage in the DeepOnion blockchain. It works by validating documents against a "hashed" version of themselves. Whilst many have explained that DeepVault has little bearing on the success of DeepOnion, most of the developers have stated that its implications are far wider than most would appreciate.
This means that if you're looking at this from an economic perspective, it may be the case that legal documents could be kept on the system or similar. The point is that no document can be changed if they go through the DeepVault process.
Recommended Purchase?
Ultimately, "investing" into "crypto" is a highly risky endeavour, due mainly to the way in which very few of the systems actually make any real money. As mentioned, Bitcoin is the only system which is "cashflow positive" - the majority of "alt" coins have no chance at this. And until they are able to demonstrate that they can use their "technology" to create some sort of tangible product that businesses can use, there is absolutely no point "investing" into them.
If you do invest into them, the term is "speculate" - meaning that you're just waiting on the price to increase due to some event that most have not foreseen.
Although many would argue that this is "investing" in a nutshell, the truth is that real investing takes place when you validate the growth prospects of an asset, and track the price to match. In terms of DeepOnion, if they are able to turn it into some sort of private VPS type system, they could potentially do quite well.