> Thanks for the commentary, Odinn. I wanted to just briefly clarify a few
> points from my vantage:
>
> On 05/22/2014 08:16 AM, Odinn Cyberguerrilla wrote:
>> Darkcoin is indeed out and based on a coinjoin concept, but I'm not sure
>> that Darkcoin is actually anonymous strictly. Additionally from what I
>> have observed, the master nodes are a serious vulnerability at present
>> in
>> Darkcoin.
> Keep in mind that nothing is "anonymous" -- anonymity is a mathematical
> term for measuring the number of actors you can be mistaken for.
> Therefore phrases like "strictly anonymous" do not have meaning.
>
>> Zerocash on the other hand which will run based on bitcoin 0.9.1 code,
>> will present anonymity.
>> http://zerocash-project.org/how_zerocash_works.html
>> Apparently, all its code is not yet out in public view, it's different /
>> lighter than the initial zerocoin implementation, and the zerocash stuff
>> being discussed won't be out supposedly for sometime between 3 to 6
>> months, as discussed here
>> https://twitter.com/secparam/status/468799366489047042
>>
>> See also this https://twitter.com/secparam/status/468784402558771200
> The main challenge with Zerocash is reliance on setup by a trusted
> party. Quoted from the latest zerocash paper:
>
> "System setup: The algorithm generates a list of public parameters:
> inputs: security parameter
> outputs: public parameters pp
> The algorithm is executed by a trusted party. The resulting public
> parameters pp are published and made available to all parties (e.g., by
> embedding them into the protocol's implementation). The setup is done
> only once; afterwards, no trusted party is needed, and no global secrets
> or trapdoors are kept."
>
> Who do YOU trust do perform this setup step? I don't trust anyone,
> including myself since my hardware could be tampered with. I think
> they'll need to devise a multi-party computation protocol to do this so
> that the risk of untrustworthiness is at least distributed among many
> actors.


I have guinea pig that I personally trained to mine dogecoin. He did it
pretty well for a while. He is in fact a real live guinea pig. His name
is Lee (not Alice or Bob). With a little work I'm sure Lee could be
trusted to do this as well.

Of course, trusting the trustless way is good too. It's worked quite
well. I sense we are just seeing the tip of the iceberg here.

>
>>
>>
>> I see the ecology of anonymous cryptos as just in the blossoming stages,
>> but really taking off in 2015, at which point there will be several
>> anonymous currencies based on bitcoin that anyone can use from a full
>> client wallet or a light wallet, probably the following:
>>
>> Anoncoin
>
> As far as I can tell, Anoncoin has accomplished nothing and will
> continue not to until they are able to incorporate the Zerocash tech. I
> believe they aspire to be a Zerocash fork.

Hence the "blossoming" remark, but I don't think they've done "nothing."
That's unfair to say. It's just that they're not there yet. In truth,
no-one is really there yet... Zerocash is closest to what I would describe
as "being there." There will be a collective gasp in 2015 when "it"
happens ~ something like a singularity of financial anonymity for
decentralized cryptos.

>
>> Darkcoin
>> Zerocash (which will work with bitcoin or other non-anonymous 'basecoin'
>> as described in the zerocash site)
> The other one that is missing is the crypto-currencies based on the
> CryptoNote technology, using ring signatures to provide input anonymity.
> See such instantiations as ByteCoin, Monero, etc.
>
>>
>> Additionally, I see the following developments as significant that will
>> aid adoption:
>> https://darkwallet.is/
>> from spesmilo/sx at https://github.com/spesmilo/sx
>> https://github.com/spesmilo/sx/tree/master/tools
>> see also http://abis.io
>
> I hope we can get the sx folks to produce a binary soon so we can get it
> working with Tails linux. :-)

Agreed. :-)

>
> -Kristov
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