BURST / BurstID

The BURST readme is somewhat light on details at the moment...
https://github.com/BurstProject/burstcoin
Perhaps they'll add more to the readme soon.
BURST uses an "algorithm for proof of hdd capacity (POC) mining.
Miners pre-generate chunks of data known as 'plots' which are then
saved to disk. The number of plots you store is effectively your
mining speed."
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=731923.0

They've worked up something called a 'BurstID' for authentication
purposes ~ interesting, though I see it as potentially problematic
(similar issues as has BitID) ~ It doesn't have inherent
characteristics which would enable anonymous authentication or
transaction (the concern I have about a lot of decentralized ID
schemes whether for auth or broader purposes is the fact that they can
convey loads of information about the user to interested third parties).

Identity Reflection

Even Microsoft & IBM have taken up exploration of anonymous
attestation and identity mixers
(http://www.zurich.ibm.com/security/daa/ |
http://www.zurich.ibm.com/security/idemix/), and from my point of
view, open source software developers really need to ensure moving
forward that users can exercise the option of anonymity in
transactions (as zerocash proposes) as well as anonymity in the
context of identity or facets thereof.

As part of the following projects, we hope to provide anonymity as a
viable option for users who are formulating and expressing their
identies or facets: https://github.com/abisprotocol/bitname and
https://github.com/cjbauer/IDMAS

Concern I have with BitID as it currently exists: Not anonymous / does
not present anonymity as option. But it can be used with DW / stealth,
which is good. "BitID is not a general-purpose identification system.
It should mainly be used when a Bitcoin address is paramount to the
usage of the site or application"
https://github.com/bitid/bitid

More on BURST/NXT

- From a quick overview of BURST, it is a PoS system (described as PoC
or proof of capacity by BURST) built based on NXT, which includes a
scalable 'Transparent Forging' approach, and is incorporating various
decentralized features such as a peer-to-peer marketplace / asset
exchange, and others (BURST has already a decentralized escrow
process, for example).
http://wiki.nxtcrypto.org/wiki/Nxt_Wiki
(here is a recent BURST commit involving a nxt fix (nxt.java))
https://github.com/BurstProject/burstcoin/commit/a278d3a235657780d5353d23bef1df1b5e048311
In NXT, client wallets "forge" (which replaces the mining function).

NXTcash (uses zerocoin, but does not offer anonymity)

Those working on NXTcash (which is zerocoin integrated into NXT) have
apparently been working on integration of zerocoin for some months,
and also are looking into collaboration with http://ciyam.org/at/
(for reference: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=470987.0)
Libzerocoin has limitations due to the size of the zero knowledge
proofs, as discussed here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=470987.msg5256461#msg5256461
"NXTcash trading" which includes some reliance upon libzerocoin,
leaves the following visible on the blockchain:
- - Temporarily "burning" NXT to register public data, which also adds
NXTcash assets to a global pool.
- - NXT coming in, revealing that private data has been created.
- - The increase in the amount of NXTcash assets available (matching NXT
burned).
- - The NXTcash cannot be redeemed from the same computer or same IP
address without disclosing information about the user.
Thus this implementation faces problems because of the size and
efficiency problems in libzerocoin as well as the amount of
information it discloses.

Based on a quick run-down of the code to examine if this is also part
of BURST, I don't observe libzerocoin use in BURST.

Before I forget, OpenBazaar decentralized market (which I've been
playing with a little bit) has a 3.0 version (beta) out in a few days.
Check out openbazaar.org and github around the end of the week.

Part of the claim from BURST is that they offer something that can be
mined on anyone's computer. Notably, BCN, which uses the cryptonight
algorithm based on Cryptonote with adaptive limits / a schnorr ring
signature in the curve25519 group, and has choices for anonymity that
can be set at the user's discretion, can also be mined from one's
laptop (using either the CLI simplewallet directly or via connection
to a pool) and even on some tablet / phablet devices. It is
lightweight and doesn't require a lot in terms of processors on your
computer, and seems to have minimal energy requirements. (I have
access to both solar and grid-based electricity, but it can be done
with any energy source easily.) I first became aware of BCN around
half a year ago as a result of a post in ycombinator made by a bitcoin
core dev posting as nullc:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7765455

To me, the incorporation of a system of anonymity that provides the
user with discretion as to how to exercise it, such as that which is
evident in BCN, is a significant advancement, particularly in light of
the fact that most cryptosystems do not offer users with choice in the
matter of whether their information will be disclosed.
The BCN repository is at: https://github.com/amjuarez/bytecoin

As an aside, BURST crypto, like BCN, uses curve25519:
https://github.com/BurstProject/burstcoin/blob/master/src/java/nxt/crypto/Curve25519.java


In the WebCrypto API project, both curve25519 (used in BCN and BURST)
and secp256k1 (used in Bitcoin) can presently be added in extensions
specifications.

Another coin which (in my past experience) had both anonymous
characteristics and could be mined direct from the wallet on your
laptop, was ANC, but as I've mentioned in a past unsystem thread, ANC
has some issues to work out before I would use it again.
(( Thread on that:
https://lists.dyne.org/lurker/message/20140929.035921.9c57d160.en.html ))

Finally, the zerocash project, which is anticipated to be released at
the end of this year or in very early 2015, (which would treat bitcoin
as a 'base coin' such that any bitcoin could be converted into
zerocash), produces transactions are "less than 1 kB and take under 6
ms to verify, orders of magnitude more effi?cient than the
less-anonymous Zerocoin and competitive with plain Bitcoin." (1) This
makes it viable, and with new implementations of zk-SNARK and
development of scalability (2), it is likely that the zerocash (and
similar) projects will mark a historically significant revolutionary
phase beginning in 2015. I look forward to its much anticipated release.

(references)

(1) Eli Ben-Sasson, Alessandro Chiesa, Christina Garman, Matthew
Green, Ian Miers, Eran Tromer, and Madars Virza, “Zerocash:
Decentralized anonymous payments from bitcoin (extended version),” May
2014 [Online]. Available:
http://zerocash-project.org/media/pdf/zerocash-extended-20140518.pdf

(2) Eli Ben-Sasson, Alessandro Chiesa, Eran Tromer, and Madars Virza,
“Scalable zero knowledge via cycles of elliptic curves,” Cryptology
ePrint Archive 2014/595, Aug. 2014 [Online]. Available:
http://eprint.iacr.org/2014/595






Jaromil wrote:
>
> https://lists.dyne.org/lurker/list/unsystem.en.html
>
> i'm gonna remove the fkin ads soon.
>
> the campaign here didnt made us rich, https://www.dyne.org/donate
> but pays some infrastructure by now. donations welcome :^)
>
> BTW is anyone around mining BURST? its interesting...
>
> ciao
>
> _______________________________________________ unSYSTEM mailing
> list: http://unsystem.net
> https://mailinglists.dyne.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/unsystem
>

- --
http://abis.io ~
"a protocol concept to enable decentralization
and expansion of a giving economy, and a new social good"
https://keybase.io/odinn