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The very existence of a clear transaction history on the blockchain is the root of all problems. If everything is natively encrypted by zero-knowledge proofs or
by segfaultbuserr 4y ago
The very existence of a clear transaction history on the blockchain is the root of all problems. If everything is natively encrypted by zero-knowledge proofs or ring signatures, none of the issues - privacy and chain analysis, the possibility of tainting a coin, the appearance of centralized coin-mixing services with questionable security, and the numerous aftermarket privacy tokens and coin-join protocols - would exist. The idea of a privacy-preserving digital cash has been proposed since the 1980s, unfortunately this property is not found in many major cryptocurrencies.
- encryptluks2 4y agoMonero is definitely a better option for anonymity, but most crypto users these days just use centralized exchanges. I doubt the government will take kindly on people cashing out any anonymous currency regardless of your legitimate purposes.
- dannyw 4y agoSo cash is illegal?
- encryptluks2 4y agoAs long as the government can print as much as they want then no. Cash is only partly anonymous but is still a safer bet than a lot of crypto if you are trying to achieve reasonable anonymity.
- segfaultbuserr 4y ago> Cash is only partly anonymous but is still a safer bet than a lot of crypto I strongly agree. If I have a choice between paying in cash or in a cryptocurrency, I would choose cash nearly every time (with a few exceptions).
- kube-system 4y agoIf there was a coin in which it wasn't observable whether you were interacting with a sanctioned entity, it wouldn't make it any more legal to do so. If it shared the same issue of allowing unsolicited transactions, the same problem would exist. Even if said coin existed, it wouldn't guarantee privacy, because information about transactions can be recorded or observed off-chain, and that information can be compromised.
- cowtools 4y agoMonero and Zcash are legal.
- kube-system 4y agoI never suggested anything that would contradict that.
- iskander 4y agoZerocash is now shielded by default (https://electriccoin.co/blog/new-releases-to-help-enable-zcash-shielded-by-default/ https://electriccoin.co/blog/new-releases-to-help-enable-zca...), does that count?
- segfaultbuserr 4y agoIt certainly counts as progress. The main criticism to Zcash used to be that 90%+ of the transactions were transparent.
- iskander 4y agoZcash seems interesting to me in that it feels like Bitcoin without either ossification or getting overwhelmed into becoming a casino substrate like programmable currencies. It evolves but slowly and in a particular well scoped direction.
- grappler 4y agoZerocash is an academic paper and early implementation from a group of researchers -- a proof of concept of using zero-knowledge proofs to add privacy to a public blockchain ledger. Zcash is the ongoing project based on Zerocash, started in large part by those same researchers, but with funded teams of engineers continuously iterating on the protocol and implementations.