On Wed, Dec 27, 2017 at 4:28 PM, Howard Chu <hyc@symas.com> wrote:

The paper's author has no connection to any particular coin project.

Didn't say they were connected. The btcmanager article's author is though by disclaimer... "The author owns monero but does not own any zcash." Rephrasing what that prefixed... Is it *possible* to use whichever coin in a way such that an analysis paper against it becomes mitigated / moot? If no, then add the paper to the stack of breaks, and documented design inapplicabilities / oversights / cantfixes / wontfixes and so on, that will weigh upon its validity as a coin, and choices made as to its use cases. "Goes to zero" breaks are obviously included in this. If yes, then simply bashing the coin as broken, is crap rhetoric, when the issue may really be better usage, documentation, knowledge, and design therein so that such footshooting is harder or more obvious. Given the usage caveats and potential mitigations noted in the below, perhaps this is really a case of the latter yes condition. https://z.cash/blog/transaction-linkability.html http://jeffq.com/blog/on-the-linkability-of-zcash-transactions/ http://arxiv.org/pdf/1712.01210.pdf http://jeffq.com/zcash-rtts.htm https://z.cash/blog/new-research-on-shielded-ecosystem.html https://btcmanager.com/linkability-zcash-transactions-study-precipitates-deb... A Traceability Analysis of Monero’s Blockchain https://eprint.iacr.org/2017/338.pdf In sum, all the purported privacy coins have years of analysis and improvements to go before the word private can truly be considered to apply to any of them. Further, it may be that newer privacy tech and privacy coins will surpass any that exist today. Communities getting embattled aren't productive way to address design / tech, accept obsolescense, and improve with new. Change is part of the nature of cryptocurrencies. The old rules of fiat should not be expected to apply. There will *never* be one coin to rule them all, but many happy families. And every one will be far different than whatever random stack of fiat notes might fill the purse of a globetrotter. Ps: DPRK, China, "criminals", etc supposedly print US money in bulk just like the US itself does... interesting to compare that to potential outcomes of any compromised ceremonies, inadequate coin architectures, early heights of flawed blockchains still affecting their own subsequent fixes and so on...