Cryptocurrency Privacy: Evolving... Zerocash (ZEC, ZCL, ZEN) vs All Other Coin

[grarpamp]

Rethreading these two former threads into a more General: Item...
1: Zerocash: Addressing Bitcoin's Privacy Problem GoogleTechTalks
2: Why I can't sleep soundly with blockchain, being the cypherpunk

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https://zcoin.io/zcoins-privacy-technology-compares-competition/

> Blockchain privacy is a particularly difficult thing to achieve as a public blockchain is designed so that all transactions are transparent and the supply of coins can be publicly verified. Privacy mechanisms have to ensure that these elements are preserved so it’s a conflicting mix of protecting privacy while maintaining public verifiability.

That's obsolete thinking. And to open coin comparisons with such
statements misleads the reader into believing that supposedly
"private" coins that retain elements of that thinking are an ok thing.

The point of a cryptographically private coin is to hide everything
that might permit traceability under the shield of strong crypto
(including support for transport over anonymous networks).
Unlike mix coins, crypto shielding is its privacy mechanism.
One doesn't need to have, see, and verify for such a coin all the
old traditional bits of a public ledger blockchain...
transactions, utxo balances, addresses, coin supply...
because the crypto should enforce those parts are working,
and make them immune from attack.

Provided the crypto is solid, the coins below may be better at privacy
than all other in-production, non zerocash based, coins to date.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zerocash
 https://z.cash/ - Zcash ZEC
 http://zclassic.org/ - Zclassic ZCL
 https://zensystem.io/ - Zencash ZEN

Further old and misleading arguments against them...

> Private transactions take a while to generate (almost a minute on a decently powerful computer)

Old news is old...

https://z.cash/blog/cultivating-sapling-faster-zksnarks.html

> Complicated trusted setup / traceable / backdoored

Don't like it? Take more time in understanding and peer reviewing it,
preparing and injecting openness, reproducibility, philosophy,
documentation and auditability into the process in advance... and restart.
The first Zerocash ceremony is not the only such ceremony the
world will ever see in the crypto space. And the first one might
be as good. Add this new post to the list of links on the list / net
about ceremony...

https://z.cash/blog/ceremony-audit-results.html

> setup that has to be done by the developers.

False. It can be done by any group having any number of
participants in an opensource reproducible and public fashion.
The design, process, and results can all be posted and
then imported by new projects as needed.

Further, is it true that, in software release for current production Z
coins, that new parameters can be dropped in place of old parameters
for new transactions on their chains going forward?

https://github.com/zcash/zcash/issues/2247

> Supply cannot be audited therefore forgery can be very difficult to detect.

Bogus Arg. If setup is secure, and crypto enforces against forgery,
then requiring blockchain be "public" about supply for auditability is moot.

And even if the blockchain is not auditable, forging coin creation
can still be detected by the community knowing its own real
world size throwing funds into the coin, yet the price and walls
aren't moving as they should over time. And a whole lot of
Lambos rolling around till it gets leaked / rediscovered and fixed.

> Uses relatively new cryptography

Crypto was new. Bitcoin was new. Cryptocurrency is still new.
Regulation is still new and is a nearly equivalent goes-to-zero threat.
Get cryptocurrency out there, get it peer reviewed, get it in production.
Don't put in more than you want to lose.

Here are some corporate reviewers and users that are either traps
and/or investing huge sums they cannot afford to allow to lose...

https://www.americanbanker.com/news/worlds-collide-jpm-works-with-team-behind-anonymous-crypto-zcash
https://github.com/jpmorganchase/quorum
http://entethalliance.org/

>> https://steemitimages.com/DQmSzRp3XQCXwQ1Y14jTNLcBw1XQ9rZ6oNz1XbnZxHomME3/image.png

> Bitcoin Core Version

Both ZEC and ZEN should merge back into each other some of
their own improvements and fixes, including importing any recent
useful stuff from original parent codebase of BTC. Normal opensource
process.

> Hides tx amount / Optional privacy defaults

Mix vs Transparent and Shielded... Well then don't use
mixes or transparent, get it migrated and committed out of
the code forever...

https://imgur.com/gallery/MWdwh
https://github.com/zcash/zcash/issues/2248

> Compute time

Outdated info. See sapling tech above.

> Incentivised Nodes / Pruneable / Scaling

These issues affect all cryptocurrencies in some way.

Zencash ZEN has some work potentially evolving incentive structures
https://zcoin.io/zcoin-development-update-znodes-and-scaling-zerocoin/

> Trusted setup

Sly word choice. Call it "DASTp - distributed any single trust prevails"
or something more technically representative like that.


Here's another long debate...
https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/737is9/charlie_lee_tells_snowden_why_monero_is_better/


This note isn't really meant to compare coins versus each other
(they could all be shit), but to hint that the amount of FUD and
outdated arguments being used out there to compare them...
especially by their very own developers and communities who
should know better... should be of concern and needs improved.

Even an armchair reviewer could get rich starting up a site
devoted solely to more objective comparisons and tracking
development news and roadmaps.

https://www.americanbanker.com/news/cheat-sheet-the-trade-offs-of-blockchain-privacy-tools

"Each of these technologies solves a fraction of the puzzle, but we
are beginning to see how they can be stitched together to deliver more
complete privacy.
A lot of the implementations take multiple different technologies and
combine them together to achieve an additive result. It may well be
that a combination of different technologies emerges as being a better
solution."


Prediction: Crypto-private coins will eventually outpace and surpass
mix-private coins as knowledge of crypto continues to increase around
the world. Send your wagers and comments here...

btc:199WA27L4tVazpg2Bqzas2cX7nomqP4ZEp

It's early days, keep your eyes open and your cryptocurrency ready.