ZCash - new cryptocurrency claims total anonymity

Discussion in 'privacy general' started by quietman, Oct 25, 2016.

  1. quietman

    quietman Registered Member

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    According to the ZCash article on the IEEE website , when using Bitcoin :

    " ..... network analysis can reveal both the financial behavior and the real identities of the people behind the accounts.
    (Several companies, such as Chainalysis, now provide such a service.)
    "

    News to me !
     
  2. Palancar

    Palancar Registered Member

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    ZCash is very interesting to me. This article only affords "black box" over views of how its done, but the process appears to make good sense.

    Unfortunately, it appears that Bitcoin cannot be retro-fitted to accommodate the privacy dimension of ZCash. While I have the personal skills to keep my BTC transactions private, most users never will. I would most gladly accept a slightly higher fee (or whatever) to implement transaction privacy on the BTC blockchain. We would have to start over to implement the level of privacy ZCash employs. You would have to trade-in your existing coins for new private coins and privacy would start from there forward. The current BTC model, which goes all the way back to the genesis block, is completely public. This public factor allows miners to do their thing and confirm transactions in the ledger.

    The zero-proof math model of ZCash appears to be much slicker. Of course we need hundreds of skilled hackers to beat the hell out of it in beta, but that would be the fun part!!

    I really wish these "teams" (wishful thinking on my part) would join forces and work together to create ONE slick as hell crypto-currency. Every time some math geniuses create yet another currency it becomes another on a large pile of new coin types. In my opinion too many crypto's makes all of them appear as "today's new coin", with the implied notion that today's coin may just be gone tomorrow. There are a dozen or more crypto concepts circulating so how does someone new to crypto gain ANY confidence that their selection will survive longer than a blip on the radar screen.
     
  3. NWOAbschaum

    NWOAbschaum Registered Member

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    u can make bitcoins fully anonymous too. its just another currency that will fall apart. there is nothing that can come close to bitcoins in the near future.
     
  4. quietman

    quietman Registered Member

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    I have no issues at all with the math for the zero-knowledge proof ; it is very well-established , and solid .
    Major players in that field have been involved along the way ( David Chaum , Matthew Green ... and more )

    But the ZCash "tax at source" on miners seems a little harsh .... up to 10% will be taken from each newly mined coin ,
    and put towards maintenance , development and other expenses going forward ( with a portion to be set aside for charitable causes ) .

    Many people view Bitcoin mining as money for nothing , and fail to grasp not only the high start-up capital investment ,
    ( in hardware ) but also the high ongoing energy costs ( the heat dissipated ) and then the cost of cooling on top !
    It is definitely a marginal enterprise .... OK , the margins can be quite attractive if it is done right , but it's no money tree .

    So ZCash claims that it will avoid a fundamental weakness in the "anonymity " of any specific transaction(s)
    on the block-chains of all the existing crypto-currencies .

    The ideal for the future must surely be a crypto-coin that is quickly and easily verifiable and transferable , and yet carries
    with it no trace of it's possibly sordid past .
    It may sound far-fetched , but I think it might be possible .

    I'm not convinced that ZCash will deliver what's needed , and so much depends on credibility , faith , and just "buzz" ,
    for want of a better word .

    @NWOAbschaum

    re : Anonymizing Bitcoin transactions .... sure , it can be done ( mixing services etc ) but to me that is dealing with
    the problem after the fact , when it could have been avoided from the very start - :) .

    ZCash may address that problem.
     
    Last edited: Oct 27, 2016
  5. lotuseclat79

    lotuseclat79 Registered Member

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    The Crazy Security Behind the Birth of Zcash, the Inside Story Posted 2 Dec 2016 | 18:50 GMT

    -- Tom
     
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