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ZCash (formerly Zerocash/Zerocoin) technology preview

z.cash

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Re: ZCash (formerly Zerocash/Zerocoin) technology preview

#11

Post by jerguismi »

sarciszewski wrote: post #8
jerguismi wrote: post #3

There seems to be plenty of privacy-oriented altcoins around. How does the privacy model of zcash compare to others, like monero or dash?

I can't do an apples-apples comparison to the ones you listed because I'm only familiar with Bitcoin and the original Zerocash paper. I can say that the zkSNARK approach to crypto-currency is certainly novel and they have a great team of competent cryptographers and engineers on the team. That is to say, Zcash isn't a hobbyist effort, it's the result of serious crypto engineering. It's not clown-shoes privacy.

OK so basically appeal to authority etc. Not much that a common guy can understand.

Sounds to me like a product that is only designed for really smart people...

Re: ZCash (formerly Zerocash/Zerocoin) technology preview

#14

Post by bbatha »

smaili wrote: post #12

For those of us who'd like to buy, which platform would be best? I'm only aware of Coinbase but they seem to be a Bitcoin-only exchange.

Its in beta right now and the current blockchain will be reset at 1.0 invalidating current coins. So buying in right now is pointless.

Re: ZCash (formerly Zerocash/Zerocoin) technology preview

#15

Post by sarciszewski »

jerguismi wrote: post #11
sarciszewski wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't do an apples-apples comparison to the ones you listed because I'm only familiar with Bitcoin and the original Zerocash paper. I can say that the zkSNARK approach to crypto-currency is certainly novel and they have a great team of competent cryptographers and engineers on the team. That is to say, Zcash isn't a hobbyist effort, it's the result of serious crypto engineering. It's not clown-shoes privacy.

OK so basically appeal to authority etc. Not much that a common guy can understand. Sounds to me like a product that is only designed for really smart people...

> OK so basically appeal to authority etc.

No, I'm not making an appeal to authority. Sorry if it sounded like that.

The team behind Zcash has serious technical chops, and it's worth pointing out that some of the most competent cryptographers and engineers in the world are working on this project.

They've openly published the paper behind their protocol and their code base is open source. They aren't going the "trust us, we're kind of a big deal" route.

If you want to understand, read the paper: http://zerocash-project.org/paper

...and the source code: https://github.com/Electric-Coin-Company/zcash

If you don't want to bother to understand (e.g. if you don't consider yourself a subset of "really smart people"), then you have to find some other metric to decide whether or not to trust it. I offered the backgrounds and reputations of the people involved as one possible heuristic, but feel free to choose another if you prefer.

Re: ZCash (formerly Zerocash/Zerocoin) technology preview

#16

Post by dang »

sarciszewski wrote: post #6
milesf wrote: post #2

Nothing new here. Add it to the pile of hundreds of other altcoins. Why is this here? Feels like the pump-and-dump world of altcoins is being done here to pump up this post.

> Nothing new here. Add it to the pile of hundreds of other altcoins. It sounds to me like you don't understand the technology involved. To be fair, it's probably Greek to most people outside of crypto. How many of the other altcoins were based on zero-knowledge proofs or allowed for private transfers (with respect to the blockchain)? I'm not aware of any. I think that's something new and worth talking about. (EDIT:…

Please don't be rude and confrontational when someone comments like the GP, even though they shouldn't have. Instead, respond with the information you clearly have and they (and the rest of us) don't. Then we all learn something.

Re: ZCash (formerly Zerocash/Zerocoin) technology preview

#17

Post by vessenes »

mootothemax wrote: post #10
vessenes wrote: post #5

Actually, zerocash is significantly different than other altcoins, in that it replaces digital signatures with zero knowledge proofs. It's technically very interesting, and seems like a believable next direction for Bitcoiners. The other direction would be some variant of ethereum. If you don't believe that a general purpose one-size-fits-all blockchain technology can be easily and safely created, but you would prefe…

Two questions I've yet to receive answers on: - my laptop is stolen in a compromised state (eg logged on, nothing left encrypted); can anyone trace my transactions? - I've read suggestions that Zcash themselves can deanonymize every transaction, thanks to generating the initial "Genesis" block. Is that roughly right? (Ignoring obfuscation techniques like getting many other people to create separate signatures) I'm de…

1) Laptop stolen, unlocked, you never encrypted anything: yep, you're hosed as far as I know. How else would your wallet be able to tell you a balance?

2) The creation of the genesis block involves a trust 'game' of sorts, in which many participants are asked to pick a number. The statement from zcash, which a better cryptographer than me could verify, is that only one of the participants need be trustworthy in order to make this step safe.

I think anyone can participate in the genesis block creation, so you may be just who they need to get the genesis block in good shape. :)

On a different note, it would take a juvenile and short-sighted thinker to want to be able to deanonymize the transactions; not that those people don't exist, but most rational adults would not wish to be emotionally and personally liable in some way for knowing the identities of the money launderers, child pornographers and others who will undoubtedly be drawn to a technology like this.

Re: ZCash (formerly Zerocash/Zerocoin) technology preview

#19

Post by swsieber »

For those of you concerned about pump and dump, they've specifically addressed it in a blog post [1]. And they are open sourcing a ton of stuff. But that's addressed in their blog. So to me, the lay man, it seems like they won't be doing a pump and dump. I say lay man because I'm really not qualified to assert that my statements are indeed correct.

[1] https://z.cash/blog/funding.html

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