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ZCash (formerly Zerocash/Zerocoin) technology preview

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Re: ZCash (formerly Zerocash/Zerocoin) technology preview

#21

Post by zooko-zcash »

Hi folks! I'm the Founder and CEO of the Zcash company. It's really great to have this much interest in a project that we just released in alpha "Technology Preview" form two weeks ago.

There are a lot of good questions in here, some of which I answered in an AMA a few days ago: https://forum.bitcoin.com/ama-ask-me-anything/i-m-zooko-wilc...

I can't wait to release the next iteration of the Zcash software, in — fingers crossed — just a couple of weeks. We'll continue to have lots of blog posts and technical discussions from us along the way. This is only the beginning!

Re: ZCash (formerly Zerocash/Zerocoin) technology preview

#23

Post by bb88 »

droffel wrote: post #4
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.

10% of all mining rewards for the first 5 years go to the developers. The tech is certainly interesting, but the pseudo-premine makes me a little wary of putting any significant amount of money into it. Citation: https://z.cash/blog/funding.html (Check the "Founder's reward" section)

That bothered me too. It seems like "pump-and-dump" is a little harsh. I used the term "speculation" in my comment. But in this case, both are true.

Re: ZCash (formerly Zerocash/Zerocoin) technology preview

#24

Post by orik »

droffel wrote: post #4
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.

10% of all mining rewards for the first 5 years go to the developers. The tech is certainly interesting, but the pseudo-premine makes me a little wary of putting any significant amount of money into it. Citation: https://z.cash/blog/funding.html (Check the "Founder's reward" section)

what's to stop miners with 50%+ of hashing power from withholding the founders rewards?

Re: ZCash (formerly Zerocash/Zerocoin) technology preview

#25

Post by statoshi »

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...

Most people don't understand how the Internet works, yet they manage to use it every day. Same goes for existing mainstream financial systems.

Re: ZCash (formerly Zerocash/Zerocoin) technology preview

#26

Post by [deleted] »

vessenes wrote: post #17
mootothemax wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

[deleted]

Re: ZCash (formerly Zerocash/Zerocoin) technology preview

#27

Post by rrggrr »

I hope I'm wrong, but if ZCash delivers on the technical promise the blowback from legislators and law enforcement is sure to result in a net loss of privacy for everyone. Enabling illegal profiteering from the very real pain and suffering of others almost always results in government actio (appropriately so); but also legislative over-reaching (eg. mandated sentencing legislations, zero tolerance policies, warrantless wiretapping) because ZCash's message of economic and societal benefits will be utterly lost amid stories of how the tech hurt people.

ZCash is very impressive. Brilliant even. But for those who want better privacy... elect leaders who share the concern. Donate to the EFF and ACLU. Advocate for a 'privacy czar' as a cabinet/ministerial level position.

Re: ZCash (formerly Zerocash/Zerocoin) technology preview

#28

Post by bb88 »

vessenes wrote: post #9
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.

I can't speak to as to whether Zcash is a pump-and-dump particularly, but I do know a bit about financing the technology development behind blockchains, and it's difficult. If the code is open source, you risk a fork and loss of any intrinsic value. If you sell the coins, you risk SEC difficulties in the USA. If you premine, people complain that you premined. If your company controls the currency, you get forks when…

> I can't speak to as to whether Zcash is a pump-and-dump particularly.

Look at the founder's stake noted here: https://z.cash/blog/funding.html

They get 20% of the mined coins off the top for the first 4 years, without doing any actual mining.

Re: ZCash (formerly Zerocash/Zerocoin) technology preview

#29

Post by paragon_init »

zooko-zcash wrote: post #21

Hi folks! I'm the Founder and CEO of the Zcash company. It's really great to have this much interest in a project that we just released in alpha "Technology Preview" form two weeks ago. There are a lot of good questions in here, some of which I answered in an AMA a few days ago: https://forum.bitcoin.com/ama-ask-me-anything/i-m-zooko-wilc... I can't wait to release the next iteration of the Zcash software, in — finge…

Hi Zooko,

Has there been any serious discussion about incorporating the results of PQCRYPTO in your protocol so Zcash is still secure and viable (at >= 2^128 security level) after the development of practical quantum computers?

http://pqcrypto.eu.org

Re: ZCash (formerly Zerocash/Zerocoin) technology preview

#30

Post by bb88 »

swsieber wrote: post #19

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

From that link I see this:

> With this approach, the founders are incentivized to support Zcash for the long haul (at least for four years), and they have limited ability to pump-and-dump.

I don't see how anyone can audit that statement since the transactions are encrypted [1].

[1] https://z.cash/tech.html

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