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Keybase chooses Zcash

keybase.io

31–40 of 167 posts

Re: Keybase chooses Zcash

#31
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"After the first four years the ZEC created per ten minutes will drop to 25ⓩ, but after the first four years, 100% of it goes to the miners." Seems like a good business model and a way to fund the innovation they've created.

Why don't they just mine then? Bitcoin worked just fine without Satoshi programming rewards for himself.

ripping off the greedy fanboys is way cheaper and quicker

Re: Keybase chooses Zcash

#32
Author here. Seeing some of the discussion go down on Twitter, I feel maybe I should explain further the "white supremacist" example in the post. (one tweet at me: "So now you can hide the fact that white supremacists are sending you money? F!@#ing weird example.")

When I shared a draft post with some friends, a lot of them had an ah-ha moment, so I was hoping for the same from others. I was trying to illustrate 2 privacy concerns around the graph Bitcoin exposes: (1) accidental associations and (2) exposing the people you transact with to each other.

In the blog's hypothetical, you're not receiving money from some asshole because you're collecting Klan dues from him. Rather, you performed some public transaction with a stranger. For example, maybe you sold him some tickets. An external observer of the graph who knows he's a dangerous character may start applying high odds that you, too, are a dangerous character, since they don't know why he sent you money. This would suck. And, second, this character who sent you money may also be learning things about you. Since you sold tickets to a local show and mailed them to him, (1) he's likely to live near you, and (2) he knows your return address. You really don't want him seeing that you're sending money to causes he opposes. If so, he might show up at your door.

The goal was to clear up this misconception that a private cryptocurrency is there to protect criminals. This is especially important if you'd like to post a static address on a profile.

Re: Keybase chooses Zcash

#33

Author here. Seeing some of the discussion go down on Twitter, I feel maybe I should explain further the "white supremacist" example in the post. (one tweet at me: "So now you can hide the fact that white supremacists are sending you money? F!@#ing weird example.") When I shared a draft post with some friends, a lot of them had an ah-ha moment, so I was hoping for the same from others. I was trying to illustrate 2 pr…

Thank you for your post (and Keybase!). I thought the example was a good one. Buying a book creates a permanent transaction record with the seller who's ethics you may not share. Humorous as well with the tongue and cheek reference to Atlas Shrugged :)

We're sadly living in a society where people search high and low for grievances to publicly virtual signal over. Hopefully the Twitter-sphere will realize there's value in your example and not just clutch pearls.

Re: Keybase chooses Zcash

#34

Author here. Seeing some of the discussion go down on Twitter, I feel maybe I should explain further the "white supremacist" example in the post. (one tweet at me: "So now you can hide the fact that white supremacists are sending you money? F!@#ing weird example.") When I shared a draft post with some friends, a lot of them had an ah-ha moment, so I was hoping for the same from others. I was trying to illustrate 2 pr…

That's an important example. Person A can make a perfectly legal transaction with Person B who is involved in illegal activities, without Person A knowing that. Then, external observer, not knowing the transaction details, might as well associate Person A with the same illegal activities. A false positive in metadata analysis.

Thank you for explanation.

Re: Keybase chooses Zcash

#35

I recommend supporting Zclassic also ( http://Zclassic.org ) It's the same exact code as Zcash except there is no 20% "genius" tax for 4 years. It's the fair choice and even has the blessing of Zcash developer Zooko.

If Zclassic existed, why didn't Keybase go with this instead!!!

Re: Keybase chooses Zcash

#36
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would you have done differently to solve the same problem they did?

If I could come up with something better, they would have done that. Absence of a better solution does not imply any fitness of the proposed solution. Until such time that someone comes up with a better idea, I am sticking to public blockchains.

> If I could come up with something better, they would have done that.

Don't give up so easily! If you're going to make a stance borne out of principle, why not follow through to outperform the suboptimal solution that you dislike so much?

Innovate. Put some skin in the game. That's what I would do, anyway.

As it stands: If any of the folks involved in the trusted setup was honest, then it's secure. It takes a 100% corruption to make it insecure. I think that's acceptable until a better solution is proposed.

Re: Keybase chooses Zcash

#37
post #22

How do you purchase zcash with USD?

Not an expert, but:

Kraken is an exchange that sells Zcash to USD holders (as long as you aren't in NY state!). Another option is to buy Bitcoin (e.g. from Coinbase) with USD, and then use shapeshift.io to convert your Bitcoin to Zcash.

Re: Keybase chooses Zcash

#39

You need a ton of space and/or processing power for the zero-knowledge transactions. The anonymity isn't free! In practice Zcash/zcoin (different tradeoffs) are of no use to you unless you are willing to go the extra mile to hide something (criminal activities and such). There's no point in paying for the extra effort for normal transactions.

How large is the overhead in numbers? I tried to search but didn't find any clear examples.

EDIT: found some data in the ceremony report linked elsewhere in this discussion: https://petertodd.org/2016/cypherpunk-desert-bus-zcash-trust...

Re: Keybase chooses Zcash

#40
Is there any way to mimic Zcash's z-addresses in Bitcoin?

I like the ideas behind Zcash and it solves important privacy issues, but I don't like the idea of a for profit company being the heavyweight behind Zcash.

From what I gather, Bitcoin is more of a community effort than most other altcoins, which inspires trust.

I looked up Zcash's price chart, it fell from ~$1300 at launch to ~$90 now. Ouch.

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