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Edward Snowden: Zcash Is 'Most Interesting Bitcoin Alternative'

coindesk.com

11–20 of 150 posts

Re: Edward Snowden: Zcash Is 'Most Interesting Bitcoin Alternative'

#11

Why does anyone care what Snowden thinks about crypto currency? He was a SharePoint administrator. I don't understand why his opinion is relevant. Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for his sacrifice, and I think he deserves to be pardoned.

Before he was known for the NSA leaks he was still a privacy activist who helped teach people about cryptography. It's not totally unrelated, especially since Zcash's selling point is that it offers more privacy than Bitcoin.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/runasandvik/2014/05/27/that-one...

Re: Edward Snowden: Zcash Is 'Most Interesting Bitcoin Alternative'

#12
post #8
post #2

In case people don't open the link or miss the disclosure: Disclosure: CoinDesk is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which has an ownership stake in Zcash Company, the for-profit entity supporting zcash's development.

but does Snowden have any stake?

I'm suspicious of this.

Re: Edward Snowden: Zcash Is 'Most Interesting Bitcoin Alternative'

#13
post #6

If all you have is a cryptocurrency, then I don't think you have anything that interesting. They've proven useful for buying drugs, but beyond that they've not created many new business opportunities. I don't have an exhaustive knowledge of cryptos, but Ethereum is extensible which is interesting. GNU came out with a crypto that they say is unsuited for illegal activities. Being even more secure than Bitcoin just mak…

«beyond that they've not created many new business opportunities»

What an understatement. As of 2 years ago, at least 729 Bitcoin businesses were created¹, received $1 billion in investments², and employed thousands of persons.

¹https://venturescannerinsights.wordpress.com/2015/09/04/the-...

²http://money.cnn.com/2015/11/02/technology/bitcoin-1-billion...

Re: Edward Snowden: Zcash Is 'Most Interesting Bitcoin Alternative'

#14

Why does anyone care what Snowden thinks about crypto currency? He was a SharePoint administrator. I don't understand why his opinion is relevant. Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for his sacrifice, and I think he deserves to be pardoned.

He knows a thing or two about, you know, privacy. And Zcash's main feature is, you know, privacy :)

For the crowd, Zcash obfuscates the sending address, the receiving address, and even the amount transacted, using zero-knowledge proofs.

Re: Edward Snowden: Zcash Is 'Most Interesting Bitcoin Alternative'

#15
post #6

If all you have is a cryptocurrency, then I don't think you have anything that interesting. They've proven useful for buying drugs, but beyond that they've not created many new business opportunities. I don't have an exhaustive knowledge of cryptos, but Ethereum is extensible which is interesting. GNU came out with a crypto that they say is unsuited for illegal activities. Being even more secure than Bitcoin just mak…

https://openbazaar.org

Re: Edward Snowden: Zcash Is 'Most Interesting Bitcoin Alternative'

#16

Why does anyone care what Snowden thinks about crypto currency? He was a SharePoint administrator. I don't understand why his opinion is relevant. Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for his sacrifice, and I think he deserves to be pardoned.

Russia is also grateful for his sacrifice.

Re: Edward Snowden: Zcash Is 'Most Interesting Bitcoin Alternative'

#18

This article mentions Zcash, which means that folks will be showing up shortly to talk about Monero.

Every crypto-currency has it's zealots but that's not to detract from what Snowden said about Monero, labelling it "amateur crypto". Ring signatures have been around longer than zk-snarks so time will tell on that comment. I do however believe Zcash could be doing a better job for privacy, notably by mandating private transactions once the new "JUBJUB"optimizations have been merged [0]. [0] - https://z.cash/blog/cult…

Any idea how well alternatives like zcoin might hold up over time?

Re: Edward Snowden: Zcash Is 'Most Interesting Bitcoin Alternative'

#19
Labeling Monero as "amateur crypto" detracts from his credibility a lot. The crypto Monero uses is older and more tested than the new crypto in Zcash and the development in Monero seems very professional. It's not perfect of course but it's far from amateurish.

Re: Edward Snowden: Zcash Is 'Most Interesting Bitcoin Alternative'

#20

Why does anyone care what Snowden thinks about crypto currency? He was a SharePoint administrator. I don't understand why his opinion is relevant. Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for his sacrifice, and I think he deserves to be pardoned.

Before he was known for the NSA leaks he was still a privacy activist who helped teach people about cryptography. It's not totally unrelated, especially since Zcash's selling point is that it offers more privacy than Bitcoin. https://www.forbes.com/sites/runasandvik/2014/05/27/that-one...

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