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Edward Snowden: Zcash Is 'Most Interesting Bitcoin Alternative'

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

#51

Post by bogomipz »

geofft wrote: post #42
bogomipz wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>"Before he was known for the NSA leaks he was still a privacy activist ..." So he was a privacy activist while he worked at the NSA? Isn't this a bit like being a healthcare activist and working for McDonalds?

I thought it was reasonably widely believed that he took the job at the NSA specifically so he could figure out what they were doing wrong and leak it.

I had not heard this, what is the basis for that belief?

Also he worked for the CIA prior to the NSA:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Snowden

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

#52

Post by jMyles »

c3534l wrote: 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…

I don't agree with any part of your statement. But even if I did,

> They've proven useful for buying drugs, but beyond that they've not created many new business opportunities.

that's a pretty huge market. I don't think that you can both acknowledge that something is useful for one of the most fundamental human activities (acquiring psychoactive plants and compounds) and at the same time that it is entirely uninteresting.

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

#53

Post by dna_polymerase »

geofft wrote: post #42
bogomipz wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>"Before he was known for the NSA leaks he was still a privacy activist ..." So he was a privacy activist while he worked at the NSA? Isn't this a bit like being a healthcare activist and working for McDonalds?

I thought it was reasonably widely believed that he took the job at the NSA specifically so he could figure out what they were doing wrong and leak it.

Yeah sure, people believe what they want to believe. Or we could just accept that until 2013 he was just another wheel in the giant machinery that is the NSA and that his morals changed - for whatever reason. But he was with the bad guys.

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

#54

Post by lawn »

jMyles wrote: post #50
kristianov wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't buy Monero though.

Why? (feel free to link me an informative discourse on the matter)

It's just a reference to the Monero devs saying "Don't buy Monero" as they don't want to make the financial recommendation to invest in a coin under very active development.

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

#55

Post by SomeStupidPoint »

ewillbefull wrote: post #39
EGreg wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ZCash is only as secure as you trust 9 people and their ceremony. There's gotta be a way to do consensus about zero-knowledge proofs that's a little more... you know ... decentralized. https://petertodd.org/2016/cypherpunk-desert-bus-zcash-trust... https://www.reddit.com/r/Monero/comments/6a26rh/peter_todd_h... Before you guys start saying, banks don't trust Bitcoin either because transactions are controlled by like…

Zcash's zk-SNARKs are totally private even if that ceremony failed and even if the cryptographic assumptions underlying zk-SNARKs fall apart. I find the comparison with Bitcoin perfect. The same people trusting PoW cartels to keep their system operational are complaining that zk-SNARKs require a parameter setup for proof soundness? That doesn't really make sense to me.

> zk-SNARKs are totally private even if ... the cryptographic assumptions underlying zk-SNARKs fall apart

On the face of it, that sounds very wrong. Could you elaborate on what you were saying?

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

#56

Post by abecedarius »

c3534l wrote: 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…

Intimating that privacy is only for illegal transactions is the "I have nothing to hide" of money. It doesn't hold in that domain either: traditionally money is one of the domains people want to be most private about from their neighbors, not just Uncle Sam.

Credit cards as the way to do e-commerce never sat right with me; I only reluctantly started using one in the later 90s. Coincidentally today is "Crypto Is Currency Day" promoting actually buying stuff online with Zcash, Monero, etc., not just holding it: https://cryptoiscurrency.com/

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

#57

Post by kafkaesq »

Jordanpomeroy wrote: post #7

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 was a SharePoint administrator.

This is just silly. His skills are clearly way broader and deeper than that.

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

#58

Post by justinzollars »

Jordanpomeroy wrote: post #7

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.

Because SharePoint is a web-based, COLLABORATIVE platform that integrates with Microsoft Office

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

#59

Post by Feniks »

Its curious to see, I travel around a bit and I'm always astounded how many countries still use cash and have backwards banking infrastructure.

You'd think transferring money from one account to another should be near instantaneous and require no third party. If bitcoins can shake the rest of the world into the modern age I'm all for it.

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

#60

Post by ewillbefull »

SomeStupidPoint wrote: post #55
ewillbefull wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Zcash's zk-SNARKs are totally private even if that ceremony failed and even if the cryptographic assumptions underlying zk-SNARKs fall apart. I find the comparison with Bitcoin perfect. The same people trusting PoW cartels to keep their system operational are complaining that zk-SNARKs require a parameter setup for proof soundness? That doesn't really make sense to me.

> zk-SNARKs are totally private even if ... the cryptographic assumptions underlying zk-SNARKs fall apart On the face of it, that sounds very wrong. Could you elaborate on what you were saying?

Zero-knowledge proofs for a given statement, by definition, reveal nothing about its witness. zk-SNARKs (used by Zcash) are statistically zero-knowledge; there are no cryptographic assumptions involved.
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