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ZCash Will Be a Truly Anonymous Blockchain-Based Currency

spectrum.ieee.org

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Re: ZCash Will Be a Truly Anonymous Blockchain-Based Currency

#191

Post by colanderman »

VMG wrote: post #110
colanderman wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It incentivizes hoarding over spending, especially in the face of an expanding economy. Though to be fair, the rate at which new cryptocurrency pools are being created seems to more than keep up with the growth of the economy. Who needs the government to print money when anybody can?

> it incentivizes hoarding over spending, especially in the face of an expanding economy. That kind of macroeconomic analysis assumes that everybody already owns some amount of the currency. However in the new currency markets that are developing, you have to consider the incentive to even start accepting a currency. One that loses value over time is not attractive to the recipient.

Sure, pyramid schemes are a great way to drum up interest.

How about stability and liquidity instead? The more readily exchangeable a unit of currency is for goods, the easier it will see adoption. Deflationary currencies, due to their incentivization of hoarding, tend to be both unstable and illiquid, driving away anyone but speculators.

Re: ZCash Will Be a Truly Anonymous Blockchain-Based Currency

#192

Post by DennisP »

problems wrote: post #170
Ar-Curunir wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The people behind ZCash are definitely not "scammers"; they're respected computer scientists and applied cryptography engineers.

They may have some flashy names, but there's no truely provable reason to believe they're better than the fly-by-night guys who pop up on bitcoinforums with a new altcoin and dump it as soon as it's up and running. Since there's no cryptographically provable way to know they won't do this, well, we have to assume it's what they'll do. Distrust is the basis for cryptocurrencies afterall.

Part of the reason for their share of the mining reward is to give them a strong economic incentive to stick with it for at least four years.

Re: ZCash Will Be a Truly Anonymous Blockchain-Based Currency

#193

Post by rspeer »

DennisP wrote: post #136
rspeer wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't stand the proliferation of proof-of-work cryptocurrencies in a world where people don't have to pay for the externalities of the energy they use. Let me know when there's a cryptocurrency based on proof-of-carbon-sequestration or something.

I'm working a coin minted for proof of carbon sequestration. It'd be implemented as a ledger on Ethereum (which is currently PoW but moving to proof of stake). Pay ether to a smart contract, it forwards the ether to approved organizations doing sequestration, and you get new minted coins. A couple weeks ago I presented the idea at MIT's Solve conference, and I've got a writeup at MIT's ClimateColab that made finalist…

Neat.

Aside from the fact that it's built on a bug-prone foundation (Ethereum), the idea at least gives me some hope that cryptocurrencies don't have to have a negative impact.

Re: ZCash Will Be a Truly Anonymous Blockchain-Based Currency

#194

Post by [deleted] »

DennisP wrote: post #136
rspeer wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't stand the proliferation of proof-of-work cryptocurrencies in a world where people don't have to pay for the externalities of the energy they use. Let me know when there's a cryptocurrency based on proof-of-carbon-sequestration or something.

I'm working a coin minted for proof of carbon sequestration. It'd be implemented as a ledger on Ethereum (which is currently PoW but moving to proof of stake). Pay ether to a smart contract, it forwards the ether to approved organizations doing sequestration, and you get new minted coins. A couple weeks ago I presented the idea at MIT's Solve conference, and I've got a writeup at MIT's ClimateColab that made finalist…

[deleted]

Re: ZCash Will Be a Truly Anonymous Blockchain-Based Currency

#196

Post by aminorex »

lisper wrote: post #129
45h34jh53k4j wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

we have fully anonymous, working cryptocurrencies now (monero is the best example). You cannot link transactions nor determine the balance of a public key. without the private key and transaction key no court can seize. we have anonymous darknet markets, where you can buy many controlled substances, in visibility of law enforcement. My point is that you can't uninvent these things. They have already changed society,…

I'm not moralizing about inventing these things, I'm moralizing about using them. Inventing a nuclear weapon is not the same as using one. BTW, I didn't know about Monero. Is there any substantive difference between it and ZCash?

Yes. Monero is fairly distributed, not 20% for insiders to dump.

Re: ZCash Will Be a Truly Anonymous Blockchain-Based Currency

#197

Post by aminorex »

wmf wrote: post #36
mootothemax wrote: post #31

"But in ZCash, the miners only get to keep ninety percent of those coins. The rest gets dumped into accounts controlled by the ZCash company" This alone makes me extremely sceptical.

Unlike Bitcoin, where Satoshi probably mined 5% of all BTC before other people noticed? Or unlike Bitcoin, where developers get paid by layering centralized startups on top?

The word yuan has been around. RMB is a very new thing.

Re: ZCash Will Be a Truly Anonymous Blockchain-Based Currency

#199

Post by aminorex »

abrkn wrote: post #122
DennisP wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So there's an idea: a wallet format that lets you decrypt with any of one or more passphrases, with each passphrase giving a different set of addresses.

This is already in wide use by Trezor users. A user can have an arbitrary number of decoy wallets unlocked by the same root private key, but different passphrases.

Trezor firmware supports Monero. No zcash as of yet.

Re: ZCash Will Be a Truly Anonymous Blockchain-Based Currency

#200

Post by tribby »

pero wrote: post #68

ZCash has a myriad of fundamental issues, chief among them: -ZCash is a US-based LLC, and given what is publicly known about the capabilities and past behavior of its intelligence apparatus I don't see how anyone can claim that such an organization can shepherd a 'truly anonymous blockchain', particularly one that is essentially a black box -ZCash's blockchain is a black box and requires you to not only trust them wi…

> ZCash is a US-based LLC, and given what is publicly known about the capabilities and past behavior of its intelligence apparatus [...]

why does it matter where zcash is incorporated when the apparatus you're describing operates without regard for borders?

zcash is the first effort at a cryptocurrency where I have immense respect and trust for its team right out of the gate. not sure where the FUD is coming from (although I'd hypothesize that you are long monero?).

>Anonymous transactions are optional and require tremendous resources to generate

this is indeed a problem. hopefully temporary.

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