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MobileCoin: A New Cryptocurrency from Moxie Marlinspike

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Re: MobileCoin: A New Cryptocurrency from Moxie Marlinspike

#91

Post by AlexCoventry »

mtgx wrote: post #19
kossTKR wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"MobileCoin does not rely solely on SGX for maintaining transaction privacy. Transactions are designed to employ CryptoNote1 one-time addresses and onetime ring signatures, so MobileCoin will still maintain transaction privacy through unlinkable addresses if an attacker is able to defeat SGX and view transactions on the network." https://www.mobilecoin.com/whitepaper-en.pdf Other than that, i very much share your con…

Interesting. So it has the same privacy protections as Monero, the only cryptocurrency with a track record of being untraceable so far? I wonder if the Stellar network is "leakier" than a decentralized network would be, though.

How is zcash's track record with regard to untraceability?

Re: MobileCoin: A New Cryptocurrency from Moxie Marlinspike

#92

Post by AgentME »

highd wrote: post #59
superquest wrote: post #4

> "Nobody actually transacts in cryptocurrency," Goldbard says. "So making something that people can actually use is our first goal. And then we want to find additional ways that people can implement it over time. But initially all we want is to make it so people can actually complete transactions." Amen. Too few projects have this focus.

This is secondary to there being no benefit to the average user for transacting in crypto vs Visa. What incentive is there for an end user to use even a hypothetically optimal crypto system? Then is that incentive sufficient to overcome network effects? The appropriate and interesting applications of crypto seem to be totally leaving p2p cash behind - it just doesn't seem like a good fit.

What's the benefit of using email over equivalent closed systems?

Re: MobileCoin: A New Cryptocurrency from Moxie Marlinspike

#93

Post by pishpash »

knicholes wrote: post #88
highd wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cash is cheaper for merchants, but people have only continued to use credit cards more. Further, if crypto becomes attractive from a cost perspective Visa will just be forced to bring down fees and stay competitive. It's pretty near impossible to imagine crypto with costs less than Visa's database.

A wire transfer fee to China would cost me ~$45. Sending it in bitcoin would cost ~$17.

While you take on a huge amount of risk. Congratulations on "saving" that $28.

Not to mention since you can't really spend bitcoins you'll have to pay more for conversions to national currencies on both ends.

Re: MobileCoin: A New Cryptocurrency from Moxie Marlinspike

#94

Post by darawk »

Confiks wrote: post #25

To repeat an earlier comment, this scheme encourages a centralization of trust into a private key managed by processor manufacturers. You might say that by integrating SGX mechanisms into your security model, you create a set of 'feudal lords' [1] who can wield their power over you. A manufacturer may 'legitimately' establish an enclave in your most trusted hardware which you may not audit or even measure. And if tha…

That was my first impression as well. That being said, I have a lot of respect for Moxie and his work, so i'd like to give him the benefit of the doubt and am curious to see his response to this point.

Re: MobileCoin: A New Cryptocurrency from Moxie Marlinspike

#95

Post by DINKDINK »

Cyberdog wrote: post #43
em3rgent0rdr wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't lightning network fix this problem?

Tell us all about all the problems Lightning Network fixes once it is actually implemented.

Not only has the Lightning Network been implemented across three codebases, version 1 release candidate was released a week and a half ago:

https://medium.com/@lightning_network/lightning-protocol-1-0...

Re: MobileCoin: A New Cryptocurrency from Moxie Marlinspike

#96

Post by anonymousDan »

alexnewman wrote: post #34
pilingual wrote: post #7

Here is a year old paper from Imperial College and Cornell where they implemented trustless transactions using Intel SGX. https://www.cs.cornell.edu/people/egs/papers/teechan.pdf

This is significantly stronger and harder than what that paper suggested

In what way? I mean this (Mobile Coin) is almost the very definition of vapourware. A 4 page whitepaper, come on.

Re: MobileCoin: A New Cryptocurrency from Moxie Marlinspike

#97

Post by celticninja »

dogma1138 wrote: post #89
DennisP wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On reason, in the U.S. at least, is that you're supposed to pay capital gains on every little bit you spend. There's a bill in Congress right now to exclude crypto transactions under $600 from capital gains, which would be a big help. Even if you do want to hold long term, you could just replenish what you spend along the way, if it weren't a tax reporting nightmare.

You also do so in the UK and virtually every other country I can think off.

Nope. You only have to report capital gains in excess of your annual allowance, which is £11,300 at the moment.

Re: MobileCoin: A New Cryptocurrency from Moxie Marlinspike

#98

Post by jmtame »

I have a few questions: (1) When can we start using this? (2) How will you acquire the currency?

I think #2 is the pain point, and I didn't see this addressed in the whitepaper. Most people talk about Bitcoin's transaction speeds, but Litecoin works incredibly well for doing transactions. The difficulty for a normal person is acquiring it. You need something like GDAX.

Re: MobileCoin: A New Cryptocurrency from Moxie Marlinspike

#99

Post by dannyw »

dogma1138 wrote: post #89
DennisP wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On reason, in the U.S. at least, is that you're supposed to pay capital gains on every little bit you spend. There's a bill in Congress right now to exclude crypto transactions under $600 from capital gains, which would be a big help. Even if you do want to hold long term, you could just replenish what you spend along the way, if it weren't a tax reporting nightmare.

You also do so in the UK and virtually every other country I can think off.

The limit is $10k of cost basis in australia. No CGT for anything less.

Re: MobileCoin: A New Cryptocurrency from Moxie Marlinspike

#100

Post by nebulous1 »

Confiks wrote: post #25

To repeat an earlier comment, this scheme encourages a centralization of trust into a private key managed by processor manufacturers. You might say that by integrating SGX mechanisms into your security model, you create a set of 'feudal lords' [1] who can wield their power over you. A manufacturer may 'legitimately' establish an enclave in your most trusted hardware which you may not audit or even measure. And if tha…

Yes, the features of the SGX means that we can no longer even see what are computer is doing.

> This means that the ledger is "public" and distributed to all MobileCoin nodes, but will also simultaneously never be accessible or viewable by humans (even the operators of the MobileCoin nodes) so long as SGX and the MobileCoin software remains secure.

It seems unlikely to me that these two things things will remain the case.

> A client can perform remote attestation to its MobileCoin node before transmitting its keys into the remote enclave along with a short recovery PIN.

And it seems if SGX gets popped the whole thing comes crumbling down.

Quotes from https://www.mobilecoin.com/whitepaper-en.pdf

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