Not really the best. It has three issues:

1. Trusted setup--this can be redone in a better way--though ultimately, you would want to be a participant and be very sure of your OPSEC. So this can be improved, though still not great unless they can remove the trusted part completely.

2. Optional privacy--this was a moronic choice and the cryptographers (Mathew Green, etc) should be ashamed it ever happened--it limited the anonymity set and led to diminished privacy for those who actually used the privacy feature. It's so dumb, that given Green's award winning research, it comes across as intentional and something they tried to slip by the users, while at the same time undermining their security. Luckily they plan to fix it.

3. You can't audit the supply--this means that the supply could grow unbeknownst to users because of a bug or an attack. This can't be fixed, so I might use Zcash when they fix the other 2, but I'll never hold much of it as the risk isn't worth it.

There are other things, but those are the big three.

Also, the Count of Monte Cristo was one character and Monte Cristo a place, so maybe you meant Dantes to the Count of Monte Cristo as that is his transition from dupe to avenger. Not sure who Zcash would be avenging as they were the ones who fucked up--maybe they fire Zooko and Green and the other idiots collecting 200k a month--notice I'm not calling them idiots because they are unequivocally dumb, but in respect to Zcash's development, they made very obvious mistakes, whether they were intentional or not is beside the point, as they were dumb to think no one would notice if indeed it was intentional--if it was because they couldn't see the flaws in the first place, they shouldn't be in charge of anything that requires foresight as their expertise obviously aren't enough to save them from their obliviousness (reading Zooko's tweets points to the latter).

Qubic status update: https://blog.iota.org/qubic-status-update-august-3rd-2018-73468079d414

IOTA being added to Korean exchange Upbit: https://bcfocus.com/news/iota-now-on-south-koreas-biggest-exchange-upbit-iota-hub-launched/20238/

Exchange HUB: https://blog.iota.org/introducing-iota-hub-5349bb8a29cd

Academic paper featuring IOTA, "Authenticating Health Activity Data Using Distributed Ledger Technologies"
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2001037018300345?via%3Dihub

I'm not trying to shame you and "2014 noob" contradicts itself. I was speaking to the long dead Dash Vs. Monero rivalry and the fact that you still necro the Dash crashing Monero up thread. If your intent is to call out a scam maybe leave the Monero part out (and if it's satire, dress yourself in your own set of plaid pajamas and use pineapples for grenades)--as the rivalry was dead once dashers stopped claiming to be the number one privacy coin and adopted new narratives. I still call it a scam too, but I speak to their current "better than Bitcoin" and "decentralized governance" BS, and I don't go out of my way to hector them. TBH, I think giving them an enemy is the only thing focusing them away from their problems--problems that can't be solved by their oligarchy governance system.

There are plenty of coins that are scams, but I only call out the ones that go after Monero, once they cease and desists, i don't give a shit. I'm more foccused on the fact that maximalists have put themselves in an untentable position by claiming "decentralization" and "censorship resistance" every time they attack a "shitcoin," but anyone who knows the technology a little bit (even my 2014 noob self) reliezes that Monero out performs BTC in both respects by having asic resistance and choosing to not expand other forms of censorship by being a fungible currency. That's the fight i want because maximalists have made the blunder of making the argument about a coin's cypherpunkness and we all know who wins that award.

Well as an investor, I'm not hodling anything that has no way to audit the supply--a value overflow incident with zcash would be a death knell to your savings and you wouldn't even know it until someone started dumping their magically fun bucks on exchanges.

"Better than Bitcoin!" "Decentralized goverance!" seem the reasons given, though how either survive the least bit of scrutinity is beyond me. TBH I always thought Evan should just be honest and say, "Look, idiots will pay you money to use the network, more than they pay miners, so just buy, set up a masternode and watch the greater fools rush in."

Though then the reality sets-in that it's a game of stake holder chicken, so maybe not the best sales pitch.

Not really--dash just sort of gave up on the privacy narrative. I think ICEbreaker still pushes it, but he's like that Japanese soldier stuck on an island for thirty years who thought WWII was still ongoing.

Creator of Qlite used it to develop a farming game: http://qame.org/tanglefarm

Audi think tank and IOTA foundation explore tangle based mobility usecases: https://blog.iota.org/audi-think-tank-iota-foundation-explore-tangle-based-mobility-use-cases-29d43e1cf51

Article on the cooperation between IOTA and the UN: https://medium.com/@markusgebhardt/iota-and-unops-an-important-cooperation-4ec3ecd8b81b

https://twitter.com/BMWGroup/status/1021792242439282688?s=19


Nice to see that BMW knows there's a difference between a blockchain and IOTA's tangle.

Anes Hodzic joins the IOTA Foundation: https://blog.iota.org/welcome-anes-hodzic-to-the-iota-foundation-2864f95b91b4

Anes Hodžić is Vice President Digital Transformation and Internet of Things (IoT) at Digital Transformation Office of Airbus Group. He is responsible for strategy and execution of IIoT initiatives across Airbus divisions and drives Digital Transformation of the company on the Group level. He is an execution driven professional with a strong entrepreneurial mindset, strategic thinking, passion for digital disruptions and new business creation. He managed strategic corporate projects, led customer engineering of electric and self-driving cars, and has board of directors’ experience.

He joined Airbus in 2017 after 12 year working journey with BOSCH from R&D trainee to general manager of connected services business unit. He possesses wide industry experience in Automotive, Telecommunications, Consumer Electronics, and Aerospace.

Anes holds a doctoral (Dr.-Ing.) and a diploma degree in electrical Engineering / Telecommunications from the Technical University Berlin, Germany and an executive MBA degree from Ashridge Business School, UK.

On joining the IOTA Foundation

"Future cross-industrial deployment of Industrial Internet of Things use-cases requires innovation solutions for data exchange, transactions management, and process traceability. Distributed ledger technology (DLT) provided by IOTA and its recent developments, can be an important game changer for novel business models and IoT enabled use-cases, focusing on providing value-add in industrial context and beyond.

It is my pleasure to join the advisory board of IOTA foundation. I’m looking forward to help IOTA team driving the revolution of IIoT by enabling disruptive industrial use-cases and new big data driven business models."

Full privacy? Pretty sure this still opens you up to taint analysis.

Dude, stopped on their discord and people were talking about "If the price pumps to X, I'll buy a lambo for every day of the week!"

Don't they know the life cycle of a privacy shitcoin? 1. launch coin silently so devs can accumulate 2. make incredible claims (IE. Whitepaper SOON!) 3. work noobs into a frothy lather of expectations 4. go full-shill and attack Monero 5. pump and die 6. take what you learned and start a new coin (only appies to devs and pump masters)

You don't skip to 4

My nice response:

The IOTA team has people from Eclipse, Fujitsu, VW, Universities and even the creator of the first POS coin--you really need to research to avoid bad assumptions: https://www.iota.org/the-foundation/team (and for more details on each of the team member's prior work, you can find data here https://medium.com/@DavidSonstebo ).

What I'd like to say:

IOTA is trying to fix the scalability problems POW can't fix and do it in a way IOT devices can actually use it--those are two huge problems that no one has conquered (ever), so let's not pretend it's as easy as copy/pasting other people's work and getting it on a few exchanges. The Dunning Kruger effect in crypto is mind boggling--idiots just running their mouths without the slightest clue of what's happening. Go do some research and stop wasting my time.
 

Write-up on the IOTA Industrial Lab at Aachen University: https://medium.com/industrial-iota-lab-aachen-wzl-of-rwth-aachen/the-industrial-iota-lab-aachen-4762798742c

Is this smart ass on smart ass crime?  Added bold so my point was more obvious