We're shutting down testing and it was a great success! Thanks for all of the help

That was a successfully merged transaction created by the pooling code. There are 2 inputs and 4 outputs from 2 separate clients on the testnet. All looks good!

All inputs are split between two outputs, one to the destination and one to the change address (back to yourself).

freenode

Join us in #darkcoin-test, we're sending each other coins @freenode

Soon we will begin testing the alpha, to help please follow these instructions:

1. If you’ve ran the alpha before please clear ~/.darkcoin/testnet3 or ~/AppData/Darkcoin/testnet3
2. If you’re new, you’ll need to read and follow instructions on the first post to setup the config

Download the client:

Windows: http://www.darkcoin.io/downloads/alpha/darkcoin-qt.exe
Ubuntu 64x: http://www.darkcoin.io/downloads/alpha/darkcoin-qt
Ubuntu 64x: http://www.darkcoin.io/downloads/alpha/darkcoind


For the commands and how everything works please read: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=467857.0


Known issues:

Sent inputs go into unconfirmed: The input value - the value you sent will appear as “unconfirmed” until the next block is mined. Just ignore it
“insufficient funds” messages, try larger or smaller values. I’ll fix this before next release

Yes.

Alpha testing starts in 24 minutes, come join us! https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=467857.0

Subject: Re: [#105416] Darkcoin availablility

Thank you for letting me know about this coin!
I have added your coin to the list of coins our development team is
reviewing for addition to the cryptsy market.


Thank you,
Cryptsy.com

Every since I've been mining Darkcoin with GPUs, my mining room has been 20 degrees cooler. We should really get the word out on this, it's a huge benefit.

I'm not dead set on how I want to implement this yet, and have a few separate ideas.

Before implementation: proxies have always been supported, which would do the same thing. They just require a bit more work on the users part to setup.

Implementation #1: Building in something like tor to use an existing network to secure communication between the nodes and yourself. The problem is this causes everything to slow down substantially.

Implementation #2: Turn the Darkcoin network into a proxy network and pick a node to securely relay through. This could even have N hops before reaching an exit node and would only work for internal system messages.

Implementation #3: Unencrypted relaying using a "Pass this message on to 1 node (and tell them to do the same) you're connected to or if random number > X broadcast", so the message would hop multiple times before it was actually broadcasted by the exit node. You would never know who the original client was because N hops would be random.

Implementation #4+? I'm open to other ideas.

It's not in the native client, it's a browser extension and it's not decentralized. In the world of crypto decentralized solutions will always win, we need all of this technology to be trustless.

I’ve heard some chatter and misconceptions about the difference between Darkcoin vs Zerocoin, so here’s a write up about the pros and cons of each approach and what they do differently.

Darkcoin

First off, most people start by asking is DarkSend actually real and does it work? Yes! Checkout the development progress here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=467857.0

DarkSend is based off of Greg Maxwells original idea called Coinjoin, with some added improvements and decentralization. The decentralized approach is important because the logic is self contained in the client, which is managed by the users themselves. This is a trustless solution.

Darkcoin uses the base transaction layer to sign it’s transactions in much the same way that Bitcoin does. The mathematics are tried and true and have been used for years in computer security and banking.

Transactions will be grouped together and the same cost as sending transactions on the normal network. Both DarkSend and normal transactions will be available to choose from, but at some point we might default to DarkSend (and go Dark).

It’s also worth noting that this approach doesn’t bloat the blockchain at all either. Transactions are the same size as the would have been.

Zerocoin

The approach Zerocoin takes is to use some exotic mathematics to hide the identity with a zero-knowledge proof. This allows a higher quality of anonymity, but also could have some unforeseen hole that will be exploited later.

Checkout this link to see the mathematics I'm talking about: https://github.com/Zerocoin/libzerocoin/blob/master/AccumulatorProofOfKnowledge.cpp

Zerocoin's proof of work is in the 344 byte range, which was reduced from 50kb in Mathew Green’s original work. These proofs must be stored in the blockchain for each transaction that goes through the network for confirmation purposes and the ledger history, so this will cause a lot of bloat. There is also a need for these proofs to be processed by the networks nodes, being larger will cause more intense CPU usage with smaller transaction rates.  

Mixing Services - (Fedoracoin, Anoncoin)

The revolutionary feature of Bitcoin was not the currency, but the decentralized ledger. Mixing services are great at what they do, but any hosted service is inherently centralized and requires an amount of trust of that entity. Services setup in a centralized way can also be compromised without users knowledge.

---

I think the Darkcoin approach has the best mix of features, with the least risk and it’s decentralized. So we definitely have our place in the market.

EDIT: I accidentally copied misinformation from a bad source on the internet, I was looking for original sources this morning trying to vet my post and found it was wrong. Sorry!

References:

Coinjoin spec: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=279249.0;all
Matthew Green's paper: http://www0.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/G.Danezis/papers/DanezisFournetKohlweissParno13.pdf

I'm sure we'll get the Max bump soon enough

Expect one hell of a jump after alpha tests tonight  

I vote for this, this is gorgeous:

https://ip.bitcointalk.org/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.badbeatbag.com%2Fdarkcoin%2Fdrk-logo-05.png&t=537&c=kmHLGcVAOnGoeQ

That's Bigal's pool. I sent him a message earlier and haven't heard anything back, plus ALL of his ~15 pools are down. I'm not sure what's going on

I think we need variety in the cryptocoin space. Two anonymous currencies are better than one and much better than zero.

DarkSend is in a working state on testnet, so we're making good progress. I wouldn't call that non-existant. Also, Zerocoin uses exotic mathematics that could have some unforeseen hole in them and DarkSend uses a completely different implementation that is pretty straight forward and relies on tried and true mathematics. So again, 2 is better than 1.

Checkout this link to see the mathematics I'm talking about in Zerocoin: https://github.com/Zerocoin/libzerocoin/blob/master/AccumulatorProofOfKnowledge.cpp

Zerocoin's proof of work is in the 2 kilobyte range if I remember correctly, per transaction. That's alot better than it was for their first proof, but it will still cause alot of bloat in the blockchain. Darksend's method of anonymity on the other hand doesn't have very much bloat at all. 

Don't get me wrong, Zerocoin is very cool, but obviously I think Darkcoin has it's place. Further more, Zerocoin doesn't even exist yet. So we're the first anonymous currency that works with only the wallet.

I think we need variety in the cryptocoin space. Two anonymous currencies are better than one and much better than zero.

DarkSend is in a working state on testnet, so we're making good progress. I wouldn't call that non-existant. Also, Zerocoin uses exotic mathematics that could have some unforeseen hole in them and DarkSend uses a completely different implementation that is pretty straight forward and relies on tried and true mathematics. So again, 2 is better than 1.

Checkout this link to see the mathematics I'm talking about in Zerocoin: https://github.com/Zerocoin/libzerocoin/blob/master/AccumulatorProofOfKnowledge.cpp

Zerocoin's proof of work is in the 2 kilobyte range if I remember correctly, per transaction. That's alot better than it was for their first proof, but it will still cause alot of bloat in the blockchain. Darksend's method of anonymity on the other hand doesn't have very much bloat at all. 

Don't get me wrong, Zerocoin is very cool, but obviously I think Darkcoin has it's place.

Alright, I'll just repost this later. I didn't realize you guys would be ready to test immediately.

Merchants just need to generate one off addresses to process payments specifically for your sale. So there's really no need for them to tell who it came from, they know because they generate the address and tied it to you.