Lightning network, Bitcoin development and Alts

[inBitweTrust]

This thread is one intended to start a conversation about what altcoin developers and users feel about some of the development within the bitcoin space and how it compares to other alts. There are some interesting features and development within many of the altcoins and there is a lot of progress being made within bitcoins but the difference with bitcoin is most of the development is happening at the edges and the core protocol remains simple and robust.

Thus individuals who download the bitcoin QT (Core) wallet may be disappointing because its not as pretty and doesn't have all the features as other wallets when most of the development is happening in the 20+ other bitcoin wallets. So one "disadvantage" bitcoin has is confusion due to too many options due to too much development where it doesn't have a well integrated wallets that does everything. I.E..  you want privacy - darkwallet, you want security - armory, you want integrated directory and shopping assistance - airbitz, you want decentralized localtrader - mycelium, ect... Other alts have very little choices and development but the wallets are more tightly integrated with all the features found accross multiple wallets in bitcoin.

So the first question is do you guys agree with the above , yes or no and why?

What do you guys feel about the lightning network whitepaper?

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=970822.0
http://lightning.network/lightning-network-paper-DRAFT-0.5.pdf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zVzw912wPo
http://lightning.network/lightning-network.pdf
http://www.coindesk.com/could-the-bitcoin-lightning-network-solve-blockchain-scalability/

Are there any alts out their designed to handle 45,000 instantly confirming transactions  per second and scale without bloat like bitcoin with the lightning network once the softfork goes through?

What do you you of Inter-channel payments allowing instant confirmations within bitcoin - http://impulse.is/. Confirmations are already instant with bitcoin if you trust a centralized payment processor , but interchannel payments pave a way for a more distributed trust system.

Some recent changes made in Bitcoin core 0.10 paved way for pruning. Full nodes that only require 1GB of storage are set to be released in the next version 0.11. What do you guys think about this as it relates to blockchain bloat and decentralization?

Darkwallet and openbazaar seems to be making slow but steady progress to solve the decentralization issues and privacy concerns. What do you specifically think about these advancements in relation to other alts?

[Joshuar]

This thread is one intended to start a conversation about what altcoin developers and users feel about some of the development within the bitcoin space and how it compares to other alts. There are some interesting features and development within many of the altcoins and there is a lot of progress being made within bitcoins but the difference with bitcoin is most of the development is happening at the edges and the core protocol remains simple and robust.

Thus individuals who download the bitcoin QT (Core) wallet may be disappointing because its not as pretty and doesn't have all the features as other wallets when most of the development is happening in the 20+ other bitcoin wallets. So one "disadvantage" bitcoin has is confusion due to too many options due to too much development where it doesn't have a well integrated wallets that does everything. I.E..  you want privacy - darkwallet, you want security - armory, you want integrated directory and shopping assistance - airbitz, you want localtrader - mycelium, ect... Other alts have very little choices and development but the wallets are more tightly integrated with all the features found accross multiple wallets in bitcoin.

So the first question is do you guys agree with the above , yes or no and why?

What do you guys feel about the lightning network whitepaper?

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=970822.0
http://lightning.network/lightning-network-paper-DRAFT-0.5.pdf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zVzw912wPo
http://lightning.network/lightning-network.pdf
http://www.coindesk.com/could-the-bitcoin-lightning-network-solve-blockchain-scalability/

Are there any alts out their designed to handle 45,000 instantly confirming transactions  per second and scale without bloat like bitcoin with the lightning network once the softfork goes through?

Some recent changes made in Bitcoin core 0.10 paved way for pruning. Full nodes that only require 1GB of storage are set to be released in the next version 0.11. What do you guys think about this as it relates to blockchain vote and decentralization?

Darkwallet and openbazaar seems to be making slow but steady progress to solve the decentralization issues and privacy concerns. What do you specifically think about these advancements in relation to other alts?

Darkwallet makes any Bitcoin clone using coinjoin irrelevant.(Basically all coins that offer anon except the cryptonote ones are irrelevant). Unfortunately darkwallet wont help with the inherent fungibility issue, but its still better(will be) than using altcoins with coinjoin.

Lightning networks makes any Bitcoin clone that has better scaling, irrelevant.

[inBitweTrust]

Darkwallet makes any Bitcoin clone using coinjoin irrelevant.(Basically all coins that offer anon except the cryptonote ones are irrelevant). Unfortunately darkwallet wont help with the inherent fungibility issue, but its still better(will be) than using altcoins with coinjoin.

Very salient point , but out of a point of clarification there was some consideration to implementing coinshuffle into darkwallet - https://www.petsymposium.org/2014/papers/Ruffing.pdf and darkwallet provides its privacy from advanced forms or stealth addresses and coinjoin at the moment. There are some unique advantages to cryptonote for privacy but there is also something to be said for the privacy one gets by having more users , higher transaction volume, using a coin that isn't just focused on privacy and thus incorporates transactions that include both legal and illegal purchases.

[Joshuar]

Darkwallet makes any Bitcoin clone using coinjoin irrelevant.(Basically all coins that offer anon except the cryptonote ones are irrelevant). Unfortunately darkwallet wont help with the inherent fungibility issue, but its still better(will be) than using altcoins with coinjoin.

Very salient point , but out of a point of clarification there was some consideration to implementing coinshuffle into darkwallet - https://www.petsymposium.org/2014/papers/Ruffing.pdf and darkwallet provides its privacy from advanced forms or stealth addresses and coinjoin at the moment. There are some unique advantages to cryptonote for privacy but there is also something to be said for the privacy one gets by having more users , higher transaction volume, using a coin that isn't just focused on privacy and thus incorporates transactions that include both legal and illegal purchases.

That's a good point(against zerocash actually). Cryptonote allows both anonymous(mixin 3+) and optional transparent transactions(mixin 2 and below), so legal purchases would be fine. Ring Signatures also dont "mix" coins like coinjoin(For improved anonymity), so you don't need a large userbase of others to mix with to get privacy. There's also a viewkey embedded in that lets you show others your balance(Which is good for tax purposes etc), since others can't see who/what/when/why/how through the blockchain.

[inBitweTrust]

That's a good point(against zerocash actually). Cryptonote allows both anonymous(mixin 3+) and optional transparent transactions(mixin 2 and below), so legal purchases would be fine. Ring Signatures also dont "mix" coins like coinjoin(For improved anonymity), so you don't need a large userbase of others to mix with to get privacy. There's also a viewkey embedded in that lets you show others your balance(Which is good for tax purposes etc), since others can't see who/what/when/why/how through the blockchain.

Yes , good distinctions but the since these dark coins are used and marketed by and to a specific demographic and don't have transaction volume Bitcoin has that is a risk in itself.

The fear I have with using a coin like Dash, bitcoidark, monero, shadowcash, ect... is that all these currencies are specifically marketing for privacy and the darkweb/deepweb usage , thus even using the currency will bring suspicion and attention to a user. I believe using a currency that is neutral with certain "fringe" groups using different stacks and implementations like libbitcoin and wallets like darkwallet allow one to sufficiently mask dark transactions within a large pool of "legit" (whatever that means) transactions within the blockchain.

I suppose using stealth addresses will send a signal out you are concerned with privacy like any of these other privacy coins as well (because stealth addresses look distinct) but once the transaction is processed it is unidentifiable in a very large pool of "legit" transactions.

[Joshuar]

That's a good point(against zerocash actually). Cryptonote allows both anonymous(mixin 3+) and optional transparent transactions(mixin 2 and below), so legal purchases would be fine. Ring Signatures also dont "mix" coins like coinjoin(For improved anonymity), so you don't need a large userbase of others to mix with to get privacy. There's also a viewkey embedded in that lets you show others your balance(Which is good for tax purposes etc), since others can't see who/what/when/why/how through the blockchain.

Yes , good distinctions but the since these dark coins are used and marketed by a specific demographic and don't have transaction volume Bitcoin has that is a risk in itself.

The fear I have with using a coin like Dash, bitcoidark, monero, shadowcash, ect... is that all these currencies are specifically marketing for privacy and the darkweb/deepweb usage , thus even using the currency will bring suspicion and attention to a user. I believe using a currency that is neutral with certain "fringe" groups using different stacks and implementations like libbitcoin and wallets like darkwallet allow one to sufficiently mask dark transactions within a large pool of "legit" (whatever that means) transactions within the blockchain.

I suppose using stealth addresses will send a signal out you are concerned with privacy like any of these other privacy coins as well (because stealth addresses look distinct) but once the transaction is processed it is unidentifiable in a very large pool of "legit" transactions.

I haven't seen anyone propose that these coins be marketed towards the darknet and I'm heavily involved in the "privacy sector". I think we all have that "fear" of them getting used for those activities, but that shouldn't stop advancement(Everything in life can be used for good and bad). Cryptonote doesn't just have anonymity only like zerocash, it allows for both anonymity and transparency.

Bitcoin started out in the darknet btw, Silkroad.

Your last sentence is what leads to fungibiity issues, where "clean" and "dirty" coins are separated as bitcoin's blockchain is open and transparent.

Stealth addresses alone/by themselves are not anonymous/nor give much privacy.

[inBitweTrust]

I haven't seen anyone propose that these coins be marketed towards the darknet and I'm heavily involved in the "privacy sector". I think we all have that "fear" of them getting used for those activities, but that shouldn't stop advancement(Everything in life can be used for good and bad). Cryptonote doesn't just have anonymity only like zerocash, it allows for both anonymity and transparency.

Bitcoin started out in the darknet btw, Silkroad.

Your last sentence is what leads to fungibiity issues, where "clean" and "dirty" coins are separated as bitcoin's blockchain is open and transparent.

2 things that make Bitcoin distinct from these coins with higher privacy:

1) You can use bitcoin in a less private way and thus it isn't entirely focused on privacy or secrecy but you have that option. Many of the other coins I mentioned have absolute privacy by default and market their coin as such. Some are even more blatant like shadowcash with their shadowmarket and all the "spices" advertized therein.

 
2) Using names like "shadow" and "dark" in some of these coins and implementations makes it clear what they are used for. This is why openbazaar is a relabeled fork of darkmarket; they want to make sure and encourage legal transactions occur on their platform which will give cover to any illegal ones. I am going to go out of my way and sell many legal goods and services on openbazaar specifically to promote the platform and add security.

Stealth addresses alone/by themselves are not anonymous/nor give much privacy.

Stealth addresses have a very specific purpose and give great privacy on the receivers side. But I understand what you are suggesting that one must use stealth addresses with either coinjoin or coinshuffle to start reach levels of privacy found within other options like cryptonote and to protect the privacy of both sender and receiver. There is a very nuanced argument to be had when discussing the strengths and weaknesses of stealth/coinjoin vs cryptonote and I would like to see a sidechain within bitcoin that used cryptonote.

[Joshuar]

I haven't seen anyone propose that these coins be marketed towards the darknet and I'm heavily involved in the "privacy sector". I think we all have that "fear" of them getting used for those activities, but that shouldn't stop advancement(Everything in life can be used for good and bad). Cryptonote doesn't just have anonymity only like zerocash, it allows for both anonymity and transparency.

Bitcoin started out in the darknet btw, Silkroad.

Your last sentence is what leads to fungibiity issues, where "clean" and "dirty" coins are separated as bitcoin's blockchain is open and transparent.

2 things that make Bitcoin distinct from these coins with higher privacy:

1) You can use bitcoin in a less private way and thus it isn't entirely focused on privacy or secrecy but you have that options. Many of the other coins I mentioned have absolute privacy by default and market their coin as such. Some are even more blatant like shadowcash with their shadowmarket and all the "spices" advertized therein.

 
2) Using names like "shadow" and "dark" in some of these coins and implementations makes it clear what they are used for. This is why openbazaar is a relabeled fork of darkmarket, they want to make sure and encourage legal transactions occur on their platform which will give cover to any illegal ones. I am going to go out of my way and sell many legal goods and services on openbazaar specifically to promote the platform and add security.

1) The only "coin" that is anonymous by default, with no transparency ever offered, is zerocash. With Cryptonote, you can optionally have transparent transactions, and there's the viewkey that you can give to others. Cryptonote is basically built around you, options, what you want/can do. We don't know who made cryptonote (The person behind the name), probably just a pseudonym like the name satoshi nakamoto. Shadowcash is purposely trying to affiliate themselves with the darknnetmarket, it just copied/cloned features from other coins anyway, not worth anything.

2) That's true.

[inBitweTrust]

1) The only "coin" that is absolutely anonymous by default, with no transparency offered, is zerocash. With Cryptonote, you can optionally have transparent transactions, and there's the viewkey that you can give to others. Cryptonote is basically built around you, options, what you want/can do. We don't know who made cryptonote (The person behind the name), probably just a pseudonym like the name satoshi nakamoto. Shadowcash is purposely trying to affiliate themselves with the darknnetmarket, it just copied/cloned features from other coins anyway, not worth anything.

Yes, I agree that Cryptonote is great and unique. My statements more has to do with how they are marketed and who uses them. Bitcoin is already going mainstream so is passed the stage of attracting only speculators and silk road users. These other coins are still at the stage and thus are at risk for more scrutiny specifically because of this.

So lets give some examples of some of the coins and how they are marketed:

Ordered Per marketcap :
1) https://www.dashpay.io

PRIVATE

Keep your payments private so nobody can track you thanks to Darksend.

2) https://getmonero.org/home

Private

Monero uses a cryptographically sound system to allow you to send and receive funds without your transactions being easily revealed on the blockchain (the distributed ledger of transactions). This ensures that your purchases, receipts, and all transfers remain absolutely private by default.

Untraceable

By taking advantage of ring signatures, a special property of certain types of cryptography, Monero is able to ensure that transactions are not only untraceable, but have an optional measure of ambiguity that ensures that transactions cannot easily be tied back to an individual user or computer.

3) http://bitcoindark.pw/

Bitcoindark
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=684090.msg8353544#msg8353544
It’s about best practice, old-school street smarts and a complete ecosystem designed from the ground up for privacy.

The future’s Dark

4) http://shadow.cash/

Shadowcash
True Anonymous Cryptocurrency
ShadowSend‘s unique zero-knowledge, dual-key stealth address and ring signature protocol enables near-instant, untraceable, unlinkable and trustless transactions.

5) http://darknote.cc/

Darknote

Privacy Protected Payments and Information Transfers. Anonymous and Untraceable,


All of these currencies are marketed in such a way that they will exclude many businesses , statist users, governments , and institutions. If you followed the meetings between bitcoin advocates and both regulators and government officials they specifically pointed out that bitcoin isn't as private as cash(We understand this is only half true as the user has the choice to how much privacy they need from bitcoin), and other digital currencies and the blockchain can help investigators research crimes. So many of these currencies are going to align themselves with more of the scrutiny found with darkwallet crowd where ironically they bring more attention to themselves and bitcoin users don't have to appear as if they are privacy conscientious while at the same time use darkwallet in secret.  

So yes, with Cryptonote you have the choice of being transparent or not but what we are talking about is the marketing and demographic of users with these currencies and how ironically such marketing actually brings less security to their coin just like telling people you use  darkwallet brings more scrutiny to you. The problem we have is we both have to promote privacy and let people be aware of these great tools but at the same time not scare them away or bring extra scrutiny to the currency. I believe bitcoin has the right balance because statists, governments , and institutions can use bitcoin and distance themselves from "fringe" privacy advocates like us anarchists, while at the same time mask and wash our transactions when we mix them with their transactions.

[poncom]

I hink full bitcoin nodes that only require 1GB of storage are a good idea. They are what Satoshi envisaged for dealing with blockchain bloat. It's pointless forcing all nodes to download over 5 years of transactions.

[Crestington]

Stealth and anonymity are a persons right to privacy and also helps security since you also need to know where a persons Coins are if trying to take them from someone. If someone was determined to use darknets for purchase of illegal goods/services then there are already hundreds of ways for someone to sufficiently mask their transactions in order to do so.

[Joshuar]

1) The only "coin" that is absolutely anonymous by default, with no transparency offered, is zerocash. With Cryptonote, you can optionally have transparent transactions, and there's the viewkey that you can give to others. Cryptonote is basically built around you, options, what you want/can do. We don't know who made cryptonote (The person behind the name), probably just a pseudonym like the name satoshi nakamoto. Shadowcash is purposely trying to affiliate themselves with the darknnetmarket, it just copied/cloned features from other coins anyway, not worth anything.

Yes, I agree that Cryptonote is great and unique. My statements more has to do with how they are marketed and who uses them. Bitcoin is already going mainstream so is passed the stage of attracting only speculators and silk road users. These other coins are still at the stage and thus are at risk for more scrutiny specifically because of this.

So lets give some examples of some of the coins and how they are marketed:

Ordered Per marketcap :
1) https://www.dashpay.io

PRIVATE

Keep your payments private so nobody can track you thanks to Darksend.

2) https://getmonero.org/home

Private

Monero uses a cryptographically sound system to allow you to send and receive funds without your transactions being easily revealed on the blockchain (the distributed ledger of transactions). This ensures that your purchases, receipts, and all transfers remain absolutely private by default.

Untraceable

By taking advantage of ring signatures, a special property of certain types of cryptography, Monero is able to ensure that transactions are not only untraceable, but have an optional measure of ambiguity that ensures that transactions cannot easily be tied back to an individual user or computer.

3) http://bitcoindark.pw/

Bitcoindark
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=684090.msg8353544#msg8353544
It’s about best practice, old-school street smarts and a complete ecosystem designed from the ground up for privacy.

The future’s Dark

4) http://shadow.cash/

Shadowcash
True Anonymous Cryptocurrency
ShadowSend‘s unique zero-knowledge, dual-key stealth address and ring signature protocol enables near-instant, untraceable, unlinkable and trustless transactions.

5) http://darknote.cc/

Darknote

Privacy Protected Payments and Information Transfers. Anonymous and Untraceable,


All of these currencies are marketed in such a way that they will exclude many businesses , statist users, governments , and institutions. If you followed the meetings between bitcoin advocates and both regulators and government officials they specifically pointed out that bitcoin isn't as private as cash(We understand this is only half true as the user has the choice to how much privacy they need from bitcoin), and other digital currencies and the blockchain can help investigators research crimes. So many of these currencies are going to align themselves with more of the scrutiny found with darkwallet crowd where ironically they bring more attention to themselves and bitcoin users don't have to appear as if they are privacy conscientious while at the same time use darkwallet in secret.  

So yes, with Cryptonote you have the choice of being transparent or not but what we are talking about is the marketing and demographic of users with these currencies and how ironically such marketing actually brings less security to their coin just like telling people you use  darkwallet brings more scrutiny to you. The problem we have is we both have to promote privacy and let people be aware of these great tools but at the same time not scare them away or bring extra scrutiny to the currency. I believe bitcoin has the right balance because statists, governments , and institutions can use bitcoin and distance themselves from "fringe" privacy advocates like us anarchists, while at the same time mask and wash our transactions when we mix them with their transactions.

I entirely agree with this part. The marketing isn't as "family friendly" as it should. But we also have to differentiate the currencies that try and intentionally market themselves as "dark" and "anonymous" to currencies that try to intentionally market themselves to broader and wide audiences. When looking at that, development, features of the currency(including future), the past of the currency, and more.

1) Darkcoin renamed itself to Dash, in an attempt to re-market itself to a broader audience. We all knew a coin with the name "Darkcoin" would be interpreted as being for the darkweb/illegal things only by outsiders, which is why it was renamed to Dash. This coin has a unique problem however, while it's former name was a blocking stone to any meaningful success, it's instamine is basically a full on barrier to any meaningful success. I used to be a darkcoin supporter in 2014, but I picked myself up and thought, "Why the hell am I supporting a coin, that had over 2million coins instamined in less than 2 days on a linux only release while it was relatively unknown, then had the block reward cut by over half and the coin supply cut by over 70% after the instamine was over?". To sum it up, with this coin, the name doesn't matter, because the instamine is already a barrier that cannot be broken or changed, and one that will stop it from ever achieving success. It was basically a scam.


2) Monero, is sort of like the "light in the dark" for me. From the very beginning, David Latapie, who's Monero's PR guy, had stated that he/they personally avoid using the term "anonymous" when talking about Monero, because the word "anonymous" itself is connected to illegal activities in the minds of many people(Outide of crypto), so instead he chooses to use the word "Private" to describe Monero's abilities. Many advertisements for things in the real world use the word private as well, it's just more family friendly, less hostile and "illegal-like". Besides that, Monero has never had any changes done to it's emission schedule or coin supply, both of which Satoshi has said should never be changed. It has also attracted the attention of not just altcoiners, but bitcoiners and even those not involved in the cryptocurrency community as well.


3) Bitcoindark, I admit I'm not too familiar with their code or history. I do know that they are the main coin behind Supernet, which seeks to "unite" blockchains and do cross transfers, similar to AT(Or am I wrong in that assumption). If I'm correct then that's a noteworthy goal, as they're seeking to "unite crypto". On branding, the point you made about the term "dark" applies here, as "dark" is in the very name, which might imply that it's an "illegal"coin to outsiders. However, the slogan for Bitcoindark uses the word "privacy" instead of "anonymity" which is good, shows that even though the name itself contains dark in it, the slogan uses a word that's more family friendly.

4) Shadowcash also has Dash's previous vibe with the dark, illicit, type name going on. I don't know much about Shadowcash besides their' basic feaures admittedly. I know it uses some tokens and a version of Monero's ring signatures. I do know however that it's PoS, instead of PoW. I am not a fan of PoS in it's current form, it's simply far less secure than PoW, also the PoW period that Shadowcash had was extremely short and could be counted as a sort of fastmine, though not nearly as nearly as bad as Dash's instamine.

5) Darknote, I remember when it used to be called Ducknote, and was marketed as being the Cryptonote equivalent(or better version) of Dogecoin. We can all see that Ducknote was intentionally rebranded to Darknote to focus more on anonymity and the "dark" "net".

What you've said is the thoughts I had when choosing a currency to "settle down with". I looked at their name/branding, past, development team, integrity, features, and community to decide. Out of all those as you can tell I found Monero best fit the bill, it's marketed without using the term "anonymous" as to outsiders, that would look shady, and instead with the term "private". The name, Monero, is also pretty beautiful to type and say out loud(And makes it stand out from all the other "Blahcoin" names). It's parameters have never been touched or changed(Block reward, coin supply), and the dev team's work has attracted the eyes of bitcoiners as well as those outside this crypto community.

When/If "big" investors start coming into the crypto markets, they'll be looking for currencies that have integrity, a redeemable past, good sized dev teams, and a marketable name.

[forlackofabettername]

This brainless bitcoin pump-thread bores me.

[YarkoL]

When/If "big" investors start coming into the crypto markets, they'll be looking for currencies that have integrity, a redeemable past, good sized dev teams, and a marketable name.

And most importantly, a real-life useability with large user base,
which implies that the coin has some special utility.

As disheartening as that may be, that utility is likely to be
related to the same factor that brought Bitcoin to the fore.
Dark markets. Which again may be a turnoff to the "big" investors....

Referring back to the OP, where he says
 

So one "disadvantage" bitcoin has is confusion due to too many options due to too much development where it doesn't have a well integrated wallets that does everything. I.E..  you want privacy - darkwallet, you want security - armory, you want integrated directory and shopping assistance - airbitz, you want decentralized localtrader - mycelium, ect... Other alts have very little choices and development but the wallets are more tightly integrated with all the features found accross multiple wallets in bitcoin.

I beg to disagree. Those "peripheral" improvements are signs of maturity
where an established crypto (BTC) is spreading out into diversity of services, whereas
most alts are simply hanging on whatever novelty they may or not may have.

But as Bitcoin matures and becomes more acceptable to the big boys and
so to speak, sanitized, its former position as the king of the underground becomes
available to usurpers..

[inBitweTrust]

I beg to disagree. Those "peripheral" improvements are signs of maturity
where an established crypto (BTC) is spreading out into diversity of services, whereas
most alts are simply hanging on whatever novelty they may or not may have.

But as Bitcoin matures and becomes more acceptable to the big boys and
so to speak, sanitized, its former position as the king of the underground becomes
available to usurpers..

Good points and I also prefer the Bitcoin protocol to be simple, modular and robust and all the complexity at the fringes.

Couldn't another implementation like unsystem/libitcoin through darkwallet/airbitz fill the role of appealing to those wanting privacy when and if developers working for bitcoin core veer too far off course and start to "sanitize" the code?

Based upon what I understand about the developers who work on the core code that is unlikely to happen but its still important to maintain a stop gap with multiple stacks. Having multiple implementations is actually a really important security consideration if a group of developers make a mistake , major bugs are found , or developers add malicious code. Everyone always focuses on 51% attacks , Sybil attacks and (D)DOS attacks and they don't focus on the myriad of other security considerations.... this brings to mind an interesting question:

Are there any altcoins out there that have more than one implementation or stack?(This doesn't mean wallet)

[YarkoL]

Couldn't another implementation like unsystem/libitcoin through darkwallet/airbitz fill the role of appealing to those wanting privacy when and if developers working for bitcoin core veer too far off course and start to "sanitize" the code?

I'd say yes actually plain old bitcoin already is anon "enough" for most
users, and darkwallet plus its offshoots fulfills the need of anonymity for those
with more astringent requirements.

However when it comes to darknet - there is a definite demand
for a decentralized marketplaces right now, which is based on more solid
foundations than the "anon altcoin fad" of last year, and I believe there
are approaches to solving that problem that are incompatible with the trajectory
Bitcoin has taken, and hence a window of opportunity for other solutions
to strike it big.

It will be interesting to see how it plays out. The system that manages to
marry ease of use to optimal security will probably end up as a winner.