What is the best currency for privacy focused clients?

[blockchainlawyer]

Which altcoin would you suggest I use to receive payments from clients while protecting their financial privacy?

[generalizethis]

1. Monero. All you'd have to teach them mix-in levels and payment IDs.*

2. Monero. Has existed since last April.

3. So open source that investors and critics complain that the Devs shouldn't be doing anything but coding even though they have jobs, families and lives outside of Monero.

4. Monero. All privacy is on the protocol level.

5. Sorry, Monero doesn't have an official GUI yet, but there are available GUI's and a web wallet.

6. Top 15 in market cap with average 24 hour volume in the 25-50k region. Also, there is a market available for big transactions that can be negotiated between parties. www.moneroclub.com

7. Monero has a great Dev team. https://getmonero.org/knowledge-base/people


*If someone's computer is infected with a spyware that captures screen data, there isn't a cryptocurrency available, or that will ever be available, to protect your clients account information.

[marine4u]

MT.CEX
for those who seek %100 privacy. First implementation of project Marinex
https://mtcex.com

Trading will start soon MTC will be paired with over 500 Crypto Currencies.

Totally private, no email exchange between trader and the exchange operator all the way from registration to withdrawal of funds, all authentication is done on the elliptic curve with the Marinecoin security pad.

Marinecoin based exchange will soon start, all exchange related withdrawals are made by signed key messages user do not leave a fingerprint on mail servers for every exchange transaction they make which is the biggest privacy leak,

more detailed info is here
The case for the Elliptic Curve verification of withdrawal without email
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1089959.msg11617728#msg11617728

[marine4u]

they are not really traceable when you keep your identity secret, what you are talking about is mostly a myth.

You have to make a mistake and reveal your privacy at some point to run in to that problem.

You can not identify and single out a transaction and match it with its owner without extra information, mostly accompanying emails messages pointing to a transaction or a privacy leak that associates you with a certain transaction. 

Can you tell me how someone will be able to trace a deposit made on my paper wallet that I created on my computer using a Java script, if the origin of funds knows who I am I would just send them to an exchange which is a mixed wallet lots of inputs and outputs and withdraw multiple funds with random amounts to paper wallets, that simple.

There is no way, if I keep my personal info private all blockchains are private, using OSX and Windows is also a major privacy issue.

[generalizethis]

Thank you for your thoughtful and detail response!

1. Regarding the mix-in level, I think I read somewhere that at least one of the other cryptonote coins (I cant remember which one) already requires a minimum mix-in at the protocol level to avoid the mix-in = 0 privacy issues currently possible with Monero. Is there a good reason why Monero devs do not require a mimimum mix-in in the Monero protocol as well?

2, 3, 4. Great!

5. In regards to the official GUI is there an estimate about when it will be released? I ask for the benefit of my clients, not my own. I can use the command line just fine.  It is good to know there is a web wallet and unofficial wallet available now.  I am aware that Monero is a cryptonote clone. I am interested in Cryptonote but am also considering Boolberry because of its functioning GUI (and long emission schedule).

6. I like the liquidity on Poloniex. I don't understand why more exchanges have not added the coin based on its trading volume. I dont like centralized trading based on the history of so many exchanges being hacked. Any comment on the chances of getting listed on more exchanges in the future?

7. I like the size of your dev team! Some of the 1 dev coins make me nervous that they will leave for another project and all development will cease.

* Regarding spyware and screen captures, I am not aware of a currency that can resist this directly, but I am aware of hardware wallets that can  since the transaction can be signed offline without exposing the private key.  Your point reminded me of something I am happy Monero is working on and of something Dash has completed. If there are other anonymous coins working on this I am not yet aware of them.
https://forum.getmonero.org/9/work-in-progress/265/adding-monero-support-for-trezor
https://dashtalk.org/threads/trezor-offers-password-less-login-to-other-websites-adds-dash.5076/

You're welcome   I'm a self-motivated fanboy, so I'll do my best answer your questions--though a Dev (living and breathing the project) would give you more breadth and technically  knowledgeable answers.

1. AFAIK Monero was the first to point this issue out and the resulting solution, but has yet to implement a mandatory mix-in as there are still issues with miners and exchanges.

5. The db has to finish testing, but once that is done, an official GUI should be on the way. No estimates; the Devs are very careful to deliver more than they promise.

6. This is a problem. There is also Shapeshift, but it seems that not being a Bitcoin clone hinders exchanges from adopting Monero--Cryptsy has had it on the To Do list for many months, but still no word on when or if they'll get around to it. I think once more merchant software is released that more exchanges will add Monero and other cryptonote coins. This isn't a satisfactory answer, but you can't really force exchanges to adopt a coin.

[bbreconomy]

I currently accept Bitcoin among other forms of payment. Most of my clients are not yet familiar with Bitcoin but I expect this to change sooner rather than later. Some clients will also be interested in using Bitcoin (and other crypto currencies) in their own businesses. I want to be able to advise my clients on the privacy/security implications of using crypto currencies. Receiving payment myself is not my biggest focus.

I am extremely careful about protecting any and all client information including financial data.

As more and more transactions are performed with crypto currencies I expect privacy to become more important for competitive, security and legal reasons.

Blockchain analysis could reveal for example salaries of employees, amount of settlement agreements, inventory turnover times and much more.  My immediate focus is privacy related to financial transactions/payments. Smart contracts will be of more interest to me and my clients down the road.

Please assume the following:

1. My clients are not tech savvy enough (nor do I have the time to teach them) to employ perfect OPSEC in protecting their financial privacy with Bitcoin

2. I am only interested in solutions that exist today. Not great ideas still under development such as:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/394k1t/petertoddbtc_gregory_maxwells_confidental/

3. I am not interested in any coin whose code is not completely open source

4. I am interested in anonymity on the protocol level, not via centralized mixing of any kind

5. While I am not against the command line, I would prefer a GUI wallet that would allow clients to easily send/receive payments on Windows with maximum privacy.  Most of my clients have never used Linux, Tor or I2P.

6. While market valuation/price stability is not crucial, I do expect this currency has sufficient liquidity to easily transfer to/from Bitcoin without dramatically impacting price.

7. While I do not necessarily care how large the development team is, there should be at minimum an active community and some activity in GitHub  (no clone coins where development has been non existent since launch).  The last thing I want to do is to start accepting a coin that could disappear in the near future.

Which altcoin would you suggest I use at this point in time to receive payments from clients while protecting their financial privacy?  I have some opinions of my own but am trying to keep an open mind.  No coin is perfect. In order for me to take you seriously please list the negatives (as well as the positives) for any coin you recommend.

Thanks in advance!

1. Boolberry has a GUI (1st cryptonote with a GUI) and the sender can easily set the output to only be used with a specified # of mixins, protecting privacy.  Of all cryptonote coins, Only Boolberry has the feature
http://www.slideshare.net/boolberry/boolberry-solves-cryptonoteflaws-37055246

2. Boolberry is a finished product that works well now. Of course the economy needs to be better developed and more innovation is possible.

3. Everything is open source on github
https://github.com/cryptozoidberg/Boolberry

4. Everything is decided by the protocol. No centralized mixing

5. GUI exists and works well but is fairly basic. More features would be helpful

6. BBR is traded on Poloniex, Bittrex, and Bter. Volume is pretty low and is something that needs to be improved to make it a more liquid currency

7. Dev team is small. Some recent activity can be seen on github. Hopefully more developers will join the project. CZ had been working on another cryptonote project but hopefully found some new ideas that can be integrated into Boolberry
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=887482.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=577267.msg11279657#msg11279657