No names, no amounts. Bitshares' Stealth Transactions

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We have discussed all kinds of privacy issues over the past months and how we could possibly add more privacy to the Bitshares platform. Since we are using a friendly naming system on the Bitshares platform, sending money to somebody just requires a Bitshares username. This easy ID System has just one problem with a public blockchain ledger. A lot of people registered with their forum names or even real names and realized that their wallets and actions are all open to everyone.

The problem is that once you know someone's username, you can easily look up his balance, read his past transactions or even add them to your favorite accounts in your wallet and watch their every move. As much as we value transparency, we also value privacy and that's why we at BitShares Munich think this is a necessary addition to the Bitshares platform.

We are proposing to continue the development of the Stealth smart contract (beyond Blinded Transfers) which will be used to facilitate total anonymity and untraceability of the sending/receiving accounts and amounts. We will pick up the previous development and finish the GUI and automated backup features plus adding Stealth Accounts and Contacts to our Smartcoins Wallet for Android.

Quote

”Stealth Transfer helps set Bitshares apart from most other crypto currencies and offers tremendous value to the users who are most interested in privacy, liberty, and freedom.” - Bytemaster

In his first proposal, Bytemaster delivered most of the Stealth feature code but he was unable to complete the backup features and an easy implementation into the Bitshares interface. The basic Stealth transactions work today, but they have not been integrated and are only accessible with the cli-wallet. There are also concerns about, how to provide an easy access to the features in the interface. One mistake and the funds would be forever lost on the Blockchain.
BM had a solution but it would require users to backup their wallets to a centralized server (controlled by a person or web hosting company) where you could then redeem your backup wallet file in case your Stealth transaction failed. Due to the unpredictable liability issues, it was decided to postpone true Stealth transactions into the future.

“STEALTH” has now been set up as a Fee-Backed Asset (FBA) and was initially paid for by @onceuponatime. Since the project could not be finished as expected, Bytemaster agreed to pay back onceuponatime and cover the losses by himself. We at BitShares Munich will get the Stealth software finished, tested, security audited by multiple outside sources, approved by the community and launched asap.

-	Develop a simple Wallet UI that allows management of Stealth Accounts/Contacts. Stealth Accounts/Contacts are just labeled private keys.
-	Add automated backups via (very lightweight) IPFS
-	Easy funds recovery method in case you lost your “transfer receipt”
-	Add total anonymity and untraceability as Accounts and Contacts
-	Users can store funds in public or Stealth Accounts - Whales and large retail/grocery/restaurant chains are demanding privacy too!
-	Users can send/receive funds to/from public or Stealth Contacts
-	Attract traders, HNWI, and corporates who value privacy and want to avoid competitors’ espionage

Users will be able to monitor their Stealth balances and take the following actions:

1. Transfer from public account to their own Stealth balance
2. Transfer from one of their Stealth accounts to one of their Stealth contacts
3. Transfer from one of their Stealth accounts to any public account
4. Register a new account using a Stealth balance
5. Receive a Stealth transfer from a 3rd party given a transfer receipt

BitShares Munich IVS is fully registered in Denmark and an independent software development company for the Bitshares Platform. We are passionate Blockchain enthusiasts and want to provide easy to use software for everyone. We are developing a broad range of products for the Bitshares ecosystem and we’ve learned that some of our services require additional privacy features. In our negotiations, we continuously had to answer the question about data security, who owns the data and how transparent are transaction data on an open Blockchain ledger. Here is a little overview of what we do.

BitShares Munich finished, and developing projects:

-	First Bitshares Mobile Wallet (Android and iOS)
-	Smartcoins Wallet - native Android
-	BlockPay “S” (Graphene Blockchain-based Standalone Point Of Sale), native Android
-	BlockPay Integrated (Odoo was the first, many more on the way)
-	ECHO - Decentralized and encrypted Voice, Video, Social messenger and Wallet all-in-one App for iOS and Android

Here are our products:

BlockPay

ECHO

Here are some videos:

We want to develop Stealth because we think it will benefit the Bitshares platform in the long term. We are currently talking to the different grocery chain, retail partners, and individuals who prefer privacy when upgrading to blockchain based systems. Supermarket chains have stated that they would love to utilize our BlockPay integrated solution as a new alternative payment method but are hesitating due to their transactions popping up on the public block explorers. They are afraid their competitors could analyze their daily sales volume, metadata, consumer behavior or daily turnover in every store. This would be an extreme competitive advantage! They now have to choose between a public ledger or a private ledger. We would like to offer them the third option, a public ledger that can keep their accounts and amounts undetectable.

It is our goal to build the world’s #1 global payment network (B2B, B2C, C2C, C2B) and we are convinced that Stealth transfer smartcontracts will help us to add even more industry partners, traders, and HNWI to the Bitshares platform.

Bitshares Stealth feature will be developed by BitShares Munich and we are preparing the groundwork for a future crowd funding. Stealth will give you the power to transfer funds on a Blockchain, invisible details to any blockchain explorer. This feature will give you a real alternative and you will have the freedom to choose between transparency and total privacy!!

Our roadmap is:

1.	Get up to speed on what code is done so far
2.	Finish R&D of final choices for ring sigs, mixer, IP masking and related
3.	Fork existing, setup testnet, work on graphene-ui first
4.	Modularize/min libs so they can be used by our wallets
5.	Feature freeze
6.	Begin beta testing, Security Audits, final bug fixes or UI tweaks
7.	Launch update to graphene-ui
8.	Integrate with native-android Smartcoins Wallet
9.	Begin beta testing, Security Audits, final bugs fixes or UI tweaks
10.	Launch update to Bitshares Blockchain

This Bitshares feature will be developed by BitShares Munich IVS.
Contact us here: Chris@BitShares-munich.de

Disclaimer for Stealth Features

BitShares Munich IVS supports privacy, security and freedom for all. We believe in privacy as a basic human right and see the internet as an environment where everyone can express their opinions and have unrestricted access to its information while remaining anonymous. We are leveraging Blockchain technology to provide higher security standards for our users. Our software solutions prohibit any unlawful activity and we comply with all legal requests for information by law enforcement.

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