2013-04-24: Zerocoin Video Presentation at Microsoft Research

[n8rwJeTt8TrrLKPa55eU]

Not strictly a press item, but a nevertheless newsworthy one-hour presentation given at Microsoft Research in April by the John Hopkins professor Matthew Green.

Bitcoin is the first e-cash system to see widespread adoption. While Bitcoin offers the potential for new types of financial interaction, it has significant limitations regarding privacy. Specifically, because the Bitcoin transaction log is completely public, users’ privacy is protected only through the use of pseudonyms. In this talk we discuss Zerocoin, a cryptographic extension to Bitcoin that augments the protocol to allow for fully anonymous currency transactions. Our system uses standard cryptographic assumptions and does not introduce new trusted parties or otherwise change the security model of Bitcoin. We detail Zerocoin’s cryptographic construction, its integration into Bitcoin, and examine its performance both in terms of computation and impact on the Bitcoin protocol.

http://research.microsoft.com/apps/video/default.aspx?id=192058

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[knight22]

Does zerocoin compatible with bitcoin

[rikur]

MS employees researching Bitcoin and Zerocoin? Thanks, this is big.

[joulesbeef]

sounds like a winner

[rikur]

The transcript and slides are available from the same page.. didn't notice it at start. Anyone know any good tools to overlay the slides with the video? I could do that and upload it to youtube and see how long it takes for MS to take it down

[kjlimo]

What is zerocoin?  Is that this week's new alt coin?

[rikur]

What is zerocoin?  Is that this week's new alt coin?

It's a proposed extension to Bitcoin that would make it anonymous.

[StarfishPrime]

What is zerocoin?  Is that this week's new alt coin?

It's apparently a cryptographic extension to bitcoin which would provide truly anonymous transactions instead of the pseudonymous level of privacy bitcoin has today. Some kind of new protocol layer, still using bitcoin (not some new alt coin) if I understand it correctly.

Jon Matonis has mentioned it on a few occasions as a privacy enhancement, see the article below:

http://themonetaryfuture.blogspot.ca/2013/03/fincen-spying-plan-invites-privacy.html

[chriswilmer]

Wow, I finally understand Zerocoin. It sounds great to me. What are the main obstacles to implementing it?

By the way, I think Zerocoin is bad name for this, because it makes it sound like an alt-coin.

I think a better name for this idea is a "distributed bitcoin mixing" or some clever version of that.

[n8rwJeTt8TrrLKPa55eU]

Wow, I finally understand Zerocoin. It sounds great to me. What are the main obstacles to implementing it?

My recollection of one of the main problems was that the parallel metadata requires orders of magnitude larger storage space per transaction and cannot therefore be included in the host blockchain.  They hope that it can eventually be optimized.

By the way, I think Zerocoin is bad name for this, because it makes it sound like an alt-coin.

Quite true, the "coin" namespace is far too crowded, and very few will get the obtuse reference to the zero-knowledge proofs used in the algorithm.  I'd just use common terminology and call it "Anonymity Add-On for Bitcoin" or some variant.

[bernard75]

MS employees researching Bitcoin and Zerocoin? Thanks, this is big.

Yeah, big for them. They will just plunder and pillage BTC and leave the remains to rot, like they always do.

[viboracecata]

Exciting news, but why call it zerocoin?

[ShadowOfHarbringer]

MS employees researching Bitcoin and Zerocoin? Thanks, this is big.

Yeah, big for them. They will just plunder and pillage BTC and leave the remains to rot, like they always do.

Oh yeah, like they can.
This is not 1990's and Microsoft is not a monopoly in digital currencies. They will have to either produce something good or die. The open source/libertarian/cryptoanarchist world will quickly kick their asses if they try something funny.

[oakpacific]

Microsoft Research and Microsoft are of a...different atmosphere. Microsoft Research employs some of the world's best computer scientists, however thanks to the byzantine structure of M$, most of the achievements of the Research can never be turned into products.

[viboracecata]

Microsoft Research and Microsoft are of a...different atmosphere. Microsoft Research employs some of the world's best computer scientists, however thanks to the byzantine structure of M$, most of the achievements of the Research can never be turned into products.

I think we do not need final products definitely.

[TraderTimm]

Microsoft Research and Microsoft are of a...different atmosphere. Microsoft Research employs some of the world's best computer scientists, however thanks to the byzantine structure of M$, most of the achievements of the Research can never be turned into products.

I think we do not need final products definitely.

Microsoft's office politics ensure that anyone trying to do something interesting will either get usurped by their superiors (and robbed of all credit), or they'll be given a bad review and told to work on something more Micro-softian.

I'm amazed they even managed to get another OS out, although it is a trainwreck with all the GUI assumptions - having to cobble on the "start" button again is proof enough of that.

[BTC Books]

Microsoft Research and Microsoft are of a...different atmosphere. Microsoft Research employs some of the world's best computer scientists, however thanks to the byzantine structure of M$, most of the achievements of the Research can never be turned into products.

I think we do not need final products definitely.

Microsoft's office politics ensure that anyone trying to do something interesting will either get usurped by their superiors (and robbed of all credit), or they'll be given a bad review and told to work on something more Micro-softian.

I'm amazed they even managed to get another OS out, although it is a trainwreck with all the GUI assumptions - having to cobble on the "start" button again is proof enough of that.

Maybe they'll update Microsoft Bob...

[foggyb]

Microsoft Research and Microsoft are of a...different atmosphere. Microsoft Research employs some of the world's best computer scientists, however thanks to the byzantine structure of M$, most of the achievements of the Research can never be turned into products.

I think we do not need final products definitely.

Microsoft's office politics ensure that anyone trying to do something interesting will either get usurped by their superiors (and robbed of all credit), or they'll be given a bad review and told to work on something more Micro-softian.

I'm amazed they even managed to get another OS out, although it is a trainwreck with all the GUI assumptions - having to cobble on the "start" button again is proof enough of that.

The start menu is the work of a dozen of their top men doing 14 hour shifts for ten years. Then they take it out??? What a crazy company.

[kiko]

I'll just leave this here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend_and_extinguish

Disclaimer: I have not seen the paper/presentation, but I think the link is relevant enough to serve as a warning for those less familiar with the 90's. 

[Spekulatius]

I'll just leave this here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend_and_extinguish

Disclaimer: I have not seen the paper/presentation, but I think the link is relevant enough to serve as a warning for those less familiar with the 90's. 

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