Crypto Review - Cryptocurrency Analysis

[CoinHoarder]

Hi,

I added a blog section to the OP and added my first blog post. Some of you may have read it earlier in another thread, but feel free to read it if not.

Also, if you have been following my posts lately you will probably notice I have been quite supportive of Bitshares DACs. I think they are doing some truly innovative stuff over there, and suggest you guys check it out.

As always I could use help adding the crypto currencies that are "yet to be added" at the bottom of the OP- please use a similar format as I have in the OP. I am actually a bit shocked that the supporters/investors/developers of these cryptos haven't popped in and already done so. I was expecting people that had interest in seeing their crypto currency added to the list to help me in doing so. I guess not... anyways, there are a lot of coins to add and it may take me a while.

Your thoughts and opinions are welcome as always!

Cheers

Bitshares
Bitshares consists of multiple DACs released at different times, some have yet to be released.
Website: http://bitshares.org/
Forum: https://bitsharestalk.org/
FAQ: http://bitshares.org/faq/
Wiki: http://wiki.bitshares.org/index.php/Main_Page
Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/BitShares

DACs/Tokens:
Bitshares PTS (gain stake in future Bitshares DACs): https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=325261.0
Bitshares X (bitassets- market pegged assets): http://www.bitshares-x.info/

BitShares builds the technology that powers decentralized autonomous companies (DACs). The long term benefit of DACs is the creation of millions of information-based jobs that allow those who contribute what they know to the market to make money. Whether music, inventions, news articles, insurance, or currency speculation, there will be multiple opportunities for people to earn by sharing information. To gain stake in new Bitshares DACs you can buy or mine Bitshares PTS, which is like Bitshare's sister crypto currency, and is currently secured by PoW and can be mined on your CPU. There are a couple innovative features that each Bitshares DAC has including the following:

An improved Proof of Stake consensus algorithm named Delegated Proof of Stake, which is a new implementation of proof of stake that can validate transactions in seconds while providing greater security in a shorter period of time than all existing proof of stake systems. In the time it takes Bitcoin to produce a single block a DPOS system can have your transaction verified by 20% of the shareholders and by the time Bitcoin claims the transaction is almost irreversible (6 blocks, 1 hour) your transaction under DPOS has been verified by 100% of the shareholders through their delegates. DPOS is better explained here: http://bitshares.org/delegated-proof-of-stake/

Improved security practices over Bitcoin through TITAN, which stands for transfer invisibly to any name. In a nutshell, someone can see transactions and volume but cannot identify the receiver, and only the transmitter and the receiver can correctly interpret these transactions. Titan has the following features: There is no need to exchange ugly addresses, instead a name can be registered with the block chain which suffices to receive payments. The receiver of a transaction is anonymous to everyone except the sender. It simplifies accounting in the wallet, as you can register arbitrary names and no one can see your balance (except you, of course)!

My Opinion (on Bitshares): BUY/HOLD - Bitshares DACs are in my opinion one of the most exciting projects in the alternative crypto currency space. The have many innovative ideas and are focused on treating crypto currencies as a business. Whereas Bitcoin is ran at a huge loss every year due to the amount of electricity required to secure it, Bitshares DACs are profitable for its share holders (owners of the crypto currencies.) Coupled with an improved PoS algorithm and improved anonymity forcing people to use "Bitcoin's best practices", I think Bitshares DACs are a good investment. Bitshares is planning on going into business in multiple sectors including currency speculation, music, gaming, dns/namespace, charity, and more.

My Opinion (on the innovation): Bitshares is one of the first family of DACs in existence. Their premise is based upon looking at a crypto currency like a business and striving to make that business profitable. It is unclear whether the Bitcoin model is sustainable, considering the millions of dollars in electricity it takes to protect its block chain, Bitshares fixes that with an improved Proof of Stake algorithm. Furthermore, Bitshares adds profitable features on top of the more sustainable architecture to produce profits for share holders (owners of the crypto currencies.) Bitshares plans on going into business in multiple sectors and creating a family of profitable DACs.

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THIS IS NOT INVESTMENT ADVICE. DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH.

All opinions stated here are certainly debatable, if you think I'm wrong about something then please let me know. I will take everything said to heart, but I will still form my own opinions which will be posted here in the OP. Feel free to bring anything to my attention- by posting my opinions here I would like to incite debate, not give investment advice. Please let me know if I have made a factual error somewhere.

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List Of Innovative Crypto Currencies And Decentralized Applications/Corporations/Funds

If you think I have left an innovative crypto currency project out, then feel free to let me know. However, every project that will be included on this list will be up to my sole discretion as to whether it is innovative or not. Projects are listed in alphabetical order. Some descriptions have been copied from each respective project's web page and/or thread due to the amount of time it would take me to write a custom description for each one. Credits for the descriptions go to each project. If you'd like to help me maintain this list, there is a list of crypto currencies I plan on adding at the bottom of this post. Please use the same format that I have used here, and include a short description & important links.

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Anoncoin
Anoncoin was released on June 06, 2013.
Website: http://anoncoin.net
Forums: http://forum.anoncoin.net
Thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=309716.0
Discussion thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=227287.0
Twitter: https://twitter.com/anoncoinproject

Anoncoin was the first cryptocoin that supports the i2p & TOR darknet. With the addition of being fully tor compatible there is a huge possibility of hiding in plain sight by transferring coins using the darknets only. This  kind of transfer across darknets, exchanges, and "coin mixers" can help you ensure that the coins you received initially either from mining, purchasing, or as payment of services can be fully scrambled and thus not traceable back to your wallet. Even if the blockchain is studied in detail there will be no way to tell which coins belong to what wallet, nor any kind of ID.

My Opinion (on Anoncoin): SELL - Although Anoncoin was the first crypto currency to implement i2p and Tor to the wallet client, it still has a public block chain like Bitcoin- all transactions are out in the open for anyone to do block chain analysis on. Therefore Anoncoin is only pseudo anonymous, just like Bitcoin, and in my opinion this is one of the weakest anon coins as far as anonymity goes. Although Anoncoin is in the process of implementing an older version of Zerocoin, it does not seem like it will ever be more anonymous than Zerocash, there are already anonymous coins out there, and I fear the Zerocoin implementation may be too little too late. If they do implement ZeroCoin technology I will reassess this at a later date.

My Opinion (on the innovation): Implementing Tor and i2p to the client is a good step forward in protecting privacy. Masking peoples IP addresses through the use of Tor/i2p is a necessary step for a completely anonymous crypto currency. People are quick to assume that privacy is only needed by criminals, or if you are doing something wrong that you would like to hide. However, this couldn't be further from the truth. There are numerous reasons why the average joe that has nothing to hide should want to keep his or her financial information private. Bitcoin is only pseudo anonymous and Bitcoin addresses can be linked to identities several ways, further increasing the privacy of crypto currencies is important to protect the end users. Unfortunately Anon coin suffers from the same issue.

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Zerocash (formerly Zerocoin)
In development.
Website: http://zerocash-project.org/
Brief Description of How Zerocash Works: http://zerocash-project.org/how_zerocash_works
FAQ: http://zerocash-project.org/q_and_a
Shortened Whitepaper: http://zerocash-project.org/media/pdf/zerocash-oakland2014.pdf
Full Whitepaper: http://zerocash-project.org/media/pdf/zerocash-extended-20140518.pdf
Unofficial Update Thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=362468.0
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ZerocashProject
Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/Zerocash/

Zerocash is a new protocol that provides a privacy-preserving version of Bitcoin (or a similar currency). Zerocash fixes an inherent weakness of Bitcoin: every user's payment history is recorded in public view on the block chain, and is thus readily available to anyone. While there are techniques to obfuscate this information, they are problematic and ineffective. Instead, in Zerocash, users may pay one another directly, via payment transactions that reveal neither the origin, destination, or amount of the payment. This is a marked improvement compared to Bitcoin (and similar decentralized digital currencies), where every payment's information is made public for the whole world to see. Zerocash improves on an earlier protocol, Zerocoin, developed by some of the same authors, both in functionality (Zerocoin only hides a payment's origin, but not its destination or amount) and in efficiency (Zerocash transactions are less than 1KB and take less than 6ms to verify).

Zerocash extends the protocol and software underlying Bitcoin by adding new, privacy-preserving payments. In doing so it forms a new protocol that, while using some of the same technology and software as Bitcoin, is distinct from it. This new protocol has both anonymous coins, dubbed zerocoins, and non-anonymous ones, which, for purposes of disambiguation, we call basecoins. In contrast to Bitcoin's transactions, payment transactions using the Zerocash protocol do not contain any public information about the payment's origin, destination, or amount; instead, the correctness of the transaction is demonstrated via the use of a zero-knowledge proof. Users can convert from basecoins to zerocoins, send zerocoins to other users, and split or merge zerocoins they own in any way that preserves the total value. Users may also convert zerocoins back into basecoins, though in principle this is not necessary: all transactions can be made in terms of zerocoins.

My Opinion (on Zerocash): BUY/HOLD - From the outside looking in, Zerocash seems to be one of the most truly anonymous crypto currencies in development. Furthermore, it was created and is being developed by very smart individuals heavily involved in Cryptography research in academia. I find it hard to believe that they will release a sub par crypto currency for those reasons.

My Opinion (on the innovation): People are quick to assume that privacy is only needed by criminals, or if you are doing something wrong that you would like to hide. However, this couldn't be further from the truth. There are numerous reasons why the average joe that has nothing to hide should want to keep his or her financial information private. Bitcoin is only pseudo anonymous and Bitcoin addresses can be linked to identities several ways, further increasing the privacy of crypto currencies is important to protect the end users.

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ZeroCash transactions are very easy to verify also very small. Unfortunately ZeroCash cannot generate trustless initial parameters. In lots of ways its preferable to ZeroCash however somebody with the initial perams could grant themselves zerocoins without ever being detected. Considering that the research is being funded by the American and Israeli  Governments, the risk are credible. "This work was supported by: ... the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Air Force Research Laboratory ... Israeli Centers of Research Excellence I-CORE program (center 4/11); the Israeli Ministry of Science and Technology; the Office of Naval Research ..."

Anoncoin's implementation of zerocoin will use completely trustless parameters with RSA-UFO's.

Source:
- http://zerocash-project.org/media/pdf/zerocash-oakland2014.pdf
- https://wiki.anoncoin.net/RSA_UFO
- http://f3.tiera.ru/2/Cs_Computer%20science/CsLn_Lecture%20notes/I/Information%20and%20Communication%20Security,%202%20conf.,%20ICICS%2799(LNCS1726,%20Springer,%201999)(ISBN%203540666826)(334s)_CsLn_.pdf

[CoinHoarder]

ZeroCash transactions are very easy to verify also very small. Unfortunately ZeroCash cannot generate trustless initial parameters. In lots of ways its preferable to ZeroCash however somebody with the initial perams could grant themselves zerocoins without ever being detected. Considering that the research is being funded by the American and Israeli  Governments, the risk are credible. "This work was supported by: ... the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Air Force Research Laboratory ... Israeli Centers of Research Excellence I-CORE program (center 4/11); the Israeli Ministry of Science and Technology; the Office of Naval Research ..."

Anoncoin's implementation of zerocoin will use completely trustless parameters with RSA-UFO's.

Source:
- http://zerocash-project.org/media/pdf/zerocash-oakland2014.pdf
- https://wiki.anoncoin.net/RSA_UFO
- http://f3.tiera.ru/2/Cs_Computer%20science/CsLn_Lecture%20notes/I/Information%20and%20Communication%20Security,%202%20conf.,%20ICICS%2799(LNCS1726,%20Springer,%201999)(ISBN%203540666826)(334s)_CsLn_.pdf

Thank you for bringing this to my attention.

I thought that the Zerocoin team abandoned the project and had transitioned to Zerocash. I guess I am having a hard time understanding why they would do this if Zerocash has the security implementations you mentioned.. printing money anonymously. I can see how that could be possible and I seem to remember reading about this at one point, so I do not believe you are making it up. Can you please explain that to me.. why they would transition from Zerocoin to Zerocash if that is the case? Or, have they since abandoned Zerocash and went back to the Zerocoin project? That is kind of confusing! Nevertheless, I will look into ZeroCash's possible security implications and re-asses my synopsis and opinion. I had taken Zerocoin off of the list and replaced it with Zerocash based off of the understanding they had shifted gears to Zerocash.

As to Anoncoin, I am trying to judge crypto currency projects based only on the features that their current release has (unless they don't have a current release and are only in development.) Was my synopsis for Anoncoin correct when taking this into account? The only reason for doing it this way is because I have no way of knowing if planned features will ever make it to a release. There have been a lot of developers that have promised <insert feature here> and failed to deliver. For what it's worth, I did mention that you guys were in the process of implementing Zerocoin and would reassess it when you have successfully done that. Anoncoin currently has Tor and i2p capability, did I miss anything else like a coin join implementation?? Or, are you guys focusing on implementing Zerocoin?

[testz]

Great thread, thanks! 

[entertheabyss]

ZeroCash transactions are very easy to verify also very small. Unfortunately ZeroCash cannot generate trustless initial parameters. In lots of ways its preferable to ZeroCash however somebody with the initial perams could grant themselves zerocoins without ever being detected. Considering that the research is being funded by the American and Israeli  Governments, the risk are credible. "This work was supported by: ... the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Air Force Research Laboratory ... Israeli Centers of Research Excellence I-CORE program (center 4/11); the Israeli Ministry of Science and Technology; the Office of Naval Research ..."

Anoncoin's implementation of zerocoin will use completely trustless parameters with RSA-UFO's.

Source:
- http://zerocash-project.org/media/pdf/zerocash-oakland2014.pdf
- https://wiki.anoncoin.net/RSA_UFO
- http://f3.tiera.ru/2/Cs_Computer%20science/CsLn_Lecture%20notes/I/Information%20and%20Communication%20Security,%202%20conf.,%20ICICS%2799(LNCS1726,%20Springer,%201999)(ISBN%203540666826)(334s)_CsLn_.pdf

Thank you for bringing this to my attention.

I thought that the Zerocoin team abandoned the project and had transitioned to Zerocash. I guess I am having a hard time understanding why they would do this if Zerocash has the security implementations you mentioned.. printing money anonymously. I can see how that could be possible and I seem to remember reading about this at one point, so I do not believe you are making it up. Can you please explain that to me.. why they would transition from Zerocoin to Zerocash if that is the case? Or, have they since abandoned Zerocash and went back to the Zerocoin project? That is kind of confusing! Nevertheless, I will look into ZeroCash's possible security implications and re-asses my synopsis and opinion. I had taken Zerocoin off of the list and replaced it with Zerocash based off of the understanding they had shifted gears to Zerocash.

As to Anoncoin, I am trying to judge crypto currency projects based only on the features that their current release has (unless they don't have a current release and are only in development.) Was my synopsis for Anoncoin correct when taking this into account? The only reason for doing it this way is because I have no way of knowing if planned features will ever make it to a release. There have been a lot of developers that have promised <insert feature here> and failed to deliver. For what it's worth, I did mention that you guys were in the process of implementing Zerocoin and would reassess it when you have successfully done that. Anoncoin currently has Tor and i2p capability, did I miss anything else like a coin join implementation?? Or, are you guys focusing on implementing Zerocoin?

ZeroCash is uses more advanced succinct non-interactive zero-knowledge proofs (z-snarks) to hide both transaction addresses AND amounts. This actually conceals the entire blockchain. However there is the potential backdoor. To be fair this does not compromise the anonymity of the network. It allows somebody to sign bogus transactions into existence. Miers (one of the researchers) has admitted this 

Anoncoin has actually already built the RSA-UFO generator and supporters have been contributing CPU power to this project for almost 2 months. Gnosis (the ANC dev in charge of implementing ZC) said on the IRC channel that he plans on wrapping things up at the end of the month.

The Anoncoin devs are committed to implementing ZC.  While your criticism of their delays are founded they are still active and plugging away at it and have actual code to show for it.


https://twitter.com/secparam/status/468784402558771200
https://github.com/Anoncoin/ufo_client

[CoinHoarder]

Thank you for the explanation. I will rewrite my descriptions and opinions of Anoncoin and Zerocash, along with adding ZeroCoin back on the list.

Just a FYI to anyone doing research on anon coins... There is more talk of Zerocash's problem and comparison of different anon coins in these threads (although some information may be a bit outdated)

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=615514.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=362468.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=751605.20
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=227287.0

On a side note, it seems like eMunie is not dead like I thought. I will be re-adding it to the list again in the near future. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=755057.0

[lovely89]

I'm not sure why eMunie was removed. There latested teaser and soon to be beta is really packed and is looking at a marketplace, turing complete scripting language, decentralized exchange and web browsing just to name a few features. It's hugely innovative and i think it will sit uo there with bitshares x, nubits and nxt for innovation.

Also, i don't see skycoin there yet and I'm guessing you're waiting for more information regarding nubits/peershares?

[CoinHoarder]

I'm not sure why eMunie was removed. There latested teaser and soon to be beta is really packed and is looking at a marketplace, turing complete scripting language, decentralized exchange and web browsing just to name a few features. It's hugely innovative and i think it will sit uo there with bitshares x, nubits and nxt for innovation.

Also, i don't see skycoin there yet and I'm guessing you're waiting for more information regarding nubits/peershares?

I removed eMunie last week because there had been no updates in something like 6 months and when I visited their forums it was dead. Fuserleer reappeared from the dead today and posted an update. I mentioned it a couple posts up, but I will be adding it back to the list.

I grouped Peershares in with Peercoin since it's built on top of it and I gave a link to their page and mentioned it in the description/opinion.

Never heard of Skycoin or Nubits, I will look into them. EDIT: I will add Skycoin, but there isn't much information on Nubits yet.. I'm going to hold off on that one.

BTW- to everyone. I made a lot of edits and updates to the OP earlier today.

[CoinHoarder]

In case anyone didn't notice, I have added some coins on the "to be added" list the past week or so:

- Crypti (PoS variant- Proof of Time, Proof of Purchase, Proof of Merchant ID)
- Bitmark (marking and other neat features/improvements)
- Skycoin (a lot of innovations)
- Bitcoindark (... many features that other cryptocoin 2.0s have, their main innovation being "teleporting")

By the way.. if this thread has helped you (or you enjoy it), and you have some BitsharesX stake, please consider voting me in as a delegate on BitsharesX by typing this into the console: wallet_approve_delegate delegate.coinhoarder

[bitcoinxiaoshan]

BTSX is absolutely the star of the past a few days.

[lovely89]

In case anyone didn't notice, I have added some coins on the "to be added" list the past week or so:

- Crypti (PoS variant- Proof of Time, Proof of Purchase, Proof of Merchant ID)
- Bitmark (marking and other neat features/improvements)
- Skycoin (a lot of innovations)
- Bitcoindark (... many features that other cryptocoin 2.0s have, their main innovation being "teleporting")

By the way.. if this thread has helped you (or you enjoy it), and you have some BitsharesX stake, please consider voting me in as a delegate on BitsharesX by typing this into the console: wallet_approve_delegate delegate.coinhoarder

This list is extremely informative and appears to be completely unbias. It's come a long way. If i didnt sell all of my bitshares for a decent (but in perspective, horrible price) I'd support you as a delegate.

[CoinHoarder]

This list is extremely informative and appears to be completely unbias. It's come a long way. If i didnt sell all of my bitshares for a decent (but in perspective, horrible price) I'd support you as a delegate.

I got voted in, but am just barely in the #91 spot so I could use some more votes.

No worries about not being able to vote for me.. it's all good.

I am glad you found this informative, I try to remain as unbiased as possible.

[lovely89]

Another coin i have been following is simcoin. They are looking at confirmations in < 1 second! With all the security still intact. Ability to hold thin wallets, instead of the entire blockchain and the ability to truncate old transactions. Worth looking into.

[SkullCoin]

I enjoy these reports. I just read what you said about "Huntercoin" and you are dead on. A polished game that is human mine-able can really take off.

I'm giving it a shot with "SkullCoin". The game is just something that I put together but it's not permanent. New games can be adapted to work with the "SkullCoin" model. Eventually we might create one that takes off.

"Skullcoin" hasn't even launched yet and is only trade-able on a decentralized exchange, so development is very early.

[CoinHoarder]

I enjoy these reports. I just read what you said about "Huntercoin" and you are dead on. A polished game that is human mine-able can really take off.

I'm giving it a shot with "SkullCoin". The game is just something that I put together but it's not permanent. New games can be adapted to work with the "SkullCoin" model. Eventually we might create one that takes off.

"Skullcoin" hasn't even launched yet and is only trade-able on a decentralized exchange, so development is very early.

Awesome, I'll keep an eye on your project. I would love if someone made a better version of Huntercoin, good luck! The graphic looks cool fwiw.

I've been playing video games since I was a kid and into my adult life too. I would love to play a fun game that I can earn crypto playing.

[CoinHoarder]

I got eMunie and Zerocoin added back on the list and gave them ratings/opinions.

I also added a new rating:

REALLY RISKY BUY/HOLD - These crypto currencies are generally in development and are planning on doing an IPO of some sort. Even when crypto currencies are in development and doing an IPO, I still don't put crypto currencies in this category unless alarm bells are ringing that it may be a scam. I think these crypto currencies still deserve their spot on this list though because they have innovative ideas, and if they are not a scam then they will likely be successful.

Sorry eMunie, but you need to prove yourself and talk of planning an IPO doesn't sit well with me considering the past.

[CoinHoarder]

I tried to edit the OP to explain Bitshare's bitassets and I got this message:

"The message exceeds the maximum allowed length (64000 characters)."



I can't believe the OP contains almost 64000 characters... lol

It looks like I will be moving this to a new thread when I make the next update. I was kind of wanting to do that anyways so I can organize it better. I am thinking about making each crypto currency a post in the thread, and then providing a link to each post in the OP. That way the list will be easier to navigate.

Any ideas or suggestions are welcome.

[freigeist]

Any ideas or suggestions are welcome.

Hello.

Maybe you could make an external web page or blog
and put just preview (short description) in the OP for each coin
and then link it to this web page.

[CoinHoarder]

Any ideas or suggestions are welcome.

Hello.

Maybe you could make an external web page or blog
and put just preview (short description) in the OP for each coin
and then link it to this web page.

Thanks for the suggestion, I might end up doing this eventually.

[CoinHoarder]

Any ideas or suggestions are welcome.

Hello.

Maybe you could make an external web page or blog
and put just preview (short description) in the OP for each coin
and then link it to this web page.

What do you think?

The list has been moved off of the forums to: http://www.cryptoreview.net

I also "re-branded" it as more of a general cryptocurrency review site, rather than only reviewing innovative coins. Let me know what you think of the new website- any suggestions are welcome!

If you would like to you can still keep an eye on this thread, because I will post here every time I add a cryptocurrency or make a blog post to serve as notification of some sort. I think this will be a good way to receive feedback as well.

If you would rather contact me through the website then there is a contact page where you can submit a cryptocurrency for review, let me know your opinion on a blog post or cryptocurrency analysis, or notify me of a factual error on this website. This goes straight to my email, so it is the quickest way to get a hold of me.