Anonymity, Security and Privacy: Anonymous Cryptocurrency Enhancement Comparsion

[SafeCoins]

Thank you very much BitcionOnFire,

My comments and perspective attached:

Somewhere some people pointed out:
- tor integration is not really needed / does not give anything over what is there in true anon coin

A truly anon coin does not yet exist, despite many claims of "100% anonymous".   None truly are, and may never be.  The fact that we live in a real physical world, and not a perfect theoretical one, spurs the need for Tor integration.

However, if a truly anonymous coin did exist, there would theoretically be no way to trust the address.   A third party would be needed for this.  Tor network is a very good fit for this.

- quantum resistance need is also exaggerated - I read normal sha256 from BTC should be still good enough, and if quantum computers will get really advanced any blockchain can get additional proof. So it's simply not needed now, and if will be - can be added to any coin.

True quantum computing, to my understanding, would do much worse than break sha256.  sha256 may not even be the first target.    It has other weaknesses.

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/609408/quantum-computers-pose-imminent-threat-to-bitcoin-security/

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/bitcoin-is-not-quantum-safe-and-how-we-can-fix-1375242150/

sha256 is secure for now but SHA1 has already been broken:   https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=293382.0

My counterarguement would be...why wait to be hacked when there is better protection out there?  Should cryptocurrency not lead the way with the capital invested?

- mixing itself is 1.0 anon tech, ring signatures 2.0, zk-snarks 3.0

Agreed, when implementation is equal.    That said, why not have more than one, or all three?  Code is built by humans and has mistakes.   Why not have redundancy?

I suggest to add some weights what is really important and what matters more, so here for example I would give 100 points to zk-snarks, 10 for ring signatures, 1 point for mixing in terms of anon tech.

Agreed.   I thought about doing a poll on this.   My focus right now is being fair and inclusive.   But I think at some point further rating could be helpful.   And not just on the technology, but on the implementation of it.  I will take this suggestion to heart.

If master nodes are also important - can get points in a different category? or just depending on what you appreciate more.

Which one would you suggest?   I'm listening.  I certainly appreciate the concern with masternodes.   But most of those concerns are alleviated when you combine with other technologies like ring signatures or zksnarks.  And then you're just left with the advantages, like network strength and speed.   So I think it again comes down to the implementation whether masternodes are a positive or a negative, or neutral?

Regarding anon coin KMD is zk-snarks (Zcash fork) with BONUS = 4 important features:
1) jumbler (part of KDM platform) which is mixing between transparent and zero-knowledge addresses, as zk-snarks give protection only between z-addresses, so if you move to transparent all can be linked (from what I understand) and anonimization between transparent and zero-address is missing in pure Zcash
2) dPOW - secures transaction using BTC blockchain notarization
3) 5% APR which is really unique among anon coins
4) wallet (Agama) can be used in lite mode, meaning - you do not need to download full KMD blockchain. Recently the wallet works really nice and quick in lite mode.

 

Noted, thank you.   Jumbler and zksnarks are included in the matrix for KMD.    The other points are very valid, imho, and worth consideration to the coin.  I do not currently know where they would fit in this matrix, or whether the scope should go beyond Anonymity (that could be more ambitious than I'd planned).   But I am glad to have those advantages listed in this thread, at very least.

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[pvk444]

Probably the OBFS4 is XSPEC's advantage it gives 100% anonimity than any of other privacy coins.

Thank you very much cryptomngr.   While I need to interject and suggest that 100% anonymity does not exist and may never exist, OBFS4 does seem like an excellent feature especially in countries where TOR is or may be banned/monitored.

Here is a good article on it:   https://www.maikel.pro/blog/progress-in-censorship-circumvention-tor-and-pluggable-transports-an-overview/

To my understanding, and please correct me if I'm wrong, here is my basic understanding of OBFS4:

What it does do:  It prevents detection (by monitoring ISPs or governments) of the TOR network (through obfusciation).
                           For a coin such a XSPEC, this would be a major feature as XSPEC relies on the TOR network for anonymity.  For other coins, possibly not as crucial.

What it doesn't do:   It doesn't do anything to make the actual blockchain, or transactions, more anonymous, to my knowledge (?).   It is a peripheral protection.


What I'm not sure about: I'm not sure if it hides the wallet itself from monitoring, or if it just hides the wallet's interaction with the TOR network.  In otherwords, is it just hiding TOR, or hiding other components of the crypto too?  Not sure, but I'm assuming just TOR?

Not a TOR expert by any means, but as for XSPEC, the clever thing with this coin is that it does not have "interaction" with TOR as it is completely integrated in the TOR network. While transactions of some other TOR-coins will have to leave the TOR network and are thus vulnerable at the exit point, XSPEC transactions NEVER LEAVE the TOR network.

The original comparison table does unfortunatly not make this distinction between coins that fully integrate into TOR, like XSPEC, and those that only use TOR for transportation and thus only interact with TOR.

Full integratino, AFAIK, is a unique feature of XSPEC.

OBSF4 on the otherhand ensures that this can be used globally, even in countries that block TOR, therefore making XSPEC the only TOR based, globally available privacy coin. And just to be clear, OBSF4 is a TOR technology (part of TOR's pluggable transports). XSPEC is the ONLY coin thus far that uses this TOR feature.

[Karto]

Ye Komodo is the best privacy coin in my opinion because of the jumblr
its a full privacy platform

however there are many interesting privacy coins in the market
hard to compare what is better, because we dont really see the big picture, only what they want us to see...

the advantage of komodo is that it uses 3rd party anonymizer so you dont have to rely only on the code of the blockchain and if it can be exploitable and tracked or not

[BitcoinOnFire]

Agreed.   I thought about doing a poll on this.   My focus right now is being fair and inclusive.   But I think at some point further rating could be helpful.   And not just on the technology, but on the implementation of it.  I will take this suggestion to heart.

I was thinking of doing such poll and matrix as you just started, but for all top 40 coins or so + some exceptional which are down 40.

I will drop you and idea how t oget help

After you just started - if you make a nicer presentation for this you already have + add some other valid categories (extending beyond anon conis like allows smart contracts, is part of a more wide platform, allows oding dapps, scability in TPS).

How to make it easy -> afte you just  start I believe if you post to all major coins the communities of them can do a lot of work for you. Maybe jut a few will reject But mostly they have interest to inform well and show all best features they have.

In the end you can make a nice app - where every user can enter wieghts - per each category (for example if someone do not care about anon he pays 0 points there and 90 points into scalability and 10 to dapps).

The result will be a user will see which coins are best for him + also what is best coin for avg user weights.

You know what I mean?

I think if you set up an easy website about it like "coincompare" you can even make profit from this valid infroamtions

Just allow voting after login, not to fake polls/weights.

PS
Regarding quantum - Andreas said quantum proof can be added to BTC if true q-computers will be there. So I still think quantum is not a real need, however it's jus my opinion and all users can decide which weights are most important to show their best coins.

[crypki]

DSR might be a good mention. It's got high POS reward. Don't know if they have their own tech, but they call it InstantX and PrivateSend.
Btw, how can I get Blackbytes? I've always wanted a coin with DAG tech and privacy feature.

[BrianH]

#1 - thanks for the table! This is exactly the kind of thing I was looking for.
#2 - You should consider adding block times, TPS and fees as this may be helpful in the future. Two coins with identical privacy features, people will use the one that has faster transaction times, lower fees and supports a larger network.
#3 - what are your thoughts on Cloakcoin vs Spectrecoin as an investment?

[Shintoff]

Thanks SafeCoins for the useful reference table.
By the way SafeCoins, how do You think about BCN as a long term investment? What is Your opinion about this coin?

[pvk444]

#1 - thanks for the table! This is exactly the kind of thing I was looking for.
#2 - You should add block times as this may be helpful in the future. Two coins with identical privacy features - people will use the one that has faster transaction times.
#3 - what are your thoughts on Cloakcoin vs Spectrecoin as an investment?

As for #3, there is a comparison on http://coinwiki.info/en/SpectreCoin.

Here are some of the privacy related differences:

• While CloakCoin has its own onion routing network, SpectreCoin is part of the official Tor network. Thus, for XSPEC, it means that there are much more nodes participating in the network, and is thereofre more difficult to censor.
• Cloak's ENIGMA protocol seems to be based on mixing, whereas SpectreCoin uses untraceable ring signatures. Ring signatures (using private fixed-size tokens) are information-theoretically anonymous, while mixed transactions could possibly be prone to correlation attacks and malicious nodes.
• For ClaokCoan, all funds are visible on the blockchain, whereas in SpectreCoin, funds that are stored as private balance (tokens for ring signatures) are not publicly visible.
  

[BrianH]

#1 - thanks for the table! This is exactly the kind of thing I was looking for.
#2 - You should add block times as this may be helpful in the future. Two coins with identical privacy features - people will use the one that has faster transaction times.
#3 - what are your thoughts on Cloakcoin vs Spectrecoin as an investment?

As for #3, there is a comparison on http://coinwiki.info/en/SpectreCoin.

Here are some of the privacy related differences:

• While CloakCoin has its own onion routing network, SpectreCoin is part of the official Tor network. Thus, for XSPEC, it means that there are much more nodes participating in the network, and is thereofre more difficult to censor.
• Cloak's ENIGMA protocol seems to be based on mixing, whereas SpectreCoin uses untraceable ring signatures. Ring signatures (using private fixed-size tokens) are information-theoretically anonymous, while mixed transactions could possibly be prone to correlation attacks and malicious nodes.
• For ClaokCoan, all funds are visible on the blockchain, whereas in SpectreCoin, funds that are stored as private balance (tokens for ring signatures) are not publicly visible.
  

Thanks! SpectreCoin is looking like something to invest in. For the last point, Cloak does include stealth addresses when processed through Enigma, so I believe they are not publicly visible.

[TSVHoff]

that whole comparison was too much biased for Spectrcoin.


the same way spectr has OBFS4, CloakCoin has ENIGMA to a whole new way to do anon transactions.



ENIGMA is audited by a security company (COGNOSEC, listed on NASDAQ), Spectr is doing the same error as other coins do, which is bringing up the tech without knowing if it is 100% secure.

We saw this before, every month coins network get hacked because of lack of security, when ppl start to use spectr a lot that will attract attention of hackers, and then we will see if it is really secure.

[pvk444]

that whole comparison was too much biased for Spectrcoin.


the same way spectr has OBFS4, CloakCoin has ENIGMA to a whole new way to do anon transactions.



ENIGMA is audited by a security company (COGNOSEC, listed on NASDAQ), Spectr is doing the same error as other coins do, which is bringing up the tech without knowing if it is 100% secure.

We saw this before, every month coins network get hacked because of lack of security, when ppl start to use spectr a lot that will attract attention of hackers, and then we will see if it is really secure.

How is it "biased" ? The table uses privacy related features which are commonly used when comparing any coin. All the listed coins, XSPEC as well, has many additional features which are not listed. Given this generic nature of the comparison, I believe it even underplays what XSPEC has to offer, not the otherway around.

Also, given that XSPEC is built into TOR with OBSF4, it "inherits" the respective security features. Don't know what the user base of ENIGMA is, but I bet it does not come close to those using TOR and therefore providing "audit" of the security aspects on an ongoing basis.

[carap]

SafeCoins, thank you for the great work you've done! I'm a big fan of privacy coins.

May I suggest a couple of things (columns) that I personally consider important when making my investment decisions.

1. When looking for a new coin I need to know whenever it is a coin or token (I don't buy tokens, I want miners since they help decentralization).
2. What is the a maximum supply of coins.
3. Which hashing algo used (to quickly estimate whenever it is for ASIC, GPU, CPU, etc..).
4. An official website address, where more information about that coin could be found. 
5. Could be helpful to also know the current price and circulating supply, but that will require a regular update (could automate with google spreadsheets, let me know if you need a script for).

*. Finally, JFYI Zcoin has a masternode.

Again, thank you for this thread!  

[carap]

You might also want to have a look at the following:

Hcash (HSR): https://h.cash
StealthCoin (XST): https://www.stealthcoin.com/
Crave Project (CRAVE): https://craveproject.net
Bulwark (BWK): https://bulwarkcrypto.com
InnovaCoin (INN): https://innovacoin.info
Phore (PHR): https://phore.io
Pura (PUR): https://pura.one/
Sumokoin (SUMO): https://www.sumokoin.org/
Grin (http://grin-tech.org/)
Aeon (AEON): http://www.aeon.cash/
SolarisCoin (XLR): https://solariscoin.com/
Pure (PURE): https://purealt.org/
Enigma (ENG): https://www.enigma.co/
Aion (AION): https://aion.network/
Obsidian (ODN): https://obsidianplatform.com/

[SafeCoins]

DSR might be a good mention. It's got high POS reward. Don't know if they have their own tech, but they call it InstantX and PrivateSend.
Btw, how can I get Blackbytes? I've always wanted a coin with DAG tech and privacy feature.

Thanks cryptki,

Appears to be a Dash fork which is currently stuck on a block and nobody can get past it.  Perhaps this message will help, I don't know.   But seeing as it has no new features and may be a dead coin at this point, I'll use a wait-and-see approach, if that's ok.

If anyone wants to take a chance on mining the stuck block (others have tried and failed):  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2198958.220

[SafeCoins]

A quick update on Verge:   I may need to re-visit that evaluation after issues around the wraith protocol deployment today:

https://www.google.com/search?q=verge+wraith+fail

It's a mess out there on Verge right now.  I'm not going to call it a fail yet, but I will say buyer beware, and that my current evaluation of them may be "optimistic".

And I am still optimistic, I'm hoping that when things settle out, we find that they do in fact have these features now.  Or, they are just one quick update away from them.

If you have VALID information on this (I don't want to make things worse, I'm just looking for Facts at this point), it would be greatly appreciated. 

My current thought is to give it a day or two, and then re-visit.

[SafeCoins]

SafeCoins, thank you for the great work you've done! I'm a big fan of privacy coins.

May I suggest a couple of things (columns) that I personally consider important when making my investment decisions.

1. When looking for a new coin I need to know whenever it is a coin or token (I don't buy tokens, I want miners since they help decentralization).
2. What is the a maximum supply of coins.
3. Which hashing algo used (to quickly estimate whenever it is for ASIC, GPU, CPU, etc..).
4. An official website address, where more information about that coin could be found. 
5. Could be helpful to also know the current price and circulating supply, but that will require a regular update (could automate with google spreadsheets, let me know if you need a script for).

*. Finally, JFYI Zcoin has a masternode.

Again, thank you for this thread!  

Thank you very much carap, I really appreciate it.    I've updated Zcoin to include Znodes, great catch.

So my only comment is that most of this info is already readily available on many sites.   I could integrate it into a website or app, yes, or I could just provide links to coinmarketcap, etc.   Keeping track of coin stats is an expertise to itself.  For instance, God help me I have no idea how they figure out what Ripple's supply is.   But I digress.   I will work towards this but my focus will definitely be the Anonymous, Private, and Security enhancements themselves.   The listing of respective coins is secondary to this, and their associated stats, further down the list.

As soon as I make this look like a ranking, I'll appear to be siding with one particular coin and as soon as I lose neutrality, this thread becomes all too common.    So I will consider it, but cautiously and while maintaining focus on anonymous features.

[SafeCoins]

that whole comparison was too much biased for Spectrcoin.


the same way spectr has OBFS4, CloakCoin has ENIGMA to a whole new way to do anon transactions.



ENIGMA is audited by a security company (COGNOSEC, listed on NASDAQ), Spectr is doing the same error as other coins do, which is bringing up the tech without knowing if it is 100% secure.

We saw this before, every month coins network get hacked because of lack of security, when ppl start to use spectr a lot that will attract attention of hackers, and then we will see if it is really secure.

How is it "biased" ? The table uses privacy related features which are commonly used when comparing any coin. All the listed coins, XSPEC as well, has many additional features which are not listed. Given this generic nature of the comparison, I believe it even underplays what XSPEC has to offer, not the otherway around.

Also, given that XSPEC is built into TOR with OBSF4, it "inherits" the respective security features. Don't know what the user base of ENIGMA is, but I bet it does not come close to those using TOR and therefore providing "audit" of the security aspects on an ongoing basis.

Thanks TSVHoff and pvk444,

So, when everyone is on-board but slightly unhappy, that's probably where things should be haha

Nobody is getting all the representation they want, but everyone is getting some representation.  I'm doing my best to represent things fairly which means nobody is going to be completely happy.  

A quick comment on OBFS4 and ENIGMA:  They have nothing in common, just to be clear.

OBFS4 was developed out of the Tor project.  It is not a special tech that any one coin owns.  It is a Tor protocol that any coin can be developed to follow.
     It has substantial documentation describing exactly what it does, and how.  Not from a coin, but by the Tor project.
        https://github.com/Yawning/obfs4   https://godoc.org/git.torproject.org/pluggable-transports/obfs4.git/transports/obfs4
        https://www.torproject.org/docs/pluggable-transports.html.en
        

ENIGMA:  I don't know what this is because nobody has said what it is.   Whether it is audited or not we need to know what it is. Doing my own research, it looks to serve a function similar to masternodes, so that's where I put it.   I am completely open to putting it somewhere else or making a new column, but I can't just create an "Enigma" column and provide no information as to what "Engima" is.    So while appropriately named, Enigma needs to be a little bit less of an Enigma before we can compare it to other tech.

[finpunk]

Very cool comparison. Want to point out that ZenCash is working an R&D project for a DAG scaling solution, more details to come as the project matures. In meantime, here's our roadmap to ref what's in the pipeline this coming year:

trello.com/b/C0L7hGCV/development-roadmap

[SafeCoins]

As for #3, there is a comparison on http://coinwiki.info/en/SpectreCoin.

Here are some of the privacy related differences:

• While CloakCoin has its own onion routing network, SpectreCoin is part of the official Tor network. Thus, for XSPEC, it means that there are much more nodes participating in the network, and is thereofre more difficult to censor.
• Cloak's ENIGMA protocol seems to be based on mixing, whereas SpectreCoin uses untraceable ring signatures. Ring signatures (using private fixed-size tokens) are information-theoretically anonymous, while mixed transactions could possibly be prone to correlation attacks and malicious nodes.
• For ClaokCoan, all funds are visible on the blockchain, whereas in SpectreCoin, funds that are stored as private balance (tokens for ring signatures) are not publicly visible.
  

Thank you pvk444,

It likely doesn't highlight the feature to the extent you would like, but I have updated the matrix to show this distinction with regards to integration with the Tor network for cloakcoin and Spectrecion.   I won't comment on which way is better, I think they both have their own merits.   I would also be interested in what the deeponion crowd has to say about it.   

[SafeCoins]

Very cool comparison. Want to point out that ZenCash is working an R&D project for a DAG scaling solution, more details to come as the project matures. In meantime, here's our roadmap to ref what's in the pipeline this coming year:

trello.com/b/C0L7hGCV/development-roadmap

Awesome roadmap finpunk,   extremely ambitious!  Makes me wonder if I should have anonymous file sharing on here or not.  Whole other ball of wax but getting harder to ignore.

Then there's anonymous chat....I will keep an eye on that.

DAG seems a bit far out but with all that on the roadmap I gotta add something lol....so I've done so and will be published shortly.

Keep us updated!