Anonymity, Security and Privacy: Anonymous Cryptocurrency Enhancement Comparsion

[changesl]

Damn, thanks for your effort
Grteat chart..

[paololuk]

I don't know if somebody already suggest BitcoinZ (BTCZ).
https://btcz.rocks/en/

[Miner2525]

2018 will be very interesting for private/anonymous coins.  I intend to keep this updated and improve on it, so please let me know if you have suggestions/feedback/corrections.

Your chart heading is cut off.  Looks like a bunch of duplicate columns which I'm sure isn't the intent.

[SafeCoins]

2018 will be very interesting for private/anonymous coins.  I intend to keep this updated and improve on it, so please let me know if you have suggestions/feedback/corrections.

Your chart heading is cut off.  Looks like a bunch of duplicate columns which I'm sure isn't the intent.

Good catch, thanks!  fixed

[TSVHoff]

Just thanking again SafeCoins for this amazing work!

[maereglapo]

Good job!this chart is amazing i can recognize which coin is better,my bet in new privacy coins would be XSPEC!

[Miner2525]

ZenCash doesn't have "mixing masternodes".  Nodes will use regular TLS for end-to-end security so the indication belongs under "Protection".  It does little good to have inter-node traffic for zk-snarks, mixing or hiding completely transparent and sniffable.  The NSA hardly has a problem inferring and reconstructing origins and destinations with that kind of publically-available data.

[Lock$mith]

Awesome work thanks for pulling this together 

[Febo]

The following is an updated attempt to assess and evaluate:

  1.   Enhancements/Protocols:
  
    a. Anonymous Capabilities / Anonymity
    b. Privacy
    c) Security

  2.   The coins that currently implement these features


Every will be made to assume none of these coins are a complete solution (yet).  Not because they're bad, but because a lot of the other comparison threads out there have been polarized toward one coin as the "solution with all the best end to end features".  

I would really appreciate your thoughts and input on this work in progress, so that together, we can make it even more complicated and unreadable.




Anonymous, Privacy, and Security features are clearly all related to one another, yet in my mind are distinct:
  
Anonymous features ultimately aim for the holding and transacting of a commodity which both requires and releases zero identifying information.
              Buy a pizza.  No receipt, no exchange of information, no record of the pizza or you.
                    There are obvious legal implications to this, causing it to be a "dark" feature.
                          However, this slander assumes that the governing body itself is not "dark", or corrupt.   In many places in the world, Anonymity is a matter of life and death.
                          As such, Anonymity is a double edged sword, aiding both sinister and altruistic efforts.
                          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anonymous_(group)
              

Privacy features aim to give ownership of identifying information to individuals/entities who hold or transact a commodity.
              Buy a pizza, there's a record of it but that record is for you (and potentially the pizza shop) only.
                    There is a legal arguement for privacy features.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privacy_law

Security:  If you can hack the thing, you need not worry about Anonymity and Privacy.  Those are out.



Some other attempts at this:  

Full list of anonymous coins
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1025878.0

 [DASH/XDN/XMR/SDC] Comparison between the most known anonymous coins
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=985039.0

Privacy getting important: Verge or Spectrecoin or DeepOnion??
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2397519.0;all

Which cryptocurrency is most anonymous?
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2157374.0


https://zcoin.io/zcoins-privacy-tec


Wondering about this one:  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2525344.0

How come that you excluded AEON that is the second most prosperous anonymous coin?

[SafeCoins]

ZenCash doesn't have "mixing masternodes".  Nodes will use regular TLS for end-to-end security so the indication belongs under "Protection".  It does little good to have inter-node traffic for zk-snarks, mixing or hiding completely transparent and sniffable.  The NSA hardly has a problem inferring and reconstructing origins and destinations with that kind of publically-available data.

Thank you Miner2525, I appreciate it.

If you have a specific suggestion of how I might alter the matrix to better reflect that point, let me know and I'll look into it.    If I move masternodes over to protection, I move All masternodes over to protection.    It would be a bit of a mess, athough it would have some validity to it.

When I put the matrix together, not knowing Zencash/Zcash didn't mix, I still did assume that it would be obvious that coins with zero knowledge proof had redundancy in any mixing functions.  So to me, the masternodes was just an extra to the main feature of ZKP coins.   I could definitely clarify.

But before I do that, I have to ask a question....why wouldn't you mix?   Other than because zcash obviously didn't either?   It's true, masternodes didn't originally mix, and were there more for network protection.  But nowadays, isn't mixing sort of part and parcel with most masternodes?

You have made a really good point here I'll have to think about.  But I don't want to get ahead of myself unless there's a good reason Not to mix.

[September11Myth]

DeepOnion is still in developement stage, it has several more features which are going to be implemented during the roadmap, such as the DeepSend feature.

[SafeCoins]

How come that you excluded AEON that is the second most prosperous anonymous coin?

Hey Febo,

Thank you for the suggestion, I appreciate it, and AEON has been added

Two reasons why:

1.  This matrix has very little to do with market cap, and a Lot to do with technology

2.   I messaged the AEON thread and nobody got back to me until you (thank you) 


Please have a look and let me know if any of the features or roadmap items need adjusting

cheers

[SafeCoins]

DeepOnion is still in developement stage, it has several more features which are going to be implemented during the roadmap, such as the DeepSend feature.

err......thank...you ...for the suggestion?

I actually had DeepSend listed as an implemented feature....I have now moved it back to roadmap lol....

Great coin...I just need this thing to be as accurate as possible....let me know if you have any other roadmap feautures you would like added and I will gladly compensate!

[Miner2525]

If you have a specific suggestion of how I might alter the matrix to better reflect that point, let me know and I'll look into it.    If I move masternodes over to protection, I move All masternodes over to protection.    It would be a bit of a mess, athough it would have some validity to it.

When I put the matrix together, not knowing Zencash/Zcash didn't mix, I still did assume that it would be obvious that coins with zero knowledge proof had redundancy in any mixing functions.  So to me, the masternodes was just an extra to the main feature of ZKP coins.   I could definitely clarify.

But before I do that, I have to ask a question....why wouldn't you mix?   Other than because zcash obviously didn't either?   It's true, masternodes didn't originally mix, and were there more for network protection.  But nowadays, isn't mixing sort of part and parcel with most masternodes?

You have made a really good point here I'll have to think about.  But I don't want to get ahead of myself unless there's a good reason Not to mix.

Just add a TLS column under "Protection" because I'm sure it'll be a new trend as other "privacy" blockchains slap their foreheads with their hands; and move "Secnodes" out of the Masternodes column.

Masternodes have nothing to do with privacy intrinsically and mixing/hiding has nothing to do with node-to-node security.  Privacy can be a byproduct of security but within context of public blockchains, security applied on a choice of transparent or zksnarked blockchain entries is a separate layer.

[Bibi187]

Hey SafeCoins

DeepOnion Team just released White Paper, they project to add Mixing with multisignature transaction via "DeepSend" for Q2 - 2018, Zero-Knowledge protocol will be also added to after Q3 - 2018, date is not fixed yet.

https://deeponion.org/White-Paper.pdf

Thanks to add update to your table

[SafeCoins]

Just add a TLS column under "Protection" because I'm sure it'll be a new trend as other "privacy" blockchains slap their foreheads with their hands; and move "Secnodes" out of the Masternodes column.

Masternodes have nothing to do with privacy intrinsically and mixing/hiding has nothing to do with node-to-node security.  Privacy can be a byproduct of security but within context of public blockchains, security applied on a choice of transparent or zksnarked blockchain entries is a separate layer.

You've brought some valuable insight here, and while I prefer brevity where possible, you have forced me into a situation where it makes sense to have an additional column for masternodes which are purely protection based.   Please have a look and let me know what you think.

That said, I have some obligation to take exception to any slander of the other privacy coins, and from a logical point of view, it is difficult/impossible to conceive that only one is truly dedicated to the cause.   I must then suggest an alternative reason why there is no mixing in Zcash, and thus Zencoin:    Can't do it.    Current implementation of your ZKP/Zksnark is far too slow to even consider implementation of other anon/privacy features which might be even remotely resource dependant.   That's ok, because I"m sure Jubjub-type solutions will be found to address this.  But that is no reason to slander coins who are taking a wait-and-see approach before their own implementations to ensure their existing functionality.  Just my thoughts.  And yes, I love the coin.

Information much appreciated Miner2525

[SafeCoins]

Hey SafeCoins

DeepOnion Team just released White Paper, they project to add Mixing with multisignature transaction via "DeepSend" for Q2 - 2018, Zero-Knowledge protocol will be also added to after Q3 - 2018, date is not fixed yet.

https://deeponion.org/White-Paper.pdf

Thanks to add update to your table

 

Added!   Hope this helps, an at least evens things out (imho you have now improved DeepOnion's situation from previous).

Thank you very much for the valuable info!

[tristan1960]

Thanks for the work located in the first post, first. Once I hear privacy, only two coins come to my mind: Monero and Zcash. They're the dominating factors of the privacy blockchain. There are dozens of competitors on the market, but the greatest shares are belong to Monero and Zcash.

[Mars1106]

SafeCoins,thanks!

[ShamanicHarmonics]

Fantastic thread and chart, thanks very much SafeCoins!

I 've recently been researching privacy coins as well and saw most of the players already mentioned in the thread or in the chart. There are a few of note that I saw that are interesting;

Electra (ECA) - https://electraproject.org/

ALQO - https://alqo.org/

Kore - http://kore.life/

SWIPP - http://www.swippcoin.com/