EPIC Cash compared to ZCash, Pirate Chain and MoneroMonero was the first cryptocurrency to address Bitcoin Core's lack of anonymity. Though transactions are not visible from the outside, sensitive data such as recipient, sender and amount are stored encrypted on the blockchain. Ring-shaped transactions, known as RingCT, provide further obfuscation of transactions. The algorithm behind RingCT merges several users into groups. Thus, a transaction can only be assigned to one group, the individual user "hides" himself and his transaction amount in the group. Anyone who wants to view transactions needs a key, the private key or the so-called “view key''. While the private key is available to the recipient and the sender, the view key also allows third parties to view the transactions on the blockchain.
The vulnerability of Monero lies in the encrypted storage of all sensitive data on the blockchain. It cannot be ruled out, indeed one must assume, that with increasing computing power the Monero blockchain can be deanonymized. It is quite possible that this has already happened and Monero is being used as a honey pot. Furthermore, Monero does not scale well, the blockchain is huge, currently about 140 gb (at the same utilization as BTC it would have nearly 1 tb) and therefore unsuitable for certain applications, such as a fullnode wallet on a cell phone.
Monero developers are certainly among the most talented in the space of cryptocurrencies, but it no longer makes sense to tinker with a blockchain based on outdated technology. The code is getting more and more complicated and therefore more prone to bugs. Some Monero users are becoming aware of this and leaving the network.
Pirate Chain and ZCash have only one purpose: privacy. Both provide high theoretical anonymity, but require a complicated cryptographic construction that requires a trusted setup and the use of new experimental cryptography, as well as high computational complexity in creating private transactions.
While ZCash offers the possibility to choose between shielded and transparent transactions, Pirate Chain has excluded the possibility to use transparent transactions from the beginning for privacy reasons. All components of a transaction that violate privacy (the same applies to the private mode of ZCash) - the addresses of the sender and receiver, as well as the amount - are encrypted. However, with the help of so-called "zk-SNARKs" (zero-knowledge succinct non-interactive arguments of knowledge), it is still possible to check whether the transaction is valid. The structure is complicated and difficult to understand, therefore very few cryptographers understand the mathematics behind it, making the code prone to errors.
Without going into too much detail here, it is necessary to look at one part of anonymous transactions: the obfuscation of the amount. To prove that the amount sent is in line with Pirate Chain's (respectively ZCash's) amount of currency, even though you don't know it, you need a proof that can only be generated by the basic setup, a complicated trusted setup. You can think of this proof as a public key generated by a private key. If you can verify this, everything is true.
If the implementation is flawed or the setup parameters (the "private key") are leaked, this can lead to the counterfeiting of coins, without these additional coins ever being detected, since the amounts are obfuscated. The risk may be minimal - but it remains there and you will never know if the system is broken or not. You just have to trust the developers that the setup parameters have been destroyed. This alone leaves an unpleasant feeling, causing many to look for alternatives.
Are other weak points as well. Transparent transactions make up 90+% of all ZCash transactions. Since transparent and anonymous transactions are processed in different pools, it is easier to identify the anonymous ones, since only a small part of the transactions are carried out anonymously. For this reason, ZCash should not be selected as the currency of choice.
While Pirate Chain does not have the problem of transparent transactions, it has other disadvantages; a poor scalability, already over 95% of all coins are created which makes it unattractive for miners. With fewer miners, the network becomes less secure.
EPIC Cash, which is with the beautiful Mimblewimble protocol based on well known cryptographic principles and easy to understand, does not require a trusted setup, unlike protocols based on zk-SNARKs. The privacy, which has to be achieved with Monero, Pirate Chain and ZCash with partly highly complex and therefore easily bug-prone code, is a side effect of Mimblewimble, which is simply provided by the protocol and maximally increased by additional implementations like Dendelion++.
Because Mimblewimble does not require public addresses, outsiders cannot associate transactions with individuals. "Cut Through" removes all unnecessary data from the blockchain without compromising security, which has a huge space-saving effect. With the same workload and activity, EPIC Cash would therefore have a size of only about 10% compared to BTC. This makes it suitable for certain applications for which the other protocols are unusable because of their huge blockchains.
Compared to Monero, ZCash and Pirate Chain is EPIC Cash highly scalable and ready for mass use. It is not just a private coin like the others but a whole ecosystem. This makes EPIC Cash the preferred cryptocurrency for those who value high anonymity, future-proof technology and high utility.
For more information, please visit:
www.epic.tech
