Monero vs Zcash- who wins?

[ChiBitCTy]

I recently came across a video from Edward Snowden where he was talking shit about bitcoin due to it's privacy aspects, or I should say lack thereof.  Personally I do not want bitcoin to ever become a fully private/anonymous payment system such as Monero and Zcash.  My personal feelings are if many countries throughout this world do not even allow for basic freedoms such as women being able to drive or vote, then they sure as hell are not going to allow exchanges to operate within their borders which offer these currencies. 

I am a firm believer/supporter in these types of anonymous currencies being available. There are a lot of upsides to having an anonymous currency and it doesn't have to do anything with illegalities. 

That being said I've come to learn that it seems like Monero and Zcash are the two most trusted/respected of the anonymous currencies.  From what I've read and been told by friends who know was they are talking about is that Monero is superior to Zcash.  I am wondering if anyone can provide some Pros and Cons between the two?

[zasad@]

Monero is the best anonymous coin because its algorithm ensures secure payments by default.
The best development team, some of which are still anonymous.
The ecosystem of the coin is very large, and everyone is already used to it.
And the market doesn't need many anonymous competitors.

[laredo7mm]

I am a firm believer/supporter in these types of anonymous currencies being available. There are a lot of upsides to having an anonymous currency and it doesn't have to do anything with illegalities. 

The downside of these types of anonymous currencies is greater than the upside. It opens the path of Inglourious criminal activity like money laundering, drug deal, terrorist fundings more easily. These are some main problems in our society so we should not allow something that will make things worsen.

That being said I've come to learn that it seems like Monero and Zcash are the two most trusted/respected of the anonymous currencies.  From what I've read and been told by friends who know was they are talking about is that Monero is superior to Zcash.  I am wondering if anyone can provide some Pros and Cons between the two?

Actually, it depends on how you see it. Monero transaction is fully anonymous and there's nothing you can do about it. On the other hand in Zcash you can select a normal transaction or an anonymous one. Zcash gives a better option to choose from.

[Yogee]

...Monero is superior to Zcash.

IRS offered a bounty to anyone who can crack Monero's privacy. I don't think there is anything else to add there hehe.

I am wondering if anyone can provide some Pros and Cons between the two?

I cannot give you the pros and cons but I just want to show you this,

Importantly, the privacy provided by Zcash does not prevent regulated entities from fulfilling their regulatory obligations, including customer due diligence, transaction monitoring, record-keeping, and reporting suspicious transactions. Zcash was designed to facilitate compliance with the FATF “Travel Rule”, with an encrypted memo field that allows required originator and beneficiary information to be attached to virtual asset transfers between VASPs.

- https://z.cash/compliance/

So you should probably just choose XMR if you are after anonymity and BTC for traceable payments or transfers.

[newdevices]

Comparing these two coins is indeed very interesting to discuss, because they are both anonymous coins,
when compared to both according to technology, according to both they are equally good,
but users in the cryptocurrency world prefer Monero over Zcash, but in terms of investment, I more likely to recommend to ZEC,
because the percentage of profit that will be obtained is very large compared to XMR, try buying 1 coin only, and Hold

[Why you bully me]

Pretty simple, Monero. If you really care about privacy you use monero.

[Jaered]

I think Monero has deeper privacy layers than ZCash. I'm sorry to say it but much vice has passed through the former. Its the preferable currency of choice for drug dealers and gun runners

[vv181]

I also wonder whether which coin has a better anonymity/privacy in terms of technicality, but I couldn't find any thoughtful explanation. It also that my lack of knowledge and experience couldn't differentiate between those two about whether what is the cons and pros. Nevertheless, I came across a post that might helpful to learn further about those coins.

~snip
Monero is not a magic black box which provides perfect anonymity! If you use eg. flyp.me to buy XMR and then quickly sell this XMR on flyp.me again, it is blatantly obvious to flyp.me what you've done (if they keep logs), both due to the amounts and the specific Monero inputs used. In order to get decent privacy, you have to do something like this:
 1. Convert BTC to XMR (using your own Monero wallet, not a hosted wallet).
 2. In two or more transactions of random amounts, move XMR from that wallet to a different wallet/account.
 3. Optionally, you can repeat the above step with additional wallets/accounts for greater anonymity.
 4. Preferably in two or more transactions of random amounts, convert the XMR in your last wallet in the chain to BTC.
 
Ideally, all of the above should be performed over as long a period of time as you can tolerate.

 - Pros: Possibly the best anonymity, especially if you're able to stay within the XMR ecosystem to some extent
 - Cons: You should use Tor with Monero, but you have to set this up manually; it's all more difficult; you're exposed to exchange rate risk; transaction fees may be significant

~snip
The State of Privacy in Cryptocurrencies - Ian Miers

Conclusion

• We need to critically evaluate privacy vulnerabilities in cryptocurrencies
• Most privacy preserving cryptocurrencies have terrible privacy
• Decoy based approaches (Coinjoin, MimbleWimble, Monero, etc) can be attacked:
  
  • Merchants/advertisers can track users (Overseer attack)
  • Oppressive governments can identify address holders (Flashlight attack)
  • We can see where people make repeated purchases (Tainted Dust attack)
  • Exchanges who control
• Don't be fooled by Privacy Theater
• Usability is important

Ian Miers, @secparam, University of Maryland/Zcash foundation

Also, there's a post discussing Monero use cases (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5344706.msg57267802#msg57267802) on this board, but the thread lack discussion.

[semobo]

...Monero is superior to Zcash.

IRS offered a bounty to anyone who can crack Monero's privacy. I don't think there is anything else to add there hehe.

I am wondering if anyone can provide some Pros and Cons between the two?

I cannot give you the pros and cons but I just want to show you this,

Importantly, the privacy provided by Zcash does not prevent regulated entities from fulfilling their regulatory obligations, including customer due diligence, transaction monitoring, record-keeping, and reporting suspicious transactions. Zcash was designed to facilitate compliance with the FATF “Travel Rule”, with an encrypted memo field that allows required originator and beneficiary information to be attached to virtual asset transfers between VASPs.

- https://z.cash/compliance/

So you should probably just choose XMR if you are after anonymity and BTC for traceable payments or transfers.

So if a regulatory body asks for personal details or anything about transactions then EOS team will give them all the details required which don't even can be considered as decentralized then how can we call it a completely anonymous coin, Anyway XMR is here for the long term so, for now, that is the best and also there is another privacy coin called GRIN but it doesn't seem to get enough recognition.

[DeathAngel]

XMR wins for me, it really is a great coin. The only thing is, I worry about its future due to government control & regulation etc. I worry they might really crack down on it & make it hard for people to use. If exchanges start delisting it we have a problem.

[ene1980]

...Monero is superior to Zcash.

IRS offered a bounty to anyone who can crack Monero's privacy. I don't think there is anything else to add there hehe.

Which means the IRS went out and publicly offered a bounty to crack Monero while we have not heard about asking others about cracking the rest of the privacy coins says a lot  .
I do think that Monero is the truly anonymous coins that Zcash.

[blue Snow]

Both are good for privacy. each coin has its own unique way for disguise the payment. Monero who started it first, I use several time, fast and reliable to use. However, I never use Zcash, I just know the user can set the payment as private or public. Zcash more slowest half minutes than Monero, but if the user friendly with bitcoin, Zcash may be similar because has forked with adding zk-SNARKS code.

Who wins?, Monero with 2 minutes block.

[cabron]

It's probably the reason why some are not actually agreeing with that taproot update. But yes I'm also afraid countries could ban if going private is the route to take. However if countries are adopting Bitcoin right now, there is a chance that your country will also adopt BTC and you may only need a wallet to make transactions locally like buying grocery items.

As for XMR and Zcash, I sold XMR a long time ago. XMR had been applauded by technical users actually so your best guess is that XMR will win after all its price is much higher.

[killerfrost]

Looking at the current situation I would rate monero better than zcash. However at the level of anonymity I think these coins are still controlled by the government, so anonymous here is just a term for what they are still doing. On the other hand, with smaller projects like GRIN, ... I can see that.

[hd49728]

Monero is the King in many anonymous, private cryptocurrencies. They all are affected by Monero performance as same as altcoins are affected by bitcoin performance. Only this fact is a confirmation that Monero is the best anonymous, private coin.

IRS list Monero into their Wanted list and gives big award for anyone, any company that can break the anonymous and private transactions via Monero. Only this offer says another fact, IRS don't give award to break transactions of other coins, they only want to do it with Monero.

[vabchgent]

...Monero is superior to Zcash.

IRS offered a bounty to anyone who can crack Monero's privacy. I don't think there is anything else to add there hehe.

I am wondering if anyone can provide some Pros and Cons between the two?

I cannot give you the pros and cons but I just want to show you this,

Importantly, the privacy provided by Zcash does not prevent regulated entities from fulfilling their regulatory obligations, including customer due diligence, transaction monitoring, record-keeping, and reporting suspicious transactions. Zcash was designed to facilitate compliance with the FATF “Travel Rule”, with an encrypted memo field that allows required originator and beneficiary information to be attached to virtual asset transfers between VASPs.

- https://z.cash/compliance/

So you should probably just choose XMR if you are after anonymity and BTC for traceable payments or transfers.

And correct me if I am wrong but as far as I know the bounty hasn't been paid to anyone so far. In other words, nobody was able to crack the Monero algorithm or to develop a technology that allows to trace down transactions. I have read some interesting stuff about side channel attacks though. Interesting topic to read, just try a google search. It opened my eyes in regards to how many attack angles there are for any kind of currency and the technology it offers.

[thegreyman]

Monero. Hands down.

[vabchgent]

Monero. Hands down.

This is a funny one! Did you sign up to just post that one comment?

Monero is the best we have right now, that's true. But I think we should pay attention to the fact that it could theoretically be broken. Nothing endures forever.

[blue Snow]

Monero. Hands down.

This is a funny one! Did you sign up to just post that one comment?

Monero is the best we have right now, that's true. But I think we should pay attention to the fact that it could theoretically be broken. Nothing endures forever.

how could be broken? I see another coin like doge still alive even though less development. Monero always updated on github. the project still alive with many pull requests and I have been followed until the update 11 Apr ago.

[Yudhisthir]

Monero. Hands down.

This is a funny one! Did you sign up to just post that one comment?

Monero is the best we have right now, that's true. But I think we should pay attention to the fact that it could theoretically be broken. Nothing endures forever.

how could be broken? I see another coin like doge still alive even though less development. Monero always updated on github. the project still alive with many pull requests and I have been followed until the update 11 Apr ago.

Monero is always an active project with a large community behind it. It surely is the leader in privacy focused coins. Zcash and DASH too are not far behind. There were some rumors about zcash giving it's privacy for SEC compliance but that turned out to be false and they have kept improving it's security and remains as a strong alternative. It's more about what you and your client prefer and the real privacy comes in the way you use the coin.