Zerocoin - has it's time come?

[cdnbcguy]

Zerocoin offers real anonymity - which we all of a sudden really need.

Anyone have any idea if the devs will add it any time soon (or ever?)

[s_s]

Zerocoin offers real anonymity - which we all of a sudden really need.

Anyone have any idea if the devs will add it any time soon (or ever?)

I am not positive what you are referring to when you say "which we all of a sudden really need"?, but:

"Green has said that intent of Zerocoin is not to facilitate criminal activity, and suggested that a “back door” or other features could be added to the Zerocoin protocol to allow police, as one example, to track money laundering."

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/onepercent/2013/03/bitcoin-zerocoin.html

If you are referring to the recent IRS ruling...my guess is that the government will still consider tax evasion as criminal activity.

[TTM]

Zerocoin offers real anonymity - which we all of a sudden really need.

Anyone have any idea if the devs will add it any time soon (or ever?)

I am not positive what you are referring to when you say "which we all of a sudden really need"?, but:

"Green has said that intent of Zerocoin is not to facilitate criminal activity, and suggested that a “back door” or other features could be added to the Zerocoin protocol to allow police, as one example, to track money laundering."

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/onepercent/2013/03/bitcoin-zerocoin.html

If you are referring to the recent IRS ruling...my guess is that the government will still consider tax evasion as criminal activity.

Zerocoin's dev denied this rumor about backdoor:

In an attempt to put the issue to rest, Green claimed that a backdoor was impossible, anyway; "If someone did try to build a back door for any reason, the open source Zerocoin would quickly become Zero-adoption."

His sole purpose on Zerocoin/Zerocash project is to take anonymity of cryptocurrency to next level. Why would he do that?

Moreover, Zerocoin will be open source project, which mean anyone, any cryptographer, any software engineer can analyze its source code. If it has a backdoor, we'll know for sure.

[matt608]

Or perhaps Darkcoin once it's made open source? (don't think it is yet...)

[s_s]

Zerocoin offers real anonymity - which we all of a sudden really need.

Anyone have any idea if the devs will add it any time soon (or ever?)

I am not positive what you are referring to when you say "which we all of a sudden really need"?, but:

"Green has said that intent of Zerocoin is not to facilitate criminal activity, and suggested that a “back door” or other features could be added to the Zerocoin protocol to allow police, as one example, to track money laundering."

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/onepercent/2013/03/bitcoin-zerocoin.html

If you are referring to the recent IRS ruling...my guess is that the government will still consider tax evasion as criminal activity.

Zerocoin's dev denied this rumor about backdoor:

In an attempt to put the issue to rest, Green claimed that a backdoor was impossible, anyway; "If someone did try to build a back door for any reason, the open source Zerocoin would quickly become Zero-adoption."

His sole purpose on Zerocoin/Zerocash project is to take anonymity of cryptocurrency to next level. Why would he do that?

Moreover, Zerocoin will be open source project, which mean anyone, any cryptographer, any software engineer can analyze its source code. If it has a backdoor, we'll know for sure.

If that is true...and I am not at all doubting that you are correct...then I suspect that Zerocoin is dead out of the box because governments WILL certainly make illegal dealing in cryptocurrencies which can be easily used to facilitate illegal activities (which means they will never have a chance of mass adoption).

I haven't followed Zerocoin very closely...but in fact I think that I recall that the developers of the protocol tried very hard to have it adopted into the Bitcoin protocol...but that it was rejected for the very reason that it was assumed that this would create significant friction with moving Bitcoin forward into more mainstream adoption (a smart decision I would say).

It was only after that time that Zercoin developers proposed to issue their own coin.

[whtchocla7e]

Coins do not need the government or its approval to succeed.

If there's a demand for Zerocoin, it will succeed.

[TTM]

Or perhaps Darkcoin once it's made open source? (don't think it is yet...)

Darkcoin use CoinJoin method, much like Shared Coin service of Blockchain.info. We can still practice CoinJoin within Bitcoin system, therefore Darkcoin offer nothing new. CoinJoin doesn't hide your transactions completely, it just make harder to trace your money flow. With proper data mining and data analysis, your transactions might still be traced. And federal agencies have more than enough human & technology resource to do that. Zerocoin is another story, i'm excited to see what Zerocash will bring to crypto world.

[s_s]

Coins do not need the government or its approval to succeed.

If there's a demand for Zerocoin, it will succeed.

Except if a particular coin is ruled illegal because it is a security risk...it will NEVER be accepted by your neighborhood coffee shop...Overstock...or ultimately some place like Amazon.

So its "success" will be limited to the world of a "Silk Road 3".

Edit: Furthermore I am no intellectual property rights expert...but I do wonder what if any rights Johns Hopkins University might have on the development of this technology...and therefor say on its release and  further development. I think at the very least they will be thinking about public relations aspects at this point because of their tie to its development.

[matt608]

Or perhaps Darkcoin once it's made open source? (don't think it is yet...)

Darkcoin use CoinJoin method, much like Shared Coin service of Blockchain.info. We can still practice CoinJoin within Bitcoin system, therefore Darkcoin offer nothing new. CoinJoin doesn't hide your transactions completely, it just make harder to trace your money flow. With proper data mining and data analysis, your transactions might still be traced. And federal agencies have more than enough human & technology resource to do that. Zerocoin is another story, i'm excited to see what Zerocash will bring to crypto world.

But isn't darkcoin decentralised whereas blockchain.info is a centralised service that could easily be compromised?  (or rather Darkcoin will be decentralised once open sourced).

[TTM]

Coins do not need the government or its approval to succeed.

If there's a demand for Zerocoin, it will succeed.

Except if a particular coin is ruled illegal because it is a security risk...it will NEVER be accepted by your neighborhood coffee shop...Overstock...or ultimately some place like Amazon.

So its "success" will be limited to the world of a "Silk Road 3".

Black market was very early adopter of Bitcoin, right? Being adopted by black market will be huge success for Zerocoin, it prove that the coin have real benefit of usage and real potential. Majority of altcoins will be dead because they have no users, no merchants and no customers, they have only investors and miners. They talk something fancy about ASIC resistant and 'cooler temperature' to trick more GPU miners come with them.

Or perhaps Darkcoin once it's made open source? (don't think it is yet...)

Darkcoin use CoinJoin method, much like Shared Coin service of Blockchain.info. We can still practice CoinJoin within Bitcoin system, therefore Darkcoin offer nothing new. CoinJoin doesn't hide your transactions completely, it just make harder to trace your money flow. With proper data mining and data analysis, your transactions might still be traced. And federal agencies have more than enough human & technology resource to do that. Zerocoin is another story, i'm excited to see what Zerocash will bring to crypto world.

But isn't darkcoin decentralised whereas blockchain.info is a centralised service that could easily be compromised?  (or rather Darkcoin will be decentralised once open sourced).

CoinJoin itself is already a decentralized mixing method. Centralized mixing services are something like Bitcoinfog, Bitmixer, Bitlaundry.

[Gabi]

Zerocoin is a great concept but given what the "foundation" is doing, good luck for it to be implemented in bitcoin lol

[TTM]

Zerocoin is a great concept but given what the "foundation" is doing, good luck for it to be implemented in bitcoin lol

Zerocoin will be released as an altcoin, because Bitcoin dev refused to adopt it.

[s_s]

Coins do not need the government or its approval to succeed.

If there's a demand for Zerocoin, it will succeed.

Except if a particular coin is ruled illegal because it is a security risk...it will NEVER be accepted by your neighborhood coffee shop...Overstock...or ultimately some place like Amazon.

So its "success" will be limited to the world of a "Silk Road 3".

Black market was very early adopter of Bitcoin, right? Being adopted by black market will be huge success for Zerocoin, it prove that the coin have real benefit of usage and real potential. Majority of altcoins will be dead because they have no users, no merchants and no customers, they have only investors and miners. They talk something fancy about ASIC resistant and 'cooler temperature' to trick more GPU miners come with them.

Except as I added in my edit above...I wonder what the legal boys and girls think about that at Johns Hopkins. Matt Green was and I believe still is a faculty member at Johns Hopkins...and the others involved in the project were students of his?

Seems to me their may be some concerns about the name of Johns Hopkins popping up in the almost certain articles about the use of Zerocoin for trade of drugs, guns, etc. on the black market?

[shtako]

Anoncoin are taking sign ups for testing of the zerocoin implementation now.

http://lists.sigterm.no/listinfo/anoncoin-zerotest

[Lauda]

Zerocoin is a great concept but given what the "foundation" is doing, good luck for it to be implemented in bitcoin lol

It won't most likely happen.

[pizzaboy69696969]

Anoncoin are taking sign ups for testing of the zerocoin implementation now.

http://lists.sigterm.no/listinfo/anoncoin-zerotest

I'll just wait for the real thing to happen with Zerocoin.  Whitepaper being released in May I have heard!

[softron]

Anoncoin are taking sign ups for testing of the zerocoin implementation now.

http://lists.sigterm.no/listinfo/anoncoin-zerotest

thanks for this info.

[crimealone]

I think anoncoin is more active.

[shtako]

I think anoncoin is more active.

Both more active and more attractive. The anoncoin devs goal is to create an anonymous currency. There is no marketing, no hype, just steady development. It's an established, well distributed and much traded coin.

We don't know anything about zerocash. My guess is that the main focus of the zerocash team is to make as much money as possible. And it want surprise me if anoncoin with zerocoin implementation will be the best solution.

[TTM]

Both more active and more attractive. The anoncoin devs goal is to create an anonymous currency. There is no marketing, no hype, just steady development. It's an established, well distributed and much traded coin.

We don't know anything about zerocash. My guess is that the main focus of the zerocash team is to make as much money as possible. And it want surprise me if anoncoin with zerocoin implementation will be the best solution.

There is no way Anoncoin could be better Zerocash. What Anoncoin adopted was an old library of Zerocoin, but Zerocash will be something like Zerocoin 2.0 with much more advanced technology, note that the devoloper team of Zerocoin is also devoloper team of Zerocash. Moreover, Zerocash will be fair coin with no pre-mining, but Anoncoin is premined.

It is obvious to see you are promoting Anoncoin because you are investing on it or mining it. But i am neither Anoncoin and Zerocash user, i'll wait to see which coin is really better.