Bitcoin adoption slowing; Coinbase + Bitpay is enough to make Bitcoin a fiat

[AnonyMint]

Or you can just remove the rooted software (ie windoze) and install debian or some other GNU/Linux flavor where you own the computer.

...

I'm almost ready to say "Adios forum". My health hasn't been this great in years. Almost time to move on to the next big thing (NBT).

And what did I warn you about TrueCrypt just a couple of weeks ago

[AlexGR]

I hope everyone realizes that Windows 8 phones home to Microsoft and Microsoft built backdoors into it. If you are running Windows 8 or Skype on any version of Windows (and maybe on any operating system), you may have no secrets as everything on your hard disk could have already been recorded. And any communications you are doing, even with something like Bitmessage, Tor, or other anonymizing client, could be revealed to the powers-that-be.

Would it be a stretch to assume hardware (cpus, mobos/bios'es, phones etc) created post-2013 will be rooted specifically for reporting / tracking / spying cryptocurrency use, and that a safer way to use cryptos would be to use older hardware (prior to crypto-boom)?

Or you can just remove the rooted software (ie windoze) and install debian or some other GNU/Linux flavor where you own the computer.

I do run linux for personal use for ~10 years but I fear new hardware is bypassing the software at a firmware level - perhaps even forming some kind of cooperative grid (cards, disks, mobos / bioses, cpus etc).

[AnonyMint]

Adios forum. Thanks.

[AlexGR]

Thank you too.

[pungopete468]

I wish you the best in all of your endeavors.

[AnonyMint]

---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: Google wallet vs. crypto-currencies
From:    AnonyMint
Date:    Thu, June 19, 2014 1:41 pm
To:      "Armstrong Economics" <armstrongeconomics@gmail.com>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://armstrongeconomics.com/2014/06/19/google-the-new-bank-rollover-bitcoin-banks-its-the-internet-revolution/

Armstrong is entirely correct that banking, checking accounts, and payments will move nearly entirely digital within the next decade.

He is also correct that the masses will choose to stay with big government and their home fiat, thus Google wallet.

He fails to note that Bitcoin is also being taken over by Bitpay and Coinbase, the former of which is controlled by Peter Thiel the founder of Paypal. So Bitcoin will be brought into the fold of the government controlled and sanctioned digital currency system. I had been one of the first to write about this at the following linked post.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=557732.msg6076321#msg6076321

What Armstrong fails to consider is the uses of alternative crypto-currencies for which Google Wallet and Peter Thiel controlled Bitcoin will not be competitive with.

1. Anonymous store-of-wealth. The anonymous altcoins will be able to hide wealth from the coming confiscation.

2. Anonymous transfer of wealth across borders. So you want to move some gold. First you sell it for some anonymous crypto-currency, then you sell that altcoin for gold in the new location.

3. Sell download software and online services anonymously such that your income can not be tracked nor taxed. This will also require anonymous internet sites such a Tor services, and we really need an improved anonymity model for the internet that is better than Tor. While the youth are unemployed, you think they won't like to sell their services and apps without being tracked for taxes? The youth are going to see how corrupt government is and not want to fund it.

4. Earn some crypto-currency for free just by turning on your computer. This creates a demand for merchants. Don't tell me the youth in the coming global crisis won't like to get some free money while they sit at home bored and unemployed.

5. Due to the $227 trillion global debt bubble with $1000+ trillion of unfunded government liabilities with another $1000+ trillion of credit swap derivatives to keep the bond bubble propped up, this has provided a massive level of funding for an oversupply of everything in the global economy. Thus the global economy will shrink by at least 50%, perhaps as much as 80%. Whereas the knowledge age economy where individuals work out of their homes producing online services, software, 3D printer designs, etc and sell them online will grow very fast. If this grows to 10% of what the global economy is now, and the global economy shrinks by 80%, then the knowledge age economy will the majority of the global economy.

There is going to be a huge competition underway between Google and the altcoin developers to see who can provide the infrastructure and future of this knowledge age economy. Currently Google et al appear to have a massive lead. However, if certain highly capable developer(s) can get entirely healthy and focused, you could be very surprised what one person with a $billion premine to spend on open source bounties could do. Large companies move too slowly.

Let's watch this space closely to see if an credible alternative to Google wallet appears in the crypto-currency scene.

[AnonyMint]

---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: official digital currencies vs. gold and crypto-currencies
From:    AnonyMint
Date:    Sat, June 21, 2014 9:13 pm
To:      "Armstrong Economics" <armstrongeconomics@gmail.com>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------


http://armstrongeconomics.com/2014/06/21/electronic-money-starting-in-london/

In London, buses will start in July accepting cards only – no more cash. Currency Exchanges are now offering cards instead of cash that they market as being safer in travel.  In Manchester, all the shops on Chorlton Street will no longer accept cash – only cards. This is a test to see if society is ready for the change. This is a major effort to move in preparation for the cashless society. While the goldbugs have been touting that gold will rise and the dollar will collapse because of fiat money, technology has passed them by making their arguements barbaric relics of the past. The future role of gold may be as a medium of exchange not as an alternative to paper money, but in the elimination of paper money gold may become the currency of the underground economy – not Bitcoin.

Gold can be an underground store-of-value, but as I alluded to Martin in my prior communication, and even Martin has written that gold can't transport across check points and borders any more without being registered with the authorities. Thus gold can not by itself function as a medium-of-exchange for the underground economy, because then exchange could only occur on a local scope. And Bitcoin has no anonymity features built in, and Tor is likely a honeypot as well most users don't employ it with Bitcoin. Thus alternative crypto-currency(ies) with anonymity features will rise up to serve the underground economy, and as a means to sell and re-purchase gold across distance as I explained in my prior communication.

And the other point I made in my prior communication is that the official system being offered by the globalists via their capture of the multi-national corporations and government, is an imploding economy post-2016. Thus those sheep who stay with the official digital instruments are going to be declining with the Titanic. This is what will provide the demand for the underground crypto-currencies and will be rapidly growing market. Of course the underground crypto-currency will not rise enough or fast enough to offset all the official digital money usage. The majority will rather choose to die on the Titanic and the official system will collapse into a big mess.

Massive chaos ahead and the majority will ride the official system down into the abyss of rising taxes and Orwellian socialism.

I see the possibility of a ray of hope in the tunnel coming from alternative crypto-currency and their adoption by the technologically astute thus providing a frontier to escape the Orwellian socialism. And this could spin off into an entirely new internet and global KNOWLEDGE AGE economy that is untouchable by the corruption. If successful, then those who don't adopt it will fall into their own Dark Age, akin to how Eastern Rome broke away from Western as the Western Rome fell into a 600 year Dark Age.

Again the only hope has always been frontiers that compete against the dying Orwellian socialism. This time the frontiers are technological, not geographical.

The geographical frontiers this time are the developing world, especially Asia, but realize the Asians (and even the Latin Americans) are fully on board with the Orwellian socialism, e.g. China has a CTV camera on every lamppost. The developing world will rise after 2020 because they aren't saddled with aging boomers and constituent government liabilities, but developing world will rise within the official system controlled by the globalists, thus it won't be a complete frontier. We would need to look towards high tech solutions for that this time.

[AnonyMint]

---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: there are no geographical frontiers,  because world is complicit with globalist plans
From:    AnonyMint
Date:    Sun, June 22, 2014 7:39 am
To:      "Armstrong Economics" <armstrongeconomics@gmail.com>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------


http://armstrongeconomics.com/2014/06/22/hunt-for-money-tisa-negotiations-leaked-by-wikileaks/

Leaked WikiLeaks documents reveal the Abbott government in Australia is moving with the EU and the USA in a secret trade negotiation that is aimed at bringing about radical deregulation of international banking and finance sector. While this Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) negotiations, reported by The Age, show Australian trade negotiators are working on a financial services agenda that could end the Australian government’s ”four pillars” banking policy and allow foreign banks much greater freedom to operate in Australia, there is also a secret agenda according to our sources that go hand in hand with global reporting of anyone who has accounts outside their home country. This is under the cloud of deregulating financial institutions when in fact it is also ensuring transparency for government tax authorities to hunt money internationally.

All financial data will be freely transferred overseas. This is the main objective. I was in Brussels for meetings. The most interesting aspect of this trip was they stopped me at customs because I was dressed in a suit and tie. It was clearly a money hunt inspection. I produced my passport and they wanted to see where I bought the ticket. I clearly would not have owed taxes on some imported trinkets and there were no questions regarding that. It was simply a stop and check to see if I was moving money between countries and where was I domiciled. This is the FIRST time I have ever been stopped ever. Let’s see what happens when I return to the States.

I want to refer readers and Martin Armstrong to what I communicated to him previously as quoted below...

Again the only hope has always been frontiers that compete against the dying Orwellian socialism. This time the frontiers are technological, not geographical.

The geographical frontiers this time are the developing world, especially Asia, but realize the Asians (and even the Latin Americans) are fully on board with the Orwellian socialism, e.g. China has a CTV camera on every lamppost. The developing world will rise after 2020 because they aren't saddled with aging boomers and constituent government liabilities, but developing world will rise within the official system controlled by the globalists, thus it won't be a complete frontier. We would need to look towards high tech solutions for that this time.

Emphasize my statement, "realize the Asians (and even the Latin Americans) are fully on board with the Orwellian socialism".

The globalists have been pulling the strings even in the Philippines where they recently were able to get similar liberalization of foreign ownership of banking passed through the Senate.

http://www.rappler.com/business/industries/209-banking-and-financial-services/60160-senate-approves-bill-full-foreign-ownership-philippine-banks

http://www.sunstar.com.ph/breaking-news/2014/05/16/house-passes-bill-allow-foreign-ownership-banks-343179

See how the globalists push this through with their funding and capture of influence think tanks and organizations (operating at many diverse levels which can only be detailed fully with forensic research):

http://business.inquirer.net/166364/business-group-seeks-more-leeway-for-foreign-banks-in-ph


Even this media circus in the Philippines now about abuse of the pork barrel funds, is all about getting the Philippine public to agree to end the bank secrecy law and also so the public will support the usurpation of the Constitution to change to a Parlimentary system so the control is further shifted away from local government to globalists.

The plan of course is to track down all money and also to enable foreign ownership of land so when the SOBs crash the global economy, the multi-nationals can come in and buy up the prime land cheap.

[Nicolas Dorier]

AnonyMint, can you create a blog or something ?
Would be good if the interesting response you gave were not buried deep into several forums post, but and centralized on a blog.
You can always duplicate the content in the forum (or comments to armstrong), but it is a shame than the post you take so much time and quality to write become buried like that.

[AnonyMint]

---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: James Turk echos my point about gold & crypto-currency;  Armstrong continues his hysterical nonsense
From:    AnonyMint
Date:    Sun, June 22, 2014 12:50 pm
To:      "Armstrong Economics" <armstrongeconomics@gmail.com>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gold can be an underground store-of-value, but as I alluded to Martin in my prior communication, and even Martin has written that gold can't transport across check points and borders any more without being registered with the authorities. Thus gold can not by itself function as a medium-of-exchange for the underground economy, because then exchange could only occur on a local scope. And Bitcoin has no anonymity features built in, and Tor is likely a honeypot as well most users don't employ it with Bitcoin. Thus alternative crypto-currency(ies) with anonymity features will rise up to serve the underground economy, and as a means to sell and re-purchase gold across distance as I explained in my prior communication.

James Turk echos what I wrote recently as quoted above. Here is the link to James Turk interview:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbtmM9ELWdQ#t=1122


-------------------------
http://armstrongeconomics.com/2014/06/22/welcome-the-federalization-of-one-europe-to-save-the-euro/

The new push in Europe is to rush Federalization to “save” the euro, which is doomed anyway because of its fractured design. The real self-interest here is to save the jobs in Brussels. The birth of the Euro was accompanied with an oath that this would never be the federalization of Europe. Politicians simply see only their own power and we are rapidly going down the drain on the entire global economy that these people are destroying to retain their own personal power. There is no one-world government agenda here for that would require surrendering Brussels to some other entity. That is the way conspiracies really function by having people exaggerate a trend to something absurd and then just the federalization of Europe seems better that the world. They are all pursuing just their own self-interest and this is the global agenda of sharing info to hunt down loose change everywhere and the elimination of all cash to then force capital into banks that they can grab when they desire. Fortunately for them, 90% of the people are blind, and 3% are the real conspiracy crowd so that leave only about 7% that see the train coming down the track for what it is – a train.

Welcome the Federalization of Europe – one state – one union. Brussels can only see their failure is the lack of power, not because they do not know how to manage anything.

Amazing isn't how all these self interested politicians and bureaucrats can't seem to plan anything correctly nor accomplish anything correctly, yet somehow we have this global coordination to track down wealth and open the exclusive doors for the multinational corporations which are owned by an oligarchy as proven by New Scientist magazine:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21228354.500-revealed--the-capitalist-network-that-runs-the-world.html

Amazing how we have all the global coordination on global warming carbon credits taxation and even corporations in the Philippines (such as Henry Sy's SM malls chain) force us to use brown bags on Wednesdays because of the global warming hoax, and this seed was planted at the 1978 U.N. Convention on Human Environment and the U.N. was funded by Rockefeller after his League of Nations floundered.

So all this multiple decades of coordinated planning was just random self-interest according to Armstrong.

My Lord, you can lead a donkey to water in the desert, but you can make the damn thing drink before it collapses into the dust.

Sheesh.

At least we 3% understand where the global hegemony derives and what is necessary to create a frontier to escape from. Donkeys will lead their brethen into skeletons in the desert of no frontiers bitching the entire time about corrupt peon bureacrats and never gaining an ounce of insight into the real power structure and what technology is required to disrupt it.

[AnonyMint]

---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: Why do Singapore and Ethiopia cooperate?
From:    AnonyMint
Date:    Mon, June 23, 2014 1:08 am
To:      "Armstrong Economics" <armstrongeconomics@gmail.com>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://armstrongeconomics.com/2014/06/22/nsa-gathers-all-communications-everywhere/

At the link above, Armstrong documents the global cooperation on intercepting all communications.

We look on the list of 3rd parties cooperating countries, as we see the likes of Singapore and Ethiopia.

So pray tell me why in the hell would these countries cooperate if this was just self-interested, clueless bureaucrats protecting their own political power and vested interest?


Singapore and Ethiopia (for example, and there are many others on the list) don't need to hunt down the wealth of their own citizens, as their economies are not suffering from the bloated socialism and sovereign debt crisis.

There is this level of global coordination, because there is a very powerful oligarchy of globalists who control these nation-states and coordinate their plans.


Armstrong thinks they are doing this completely ignorant of the implications of how it will crash the global economy. Rather these globalists know damn well that they will crash the global economy and since they will be in control, their multi-national corporations will have special access to credit and to buy up everything cheaply at fire-sale prices.

This all about a global hegemony for this oligarchy that runs the world. The bureaucrats are just the pawns on the chessboard playing their respective bought off (vested) roles.

The real winners are always the international oligarchy, a.k.a. "banksters". These are not the banks with names such as JP Morgan and Goldman. Rather these banks are just tools of the oligarchy and any tool can be sacrificed at any time if it maximized the overall objective of global hegemony for this oligarchy.

Until Armstrong learns this fact, he will remain a naive nincompoop.

[Zarathustra]

---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: official digital currencies vs. gold and crypto-currencies
From:    AnonyMint
Date:    Sat, June 21, 2014 9:13 pm
To:      "Armstrong Economics" <armstrongeconomics@gmail.com>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------


http://armstrongeconomics.com/2014/06/21/electronic-money-starting-in-london/

[quote ]

I see the possibility of a ray of hope in the tunnel coming from alternative crypto-currency and their adoption by the technologically astute thus providing a frontier to escape the Orwellian socialism. And this could spin off into an entirely new internet and global KNOWLEDGE AGE economy that is untouchable by the corruption. If successful, then those who don't adopt it will fall into their own Dark Age, akin to how Eastern Rome broke away from Western as the Western Rome fell into a 600 year Dark Age.

This is religious science fiction. Members of christian sects who believe to prosper in a mad max environment with nuclear reactors without maintenance and cooling.
So funny.

[AnonyMint]

Cross-posting...

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=362468.msg7513111#msg7513111

hi friends, i dont really get this, please can anyone answer for once:
What is the diference between Zerocoin and Zerocash
What is more anonymous, Darkcoin, Zerocoin, or Zerocash, or Bytenote and its forks? what about Darkwallet?
If you were like I dont know... Julian Assange or someone like that and you had to send some money and your life depended on it, and the only way was via a cryptocurrency... what crypto would you use? thats the question. Whatever brings more anonimity wins big time in long run!

Here is the short answer (to the best of my knowledge):

Zerocoin (original paper): User 1 "buys" zerocoins, and this transaction can be seen by everyone, including the amount. When user 1 spends the zerocoins to user 2, the amount can be seen by everyone, but it is cryptographically impossible to link user 1 and 2.

Zerocash (new paper): In addition to breaking the link between user 1 and 2, as in the original zerocoin paper, this also hides the amount of money being transferred. This protocol also allows to transfer a zerocash coin directly to the second user without having to redeem it in the base currency, as well as split and merge zerocash coins. What is bound to cause confusion is that the authors are calling the coins in zerocash "zerocoins", just like in the original paper, even though they are not the same thing.

Darkcoin: They use a modification of CoinJoin, which they call "darksend". This is a simple coin mixing service. However, given the limited number of coins that are mixed, as well as other problems, such as with change and trust, it is possible to de-anonymize at least some transactions if you really tried to.

CryptoNote coins: User 1 sends user 2 money, but the transaction is signed by X users in a ring signature. User 2 receives money, which is visible on the blockchain with the amount, but all that can be said is that it came from one of the X members that participated in the "ring signature". The amount of anonymity increases as the number of members in the ring signature increases. For low values of X, it is possible to de-anonymize some types of transactions by a block chain analysis.

Darkwallets: Not sure. I think that this is just CoinJoin for Bitcoin. These exist only because Bitcoin refuses to implement suitable privacy measures.

So, if you had to rank them: Zerocash is the most anonymous, Zerocoin (original) is next, Cryptonote is close behind, and Darkcoin and Darkwallets are poor-man alternatives. All are better than nothing.

Nevertheless, you need to put this is perspective and consider some practical aspects: Darkcoin is working, CryptoNote coins are working but with no graphical interface, Zerocoin (original) does not exist now and will likely be implemented in Anoncoin in about 1 month, and the authors of Zerocash claim that it will be released in 3-6 months. It is possible that another existing coin will implement zerocash first (such as Anoncoin, after they release their implementation of Zerocoin). In terms of practicalities, Darkcoin is easy to use, whereas for the others, you either need to set up some parameters (such as the number of signatures in a ring signature), or make an intermediate step by buying zerocoins.

I should note that another aspect of anonymity is hiding the physical location (i.e., IP number) of where the transactions took place. Anoncoin allows users to send their transactions via i2p, which effectively hides your IP number, and it is the only coin that supports i2p to my knowledge. I think that most coins allow you to send transactions via TOR (which would achieve the same thing), but this is not set up by default, and I couldn't get this to work on my computer after 30 minutes, so I gave up.

There are potential problems with zerocash (the paper was just published): you need to trust someone to set up the initial, one-time, secret parameters and then forget them (there is a trick to fix this in zerocoin); you also can not count the number of zerocash coins as the amount is hidden. There is thus a scary possibility that someone could break the code (or learn the secret parameters), that would allow them to mint coins without anyone ever finding out. This would have the effect of inflation.

Finally, people tend to forget that it is extremely difficult to achieve anonymity when you convert any cryptocurrency for fiat: Banks and exchanges will always be the weakest link as long as fiat is the "default" currency.

If I made any mistakes, please correct me.

I have written some detailed information at the following linked thread, some of which is missing from your above summary:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=557732.msg6662978#msg6662978

Let is attempt the simplest summary, and readers who want to dig deeper can click the link above.

The resource requirements of the full client for Zerocoin are impractical, unless you want to centralize mining. Also all transaction amounts have to be the same, so you would run into the same issue as CryptoNote has (see below).

Zerocash hides the money supply (i.e. it is unknown), it is unvetted extremely complex new crypto (vetting takes years or a decade), and the setup parameters can not EVER be proven to not be backdoored, thus there will be no way to know if some entity (has cracked the crypto or intercepted the setup parameters and) is creating coins for free. Sorry but aren't we trying to get away from fiat central banking money where a centralized entity can print money at-will?

Many ways the NSA can get those setup parameters:

http://www.infowars.com/intel-ceo-refuses-to-answer-questions-on-whether-nsa-can-access-processors/

http://www.forbes.com/sites/steveblank/2013/07/15/your-computer-may-already-be-hacked-nsa-inside/

http://www.eweek.com/security/nsa-can-hack-you-even-if-you-arent-connected-to-the-internet.html

http://www.gizmag.com/malware-jump-air-gap/30056/

Include also if the people doing the setup have been served a national security letter gag order which compels them to do the setup and give the parameters to the NSA and not tell anyone.

The anonymity of CryptoNote (i.e. ByteCoin, Monero, and clones) requires that all transaction amounts be broken into separate transactions for standardized fragments which causes massive blockchain bloat (for any reasonable level of anonymity) and the blockchain can never be pruned. There is already a problem with Bitcoin's blockchain being too large and it doesn't have this massive bloat. In short, CryptoNote (and Zerocoin) can't scale.

Neither of the two do anything to obscure your IP address, and Tor/I2P are thought to be honey pots for national security agencies (Wikipedia says "who has the incentive to provide all this server bandwidth for free").

The need to obscure your IP address is less of an issue for Zerocash since it hides even the amount of the transaction, but this causes the money supply to be hidden as well which seems like an unacceptable tradeoff. Nevertheless, the authorities can see you are transacting to the Zerocash network even if they can't see the details, in theory the bezerk hunt for money during the coming sovereign debt collapse post-2016 will use the law to compel you to reveal secrets or face jail:

http://www.nestmann.com/could-the-government-force-you-to-tell-your-deepest-darkest-secrets

CryptoNote doesn't hide the amount and the payer is mixed with a limited number of numerous other potential payers, so the IP correlation can be used to narrow the possibilities statistically and home in on identity, by observing patterns across all users. Thus the lack of IP address obfuscation in CryptoNote (assuming Tor is really a honey pots, and or most users fail to employ Tor) reduces the anonymity.

CoinJoin’s algorithm suffers from not being atomic and thus it can be repeatedly jammed by an adversary, i.e. denial-of-service. This is because first the inputs have to be collected, then the outputs have to blind signed with a group signature, and then finally all inputs have to signed. If any one of the participant senders fails to complete all the steps, the transaction is jammed and the process must start again. All proposals for throttling or blacklisting adversaries was argued to be ineffective and intractable. Darkcoin innovated CoinJoin by adding a collateral payment which is forfeited by participants who fail to complete all steps. This requires a random master node to break the unlinkability as it knows the matching output of each input. It is assumed that not all master nodes will be adversaries and thus sending multiple times through different master nodes will provide a probablistic level of unlinkability. The master nodes are purchased and it isn’t clear that a sufficiently powerful adversary couldn't sufficiently Sybil attack by acquiring a larger percentage of the master nodes. There is also concern this might also enable the adversary to steal collateral payments. Also the master nodes aren’t untraceable and thus could perhaps be held liable by governments for breaking AML and KYC laws. CoinJoin and Darkcoin suffer from the simultaneity timing problem that other spenders need to send spends of the same amount simultaneously.

None of these coins do anything to solve the centralization of mining, wherein one or two pools now control more than 50% of the Bitcoin mining hash rate.

Also many of these coins run into chaotic problems with their organization, e.g. apparently someone created a private GPU miner for Monero and is mining 50% of the coins for himself. Apparently there is no funding means or organization to rectify this.

"We're building a system that will not have a back door"... Well there's no way of knowing that the security parameters do not contain a back door, so we have to trust the people who generate them. Hopefully someone will figure out a way to generate them in a provably trustworthy fashion. I don't know if that's possible.

In fact, it is possible to generate the security parameters in a completely trustless manner for the original Zerocoin protocol of Miers et al. (Zerocoin: Anonymous Distributed E-Cash from Bitcoin). All you need to do is generate a number that contains two large prime numbers, and whose factorization is unknown. Amazingly, you can generate such numbers using RSA UFOs, and this is the approach that Anoncoin has chosen for their implementation of Zerocoin.

I read the research paper for UFOs. It is based on number theoretic assumptions and I am unaware if these assumptions have been sufficiently vetted.

Realize the NSA may have as much as the $3 trillion missing black budget at their disposal (the money former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld announced was missing the day before 9/11 and then all the records were destroyed at the Pentagon by the attack the next day).

http://www.wired.com/2013/09/black-budget-what-exactly-are-the-nsas-cryptanalytic-capabilities/

Unfortunately, you can not do the same thing with the newer Zerocash protocol of Ben-Sasson (Zerocash: Decentralized Anonymous Payments from Bitcoin).

Correct.

Lastly remember all the coins are currently based on asymmetric public key cryptography, which can be cracked with a quantum computer if the NSA ever is able to create one. As well the NSA might have cracked some of the number theoretic factoring assumptions or backdoored the constants.

http://beta.slashdot.org/story/191445

https://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram-9911.html#EllipticCurvePublic-KeyCryptography

http://crypto.stackexchange.com/questions/10263/should-we-trust-the-nist-recommended-ecc-parameters

If you really want to be sure, you need to move to Lamport signatures which are not based on number theoretic assumptions.move to Lamport signatures which are not based on number theoretic assumptions.

Tor is a very secure system...

I don't think so...

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Onion_routing&oldid=592703635#Weaknesses

https://tails.boum.org/doc/about/warning/index.en.html#index4h1

https://tails.boum.org/doc/about/warning/index.en.html#index7h1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tor_%28anonymity_network%29#Exit_node_eavesdropping

If you actually look in to where these Tor nodes are hosted and how big they are, some of these nodes cost thousands of dollars each month just to host because they're using lots of bandwidth, they're heavy-duty servers and so on. Who would pay for this and be anonymous?"

https://www.schneier.com/essays/archives/2013/10/attacking_tor_how_th.html

http://armstrongeconomics.com/2014/06/22/nsa-gathers-all-communications-everywhere/

[AnonyMint]

Add an analysis of XC...

PoS can never remain decentralized:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=557732.msg6501833#msg6501833

The supernode (analogous to the masternode in DarkCoin) concept is fundamentally flawed (Sybil attacks etc). See my comments about problems with reputation at the link above and about DarkCoin at the following link:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=362468.msg7513111#msg7513111

The dev just posted this update, which has this plan to prevent "xnodes" from stealing the coins:

"Just to clarify somethings as well - REV2 will have a solution to the bad actor problem.  Using a dynamic learning trust system, the wallet will choose the trusted nodes over the bad actor nodes.  This also will be tied into the fee system so it will also be incentive based."

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=630547.msg7071808#msg7071808

Hello, as I've seen your posts regarding how to (and how not to) implement anonymity/privacy into a coin, I have learned to respect your knowledge on the subject.

Thus, I'd like to ask (if you have the time or interest) your opinion on a newish coin called XC which claims anonymity with buzzwords like "fully decentralized", "secure", "xnodes", "Xprotocol", "encryption", "XC Alpha", "multi-path paradigm", "Blockchain2.0". It has market cap fluctuating between $5MM and $10MM, so it has become quite a big deal.


XC coin's homepage:
http://www.x11coin.org/

XC coin's source (The source for the xnode/mixer part of the code that supposedly does the anonymizing is not currently released):
https://github.com/atcsecure/X11COIN

XC coin's developer:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=88818

XC coin's own thread (now closed as a new moderated thread was started):
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=600706.0

XC coin's new moderated thread:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=630547.0

XC coin's uncensored thread (in case the thread mod doesn't like your posts):
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=631052.0

Technical details:
http://www.x11coin.org/images/xnode_topology.png
http://www.x11coin.org/images/network1.png
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=630547.msg7027979#msg7027979
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=630547.msg7028240#msg7028240
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=630547.msg7060321#msg7060321


There is a youtube video of testnet experiment that according to them proves that XC is anonymous and it is working (the video narrator is not the dev but someone who got to try it out I guess):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uTgnZAFuNU

Block explorer is also available for the testnet:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=631052.msg7063060#msg7063060


The concerns raised from that video and general vague descriptions XC dev has given, are that it is not trustless, so any wallet that is chosen as an "xnode" could just decide not to send your coins forward, i.e. steal them. When that question was asked, the dev said that the "Xprotocol" prevents that:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=630547.msg7042930#msg7042930

Other concerns that people have is that the developer paid user "loljosh" (known for his coin creation business) 0.7 BTC for his services at the time of XC coin release. User "loljosh" offers X11+PoS coins for 0.8 BTC (XC is X11+PoS) btw:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=631052.msg7033010#msg7033010
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=466908.msg6625004#msg6625004
So this raises the question: if the XC dev has to pay loljosh to create a coin for him, how could he not be way over his head when it comes to implementing secure anonymous transactions?


Thanks for your time!

[AnonyMint]

How do you trust Zerocash, when the NSA could serve the creators of the setup parameters with a national security gag order on the eve of the public ceremony?

There are other advanced technical means that might be used to intercept the setup parameters even at such a ceremony, e.g. the NSA can reprogram the microcode of CPUs using built in backdoors and there is technology for jumping the air gap and intercepting the computations inside the computer.

And we will never know if the money supply is being inflated away since the money supply is invisible.

[AnonyMint]

Searching for anonymous coins that don't have serious flaws.

http://www.neutrinocoin.org/neutrino_white_paper

Problem is as I wrote upthread that Tor is compromised by national security agencies, which are reporting to tax authorities and the G20 are going to be cooperating to track down and confiscate all wealth as the global liquidity crisis collapses in a contagion stampede circa 2016 to 2024.

The use of hidden services does not ameliorate the issue, because the adversary can see all (encrypted) traffic and correlate patterns with timing analysis because the traffic is low-latency. As well, Tor relay servers are likely honey pots. Sybil attacks can be used to flood Neutrino nodes with adversaries which can then can full access to decrypted transaction and mining information and correlate it with the sending node via this global analysis.

Tor and I2P employ low-latency Chaum mix-nets, which are fundamentally flawed concept that can't defend against such a global adversary.

[madken7777]

Searching for anonymous coins that don't have serious flaws.

http://www.neutrinocoin.org/neutrino_white_paper

Problem is as I wrote upthread that Tor is compromised by national security agencies, which are reporting to tax authorities and the G20 are going to be cooperating to track down and confiscate all wealth as the global liquidity crisis collapses in a contagion stampede circa 2016 to 2024.

The use of hidden services does not ameliorate the issue, because the adversary can see all (encrypted) traffic and correlate patterns with timing analysis because the traffic is low-latency. As well, Tor relay servers are likely honey pots. Sybil attacks can be used to flood Neutrino nodes with adversaries which can then can full access to decrypted transaction and mining information and correlate it with the sending node via this global analysis.

Tor and I2P employ low-latency Chaum mix-nets, which are fundamentally flawed concept that can't defend against such a global adversary.

So, which browser can guard against eavesdropping ?

[AnonyMint]

So, which browser can guard against eavesdropping ?

If the national security agencies are determined to eavesdrop on you, as far as I know there is currently no browser setup that can with very high confidence prevent it. Let's for example posit that Tor is successful in obscuring your IP address from the destination activity 80% of the time. Then if you send 10 transactions and or mining shares (over time perhaps not in the same Tor session), then your chance of being non-anonymous has declined to 0.8^10 = 11%. Not good odds, especially if the cost of being non-anonymous is very great, e.g. you break some Orwellian capital controls in 2017 and end up in a SuperMax prison.

Some argue that hiding in plain sight is best, i.e. not drawing attention to yourself by using Tor. However, if you are accessing the nodes of a crypto-currency network, I assume the national security agencies are (will be in 2017!) tracking you if you agree with the theory that the G20 is going to be hunting down (to confiscate) all wealth as the bankrupt global economy forces them to. This is couched in propaganda themes such as  "go after tax avoiders" and "prevent money laundering and funding for terrorism". Others might argue this is a paranoid view.

I believe there exist algorithms to attain higher levels of confidence, that can be described and analyzed mathematically, but as far I know such algorithms are not implemented for any browser setup nor anonymous coin.

[fdiini]

So, which browser can guard against eavesdropping ?

If the national security agencies are determined to eavesdrop on you, as far as I know there is currently no browser setup that can with very high confidence prevent it. Let's for example posit that Tor is successful in obscuring your IP address from the destination activity 80% of the time. Then if you send 10 transactions and or mining shares (over time perhaps not in the same Tor session), then your chance of being non-anonymous has declined to 0.8^10 = 11%. Not good odds, especially if the cost of being non-anonymous is very great, e.g. you break some Orwellian capital controls in 2017 and end up in a SuperMax prison.

Some argue that hiding in plain sight is best, i.e. not drawing attention to yourself by using Tor. However, if you are accessing the nodes of a crypto-currency network, I assume the national security agencies are (will be in 2017!) tracking you if you agree with the theory that the G20 is going to be hunting down (to confiscate) all wealth as the bankrupt global economy forces them to. This is couched in propaganda themes such as  "go after tax avoiders" and "prevent money laundering and funding for terrorism". Others might argue this is a paranoid view.

I believe there exist algorithms to attain higher levels of confidence, that can be described and analyzed mathematically, but as far I know such algorithms are not implemented for any browser setup nor anonymous coin.

Very pessimistic view of the future. I am a little bit more optimistic.

To enforce the rules globally, they will need to have the resources and consensus of all nations and their own population. I do not believe people will give up their right of privacy so easily.

If the economic of the existing power really going down the sink, they will no longer have the influence and infrastructure in place to enforce the rules.

[AnonyMint]

Very pessimistic view of the future. I am a little bit more optimistic.

To enforce the rules globally, they will need to have the resources and consensus of all nations and their own population. I do not believe people will give up their right of privacy so easily.

If the economic of the existing power really going down the sink, they will no longer have the influence and infrastructure in place to enforce the rules.

The frogs boil in the pot because they never realize they are boiling until they are already dead. The sheeople are the same.

Hello? The resources and consensus has already accomplished and is already under way.

http://armstrongeconomics.com/2014/02/07/g20-to-cordinate-to-hunt-down-taxes-worldwide/

http://armstrongeconomics.com/2013/09/07/g20-agrees-on-worldwide-access-to-all-information-on-the-wealth-of-the-citizens-for-global-taxation/

http://armstrongeconomics.com/2014/06/22/nsa-gathers-all-communications-everywhere/