[XC][XCurrency] Decentralised Trustless Privacy Platform / Encrypted XChat / Pos

[the_game1224]

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2014/09/29/firechat-messaging-app-gains-users-during-hong-kong-protests/

[G-Bert]

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2014/09/29/firechat-messaging-app-gains-users-during-hong-kong-protests/

“When your smartphone cannot connect to a cellular tower or Wi-Fi it chooses Bluetooth,” said Benoliel, a 42-year-old France native. Users can join and send messages to discussion groups, dubbed FireChats.

This is cool. Could we incorporate this?

[the_game1224]

Ok, there's layer 1: the Xnode protocol
- nodes communicate with one another using an end-to-end encrypted protocol, so that anyone who intercepts their messages can't decipher them.
- nodes communicate directly; they don't use any trusted third parties or central servers. Therefore there's no one point of failure or attack.

Layer 2: an ad hoc meshnet
- when you make a private payment, the first thing that happens is that your app sets up a network with a bunch of other nodes that are making payments at the same time as you.
- this network exists only for the duration of the transaction, and thus has no permanent infrastructure that can be attacked.
- since this network is a mesh, it does not encounter problems if nodes drop out of the network during the transaction. Thus it's robust against DOS attacks (i.e when a node refuses to sign, which breaks other technologies, like CoinJoin).

Layer 3: trustless mixing
- when you make a private payment, a transaction is built up between all the nodes in a meshnet.
- they pass the transaction around in a very clever way (analogous to Coinshuffle) in order to send coins to their intended destinations on behalf of other nodes.
- once the transaction is ready, each node checks that its own coins are going to the right destination, and if all is in order, the node signs the transaction.
- the signing is done in a very clever way so that no node knows which other node's coins they're forwarding.
- the coins are forwarded to their destination from a different address to the one that a forwarding node receives them on, so that there's no link on the blockchain between sender and receiver.
- if there's a problem then a node will refuse to sign. This makes the whole transaction unable to be processed, and thus no node can steal the coins that it's forwarding on behalf of another node.
- when this occurs, the nodes are able to reverse the passing-around procedure and discover which node caused the trouble. This node gets kicked off the mesh, and the transaction proceeds as per usual.

Layer 4: multipath
- when you make a private payment, the coins aren't sent in one go, but in fragments, making it impossible for anyone to tell how much you actually sent.

The ways in which all this is private:
- multipath conceals the amount you send or receive.
- mixing conceals the sender and the receiver.
- the trustless nature of the mixing ensures that nodes can't steal coins and that they can't know whose coins they're forwarding.
- the Xnode protocol ensures that nobody can decipher any of these messages in the first place.
- in addition, using the XC TOR Stick conceals your IP address.
- and, finally, when we add stealth addresses to XC, then when someone pays you, not even they will discover the address you receive the payment on, and so you don't have to trust them to keep private the address that your coins are on.

Basically, there's nothing else to make private after all this. The entire thing is concealed; none of your personal information is given away. So it's 100% privacy.

Awesome explanation, thanks!

[profitofthegods]

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2014/09/29/firechat-messaging-app-gains-users-during-hong-kong-protests/

“When your smartphone cannot connect to a cellular tower or Wi-Fi it chooses Bluetooth,” said Benoliel, a 42-year-old France native. Users can join and send messages to discussion groups, dubbed FireChats.

This is cool. Could we incorporate this?

I was literally just trying to post a comment about this when you beat me to it. Since XC has a mesh networking expert it would be great to have something this in the mobile app.

[iCEBREAKER]

Just ran into an interesting resistance to crypto currency in general. "Virtual money will not be able to be traded in the event of a EMP. Hard silver however will have value to owners." My thought is in the event of an EMP that massive nothing but food guns and water would be of value? Is there a way to EMP proof XC?

Health is wealth.  Silver is a full-spectrum antibiotic that never spoils, so it is intrinsically valuable just like food/guns/water/shelter.

If you want to purify your water after The Event, you need silver.  If you get sick from an infected wound or eating a dead squirrel, you need silver.  If you need to buy food/guns/water/shelter, you need silver or gold.

Absent a solar flare, the entire world will not be EMPed so the internet will still be working somewhere.  But to get there, you may need to bribe some border guards/bandits/pirates/smugglers with silver or gold.

[synechist]

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2014/09/29/firechat-messaging-app-gains-users-during-hong-kong-protests/

“When your smartphone cannot connect to a cellular tower or Wi-Fi it chooses Bluetooth,” said Benoliel, a 42-year-old France native. Users can join and send messages to discussion groups, dubbed FireChats.

This is cool. Could we incorporate this?

I was literally just trying to post a comment about this when you beat me to it. Since XC has a mesh networking expert it would be great to have something this in the mobile app.

I think we could go one-up on the idea of Bluetooth. It's not great.

How about a hardware meshnet between mobile devices based on the devices' GSM/HSDPA/LTE and wifi radios? - or, perhaps, wifi for better speed but short range, and GSM for longer range but less bandwidth. To do this, an XC app would merely have to do what internet tethering apps do, but with a distributed, meshnet twist.

Now that would be handy in a riot. Or anywhere. You could upload videos using that, never mind little chat messages.


Edit: no idea how tricky it would be to do this with a GSM radio; might require a deeply hacked phone.

[profitofthegods]

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2014/09/29/firechat-messaging-app-gains-users-during-hong-kong-protests/

“When your smartphone cannot connect to a cellular tower or Wi-Fi it chooses Bluetooth,” said Benoliel, a 42-year-old France native. Users can join and send messages to discussion groups, dubbed FireChats.

This is cool. Could we incorporate this?

I was literally just trying to post a comment about this when you beat me to it. Since XC has a mesh networking expert it would be great to have something this in the mobile app.

I think we could go one-up on the idea of Bluetooth. It's not great.

How about a hardware meshnet between mobile devices based on the devices' GSM/HSDPA/LTE and wifi radios? - or, perhaps, wifi for better speed but short range, and GSM for longer range but less bandwidth. To do this, an XC app would merely have to do what internet tethering apps do, but with a distributed, meshnet twist.

Now that would be handy in a riot. Or anywhere. You could upload videos using that, never mind little chat messages.


Edit: no idea how tricky it would be to do this with a GSM radio; might require a deeply hacked phone.

That would be awesome.

Perhaps with these things you could set something up from your home network as well. Perhaps if it could be monetized, then one day XC could offer some kind of low cost, pay as you go, privacy preserving internet service. Maybe I'm going too far with that, but I think mesh networks like this are quite exciting and have lots of potential. Apple seems to really want to push it in the future, but all this open network stuff seems somehow to be fundamentally at odds with Apple's closed ecosystem approach so I'm sure XC could do it better 

[synechist]

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2014/09/29/firechat-messaging-app-gains-users-during-hong-kong-protests/

“When your smartphone cannot connect to a cellular tower or Wi-Fi it chooses Bluetooth,” said Benoliel, a 42-year-old France native. Users can join and send messages to discussion groups, dubbed FireChats.

This is cool. Could we incorporate this?

I was literally just trying to post a comment about this when you beat me to it. Since XC has a mesh networking expert it would be great to have something this in the mobile app.

I think we could go one-up on the idea of Bluetooth. It's not great.

How about a hardware meshnet between mobile devices based on the devices' GSM/HSDPA/LTE and wifi radios? - or, perhaps, wifi for better speed but short range, and GSM for longer range but less bandwidth. To do this, an XC app would merely have to do what internet tethering apps do, but with a distributed, meshnet twist.

Now that would be handy in a riot. Or anywhere. You could upload videos using that, never mind little chat messages.


Edit: no idea how tricky it would be to do this with a GSM radio; might require a deeply hacked phone.

That would be awesome.

Perhaps with these things you could set something up from your home network as well. Perhaps if it could be monetized, then one day XC could offer some kind of low cost, pay as you go, privacy preserving internet service. Maybe I'm going too far with that, but I think mesh networks like this are quite exciting and have lots of potential. Apple seems to really want to push it in the future, but all this open network stuff seems somehow to be fundamentally at odds with Apple's closed ecosystem approach so I'm sure XC could do it better 

I can't say we're explicitly planning this, but IMO the idea suggests itself.

I'd say let Apple go for it. It wouldn't be all that safe (since it'll be closed source code) but real live meshnets are awesome. It would seriously serve XC's aims if Apple and other giants had hardware meshnets that people can build apps for.

[coinzcoinzcoinz]

Sorry I didn't want to read through pages of information. Couple of questions:
1) When is open source expected?
2) When is independent code review expected?
2) When is your private transaction system expected to finished (final REV)?

I'm trying to determine whether I should buy some XC (I used to own some, but then I dumped it, it was possibly a mistake). XC is possibly better than other privacy related coins I own, but timelines are very important to me.

Lastly, I think you guys are missing a few tricks marketing-wise, there are a couple of small issues I have with design and brand colors and such (I am a professional in this area), but the biggest issue is the name. XCurrency is not the best of names. It is too long and does not work well for people who have a different native language than English (try to say 'Xcurrency' if you are Spanish for example).

Thanks for response.

[five8andten]

mwahaha!  Was able to pick up another 1k just now.  Working so much is allowing me to play finally haha.

[synechist]

Sorry I didn't want to read through pages of information. Couple of questions:
1) When is open source expected?
2) When is independent code review expected?
2) When is your private transaction system expected to finished (final REV)?

I'm trying to determine whether I should buy some XC (I used to own some, but then I dumped it, it was possibly a mistake). XC is possibly better than other privacy related coins I own, but timelines are very important to me.

Lastly, I think you guys are missing a few tricks marketing-wise, there are a couple of small issues I have with design and brand colors and such (I am a professional in this area), but the biggest issue is the name. XCurrency is not the best of names. It is too long and does not work well for people who have a different native language than English (try to say 'Xcurrency' if you are Spanish for example).

Thanks for response.

Hello again sir!

We open source our code progressively, in stages. So far we've released our Rev 1 mixer tech. You can expect more components to become available as we go.

Independent code reviews can be expected fairly soon. We'll most likely appoint a couple of internal consultants first, who'll verify the security of the code. Ideally we'll publish their results (including changes made). After that, the public independent reviews will come.

The private transactions system is finished already. The final piece of the puzzle (ad hoc meshnets) was released on 15 Sept. As per the plan, there have been several incremental updates following this to iron out a few kinks, which seem to have been resolved as far as I can tell.

That said, there's an XChat feature that'll impact XC's privacy favourably: implementing "stealth addresses" will allow users to publicise a personal address to be reached (and paid) on, but when payments are made to it, they'll arrive in the user's wallet on a different address. This way, even the sender will not need to be trusted with the receiver's personal information.


Thanks for the suggestions regarding marketing - points well taken. XC's brand will evolve steadily as we approach our official public launch, so you can expect incremental changes as things develop. You're very welcome to PM me with suggestions.

[policymaker]

Sorry I didn't want to read through pages of information. Couple of questions:
1) When is open source expected?
2) When is independent code review expected?
2) When is your private transaction system expected to finished (final REV)?

I'm trying to determine whether I should buy some XC (I used to own some, but then I dumped it, it was possibly a mistake). XC is possibly better than other privacy related coins I own, but timelines are very important to me.

Lastly, I think you guys are missing a few tricks marketing-wise, there are a couple of small issues I have with design and brand colors and such (I am a professional in this area), but the biggest issue is the name. XCurrency is not the best of names. It is too long and does not work well for people who have a different native language than English (try to say 'Xcurrency' if you are Spanish for example).

Thanks for response.

Spanish is big, but a lot of thought and work was commited from team to both the name/design/colours used. Certainly upgradeable, but that specific part was probably the first indicator that xc was going big--- they justified and discussed a lot with the community concerning it.

[akula999]

mwahaha!  Was able to pick up another 1k just now.  Working so much is allowing me to play finally haha.

1K!! wow, im happy when i can buy 10!

[altcollector]

mwahaha!  Was able to pick up another 1k just now.  Working so much is allowing me to play finally haha.

1K!! wow, im happy when i can buy 10!

I will buy some xc 

[ifyousmell]

When is the mac wallet ready? We want to mix too

[Sabretooth]

Lastly, I think you guys are missing a few tricks marketing-wise, there are a couple of small issues I have with design and brand colors and such (I am a professional in this area), but the biggest issue is the name. XCurrency is not the best of names. It is too long and does not work well for people who have a different native language than English (try to say 'Xcurrency' if you are Spanish for example).

I agree, but so are most alt coins except a handful e.g. ETH and DRK RPL.  These are  packaged very, very well and as a result have had mass market acceptance.

I do believe the XC branding is fine once the coin has the mass market adoption.  ((There are many aspects that can be used well.  The colour green is the colour of money, which is a plus.  The dark green gives it an anonymous edge.  The logo communicates strength (but is somewhat a little masculine).  The XCurrency can eventually be shortened to XC.  And the X be used in the same way Apple use i...xChat, xChange, xMixer, xNet, xWallet etc.))  The question is, is the current branding a barrier to mass adoption.  If the tech is really good, than the answer is no, if its just average then probably yes.  I am making my bet that the tech will be well above average.  It would be extra awesome however if the branding matched this, unfortunately I currently have no ideas on how it can be improved.  It would be great if you had some suggestions.

[ssmc2]

Buying BTC.

Buying XC.

[five8andten]

mwahaha!  Was able to pick up another 1k just now.  Working so much is allowing me to play finally haha.

1K!! wow, im happy when i can buy 10!

yeahhhh....I happened to check my account and saw I had a lil more than I thought so I bought me some bitcoin.

[SouthernBTC]

Sorry I didn't want to read through pages of information. Couple of questions:
1) When is open source expected?
2) When is independent code review expected?
2) When is your private transaction system expected to finished (final REV)?

I'm trying to determine whether I should buy some XC (I used to own some, but then I dumped it, it was possibly a mistake). XC is possibly better than other privacy related coins I own, but timelines are very important to me.

Lastly, I think you guys are missing a few tricks marketing-wise, there are a couple of small issues I have with design and brand colors and such (I am a professional in this area), but the biggest issue is the name. XCurrency is not the best of names. It is too long and does not work well for people who have a different native language than English (try to say 'Xcurrency' if you are Spanish for example).

Thanks for response.

So let me get this straight. You don't want to dyor, you want quick easy answers, and you want to tell the team how to brand themselves. Yet last week you were in the dark thread bragging about dumping your xcurrency and proclaiming how you want nothing to do with Synechist. Get out of town guy.

[jibble]

Sorry I didn't want to read through pages of information. Couple of questions:
1) When is open source expected?
2) When is independent code review expected?
2) When is your private transaction system expected to finished (final REV)?

I'm trying to determine whether I should buy some XC (I used to own some, but then I dumped it, it was possibly a mistake). XC is possibly better than other privacy related coins I own, but timelines are very important to me.

Lastly, I think you guys are missing a few tricks marketing-wise, there are a couple of small issues I have with design and brand colors and such (I am a professional in this area), but the biggest issue is the name. XCurrency is not the best of names. It is too long and does not work well for people who have a different native language than English (try to say 'Xcurrency' if you are Spanish for example).

Thanks for response.

So let me get this straight. You don't want to dyor, you want quick easy answers, and you want to tell the team how to brand themselves. Yet last week you were in the dark thread bragging about dumping your xcurrency and proclaiming how you want nothing to do with Synechist. Get out of town guy.

to be fair he did state "it was possibly a mistake"

the questions he is asking are some pretty basic questions to find out about how to ascertain inherent value in a coin, obviously there are many more , but those are some of them. Once independent code reviews start coming out, if they are positive which most likely will be the case, you can expect a very nice increase in volume and price.

he is only offering his opinion which he is paid professionally for, he is not stating "all this needs to be changed instantly" he is trying to be helpful , his intent is not to attack or poke holes, he is offering advice in the thing he is most trained and most skilled in.

This doesn't mean it needs to be changed for success or that anyone is wrong. it is just an opinion being expressed.

Yes he might of said things that he has now realized were wrong, the majority of people make a decision regarding something and are adamant on never changing their view, no matter what evidence is presented , he admits he may of been wrong.....just that fact alone, admitting that he might be wrong and is intent on finding out if he was shows something that a lot of people in this forum don't have.