Pros and Cons to Anon coins, Including Darkcoin / Cloakcoin, lets discuss them.

[FreedomCoin]

It seems there is alot of argument of which coins are "better" though each have their pros and cons. One is more established, the other has some features promised with new technology. See below for the Pros and Cons i have found for each, if you can give me more to add to the list i will. But please provide sources to the information you are giving.

Cloakcoin:


Pros:

Trading volume is much higher around 3 times the amount. https://coinmarketcap.com/
Uses a architecture for anonymity. See PoSA, Point of Stake Anonymity. https://mega.co.nz/#!1c9UnKBI!BdEaoBuYDAr5F4nwltpYjYNOrZt7Jretk07eGc-oPDc
Cloaktrade: Working on an exchange system built into wallet using an API code from Bittrex. http://altcoinstrader.com/cloakcoin-cloak-announcements/
Has a feature of Stealth Addresses. http://sx.dyne.org/stealth.html
Plans on having a built in Marketplace on the wallet called OneMarket http://www.cryptoarticles.com/crypto-news/cloakcoin-development-update-onemarket-posa-oneledger-ciara

Cons:

Traded on fewer exchanges. http://bitinfocharts.com/darkcoin/
The developers are completely anonymous.
Cloakcoin ANN on Bitcointalk is self moderated, many critical comments have been deleted. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=637704.0
Very short mining period, Mining will stop after 10080 blocks (7 days). https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=637704.0

Dark Coin:


Pros:

Is more established, has been around since January 2014. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=421615.0
Has a higher Market Cap of currently 20 Million dollars. https://coinmarketcap.com/
Very low bloat in the blockchain. http://wiki.darkcoin.eu/wiki/FAQ#Is_Darkcoin_going_to_implement_ring_signatures.3F
A higher network hashrate. http://bitinfocharts.com/darkcoin/
Is more commonly known in the crypto community and social media. http://topsy.com/analytics?q1=darkcoin&q2=cloakcoin&via=Topsy


Cons:


Was instamined over 2 million DRK on launch, due to only a few having access to the windows mining client and not publicly released for some time. And due to problems with the difficulty readjustment. http://wiki.darkcoin.eu/wiki/FAQ#Was_Darkcoin_Instamined.3F

XCurrency:


Pros:

Known dev team http://xc-official.com/the-xc-team/
Decentralised trustless Privacy in several layers, https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=630547.0
Encrypted messaging XChat https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=630547.msg8119953#msg8119953
multi-path implementation that employs multi-sig to route fragments of transactions down separate paths through the network, compounding anonymity while adding redundancy and security http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/news/xcurrency-unveils-cryptographic-privacy-technology-wake-nsa-xkeyscore-outrage/2014/07/04

Cons:


Premine of 125k (2.27% of all coins to exist in the form of a premine) https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=630547.18800
ANN on Bitcointalk is also self moderated (after unmoderated thread turned into a fud fest, so requested by community) https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=630547.0

Supercoin:


Pros:

Supersend feature http://cryptocoins.co/supercoin-supersend-feature
POS superblocks http://cointelegraph.com/news/112195/supercoin-a-trustless-decentralized-anonymous-p2p-network

Cons:

Supersend based on Coinjoin www.super-coin.net/SuperSend.pdf

[numisma]

Hello,

just wanted to point out that, speaking from experiences, that volume comes and goes. Be aware of that, all these breathtaking coins had volume at some point, rising the price up, then it just vanishes! But take into the consideration the amount of volume throo a longer period, which DRK has.

-N.

[FreedomCoin]

I think the reason volume is up for Cloak at the moment is due to the bullish market.. alot of people buying and holding. Verses Darkcoin is going down in price and people are just holding, or occasionally buying up at lower prices.. If you could short Darkcoins i am sure the volume would increase.

[numisma]

I agree with both your statements. (I think I saw one more comment?)

From my point of view, I always check the very top or the peak of the "pump", if I can express myself like that. And I always like to see where's the bottom or where is the "base", where people would rather hold then sell. And at the moment, we can't see these details from Cloak, but DRK has hit the bottom at the moment in my opinion, while Cloak is still rising. We shall see very soon how things turn out.

So if you take the Cloak's volume as a Pro, is way to dangerous to say, because as fast as you can earn money, you can also lose it..

-N.

[burner2014]

Nice thread!

What I would like people to compare:

1.  POSA vs. the RC4 Masternode System


2. One Market  vs. the opportunities with the Rc4 Masternode System


3. The Developer Team Cloak vs. The Developer Team Dark

Cheers guys!

Disclaimer: I want to be neutral so I cannot discuss, I ask questions

[numisma]

While we're at it, why not add XCurrency also into this discussion? All three coins are in the same basket, aren't they?

[Sleepyx]

3. The Developer Team Cloak vs. The Developer Team Dark

Cloak, who knows
Dark, Evan Duffield
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/evan-duffield/15/455/986

Software Developer / Owner
Hawk Financial Group
February 2014 – Present (6 months) Phoenix, AZ

Software Developer
iAcquire
Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Marketing and Advertising industry
March 2012 – February 2014 (2 years) Scottsdale, AZ

Software Developer
Wells Fargo Bank
Public Company; 10,001+ employees; WFC; Financial Services industry
2011 – March 2012 (1 year)

Software Development / Consulting
Warped AI, LLC
January 2009 – February 2011 (2 years 2 months)

Specialties
Software Development, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Databases, C++, C, Perl, PHP, MySQL, Linux

[salmion]

Darkcoin uses a trustless system of multiple premixing advanced conjoin variant more like it.

More pros for darkcoin

- while darksend+ is still closed source how it works has been explained (unlike PosA - could be great, could be useless, who knows, hope it's good because competition is good)

- Code review by the creator of conjoin sudoko - kristov atlas so if he says it's good, it's good.

- Higher volume over a longer time period (cloak is shooting up and well done to them but on average DRK has had way higher volume for way longer)

Cons
the instamine could you include http://wiki.darkcoin.eu/wiki/FAQ#Was_Darkcoin_Instamined.3F
Written about in detail and people can make their own minds up.

And include sources in general..

[rethink-your-strategy]

Cloak, who knows
Dark, Evan Duffield
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/evan-duffield/15/455/986

Software Developer / Owner
Hawk Financial Group
February 2014 – Present (6 months) Phoenix, AZ

Software Developer
iAcquire
Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Marketing and Advertising industry
March 2012 – February 2014 (2 years) Scottsdale, AZ

Software Developer
Wells Fargo Bank
Public Company; 10,001+ employees; WFC; Financial Services industry
2011 – March 2012 (1 year)

Software Development / Consulting
Warped AI, LLC
January 2009 – February 2011 (2 years 2 months)

Specialties
Software Development, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Databases, C++, C, Perl, PHP, MySQL, Linux

You'll notice that, unsurprisingly, he has no experience or education in mathematics and cryptography, the two things you need for a cryptocurrency.

I think both Cloakcoin and Darkcoin are irrelevant, in a year or two they'll be nothing more than a bootnote on a Wikipedia article on failed cryptocurrencies.

[Sleepyx]

Cloak, who knows
Dark, Evan Duffield
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/evan-duffield/15/455/986

Software Developer / Owner
Hawk Financial Group
February 2014 – Present (6 months) Phoenix, AZ

Software Developer
iAcquire
Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Marketing and Advertising industry
March 2012 – February 2014 (2 years) Scottsdale, AZ

Software Developer
Wells Fargo Bank
Public Company; 10,001+ employees; WFC; Financial Services industry
2011 – March 2012 (1 year)

Software Development / Consulting
Warped AI, LLC
January 2009 – February 2011 (2 years 2 months)

Specialties
Software Development, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Databases, C++, C, Perl, PHP, MySQL, Linux

You'll notice that, unsurprisingly, he has no experience or education in mathematics and cryptography, the two things you need for a cryptocurrency.

I think both Cloakcoin and Darkcoin are irrelevant, in a year or two they'll be nothing more than a bootnote on a Wikipedia article on failed cryptocurrencies.

Well... Kristov Atlas is looking at the code and said in a video yesterday he will be helping in test net. Hes a pretty big deal.
http://anonymousbitcoinbook.com/pages/about-the-author

Hi, my name is Kristov, and I wrote Anonymous Bitcoin.

I've been in the computer security space for a while now. After I completed B.S. and M.S. degrees in Computer Science, I worked as an independent security researcher and an employed consultant. During much of that time, I evaluated the security of a variety of business websites, including those belonging to the largest corporations in the world.

[illodin]

You'll notice that, unsurprisingly, he has no experience or education in mathematics and cryptography, the two things you need for a cryptocurrency.

Note though, that he is not creating new cryptography, he is using well established, true and tested existing cryptography.

Mathematicians and cryptographers have often produced new crypto that has later been proven faulty.

I think both Cloakcoin and Darkcoin are irrelevant, in a year or two they'll be nothing more than a bootnote on a Wikipedia article on failed cryptocurrencies.

Offtopic. Create a new thread for your predictions.

[PoS]

The issue with Darkcoin is the release at the most  inconvenient time, Sunday 4 AM and then instamining the shit out of it with 50 Amazon AWS nodes and 50 microsoft cloud computing, no windows wallet is just another minor fact.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=560138.msg7535561#msg7535561
I did have a fair few darkcoins but exited Dark and got Cloak about a week ago.

[FreedomCoin]

While we're at it, why not add XCurrency also into this discussion? All three coins are in the same basket, aren't they?

Sure i am open to that, can you send me some pros and cons with sources to each point?

[stealth923]

And this is just another few reasons why Darkcoin coin will succeed:

• Darksend+ technology which has over 6 months of development and been written from the ground up to evolve previous solutions, this is how you get better, you try, and try again until you succeed. Success very rarely happens on the first go
• Darksend+ huge advantage that coins are anonymized & denominated through 8 masternodes and sent back to the user. The user can then send straight to the recipient anonmyously. This removes any responsibility/liabilities that MN owners could have. Competitor coins all forward coins through their systems which is flawed.
  
• Professional solution explanations with diagrams to clearly how the proposed solutions will work
• Full transparency to the testing environment where everyone is involved, nothing is hidden
• Open communication about what bugs they are tackling, this shows confidence in the solution
• World class team, leading innovation which all coins just look toward and copy in some way shape or form
• Taken seriously enough to have Kristov Atlas onboard to help review and improve the technology
• Over 830 masternodes which their potential has not even begun to be realized, and already solves many economic pitfalls apparent in the BitCoin node design. 830 Masternodes is likely more than any competitor has for wallets open at a single point in time.
• IP obfuscation solution has been announced and the solution will be open sourced after Kristov review is the last piece of the puzzle.

Now compare this to some of the competitors who:

• 4-6 weeks old and have not had any REAL discussions on how the technology actually applies to design & attack weaknesses. When questioned, replies like "we have thought and tested through these scenarios"....so suddenly you are world leading security experts and can test against all known attack vectors.
• Release whitepapers with a box with a single word in it which supposed to encompass the entire solution, my 3 year old can do this
• Have to tell their users to "refrain" from using the solution when they release it, then why release it?
• When questioned about their solution, delete the posts in their thread and in the media deliver one line statements like "the data is encoded to hide the sender"...but how..?
• Cannot even get anonymity working so lets start coding an entire openmarket to give more hype....If you dont think anonymity is a serious and complex enough solution, you obviously have no idea.
• Can only make videos as justification to prove it works.
• Have no background to the development team as they are 100% anonymous. What if they are just great video editors and graphic designers.
• Both of the main competitors use Proof of Stake and have given only 1 week of PoW....this is taking centralization to a new level.
• Dev's have admitted to not having great anonymity, and are still trying to think of solutions for bad actors such as centralized black listing which was floored in the XC rev 1.0 design and hence thrown out. Additionally now possibly copying Darkcoin by requiring to have "small investments" to become a node
• Have made no announcements or plans to open source.
  

[rethink-your-strategy]

Note though, that he is not creating new cryptography, he is using well established, true and tested existing cryptography.

Mathematicians and cryptographers have often produced new crypto that has later been proven faulty.

Oh absolutely, I'm not suggesting he invent new cryptography. I'm suggesting he provide cryptographically sound mathematical models to show how these "masternodes" are impervious to collusion, Sybil attacks, or an attacker DDoSing the DarkCoin P2P port on enough of them so that they control a sufficient number. This is the sort of thing anyone competent would do BEFORE they start coding.

So, keeping it in line with topic:

Darkcoin Cons:
- lack of peer-reviewed cryptography
- lack of understanding of threat models
- developer is clearly incompetent (see failed RCwhatever releases causing forks)
- whitepaper contains no mathematical proof of the resilience of the anonymity set to attacks
- whitepaper contains a mathematical formula for the block reward curve that is completely unrelated to the actual block reward curve (see Darkcoins in Circulation - First 128 days, and Darkcoin Block Reward Emission Curve - First 128 Days), implying either a completely incompetent developer, or a developer that actively and aggressively cheats

Cloackcoin Cons:
- lack of peer-reviewed cryptography
- lack of understanding of threat models
- "elected" nodes open to Sybil attacks and cheating
- whitepaper contains no mathematical proof of the resilience of the anonymity set to attacks
- uses PoS, which introduces lots of technical failures and methods of cheating of its own

[stealth923]

Note though, that he is not creating new cryptography, he is using well established, true and tested existing cryptography.

Mathematicians and cryptographers have often produced new crypto that has later been proven faulty.

Oh absolutely, I'm not suggesting he invent new cryptography. I'm suggesting he provide cryptographically sound mathematical models to show how these "masternodes" are impervious to collusion, Sybil attacks, or an attacker DDoSing the DarkCoin P2P port on enough of them so that they control a sufficient number. This is the sort of thing anyone competent would do BEFORE they start coding.

So, keeping it in line with topic:

Darkcoin Cons:
- lack of peer-reviewed cryptography
- lack of understanding of threat models
- developer is clearly incompetent (see failed RCwhatever releases causing forks)
- whitepaper contains no mathematical proof of the resilience of the anonymity set to attacks
- whitepaper contains a mathematical formula for the block reward curve that is completely unrelated to the actual block reward curve (see Darkcoins in Circulation - First 128 days, and Darkcoin Block Reward Emission Curve - First 128 Days), implying either a completely incompetent developer, or a developer that actively and aggressively cheats

1) Kristov Atlas is reviewing the code and design right now.
2) Wrong - this has been discussed in depth for over 6 months, why do you think its 2500 pages. People like anonymint have given the thumbs up even over Monero.
3) Software development to this scale and complexity is not a fool proof science, id like to see you try. At least he is full time and trying until he and the team succeeds.
4) & 5) Look here for things like collusion probability

https://darkcointalk.org/threads/development-updates-july-15th.1788/
https://darkcointalk.org/threads/development-update-july-30th.1924/

fernando on the darkcointalk.org forums created a chart outlining the probability of unmasking a Darksend by way of Masternode collusion at depths of both 2 and 8 Masternode hops:

2 hops: http://goo.gl/g1dQ3C
8 hops: http://goo.gl/TcWoF0

[humanitee]

- developer is clearly incompetent (see failed RCwhatever releases causing forks)

By this logic Satoshi and Gavin are also incompetent.  

It's almost like software development is a complicated process. Who knew?



CLOAK
Cons:
Nobody knows how it's anonymity feature works, nobody can explain it, not even a rough technical outline, and therefore nobody knows whether or not it's trustless. Are you literally sending your coins to a node? Nobody knows.

[rethink-your-strategy]

1) Kristov Atlas is reviewing the code and design right now.
2) Wrong - this has been discussed in depth for over 6 months, why do you think its 2500 pages. People like anonymint have given the thumbs up even over Monero.
3) Software development to this scale and complexity is not a fool proof science, id like to see you try. At least he is full time and trying until he and the team succeeds.
4) & 5) Look here for things like collusion probability

https://darkcointalk.org/threads/development-updates-july-15th.1788/
https://darkcointalk.org/threads/development-update-july-30th.1924/

fernando on the darkcointalk.org forums created a chart outlining the probability of unmasking a Darksend by way of Masternode collusion at depths of both 2 and 8 Masternode hops:

2 hops: http://goo.gl/g1dQ3C
8 hops: http://goo.gl/TcWoF0

1. Peer-reviews consist of multiple eyes on things, not a single person. Either way, let's see what comes out of that. At this stage I have my doubts about him being unbiased.

2. I know you're talking bullshit. Do you know you're talking bullshit? Here is AnonyMint's overview of anonymous cryptocurrencies. He lists many common "cons" among the coins (many of which are not credible threats at this juncture, if you want my personal opinion). He does, however, make a point of noting that Monero (and Boolberry, by extension) are "cryptographically unlinkable & untraceable", whereas he notes that DarkCoin is not as anonymous, as it suffers from "unlinkability Sybil attack on masternodes". The only thing AnonyMint says about Cloakcoin is that, in respects to DarkCoin, "this is the best CloakCoin's anonymity could improve to as it is similar conceptually in design".

3. Nobody is expecting fool-proof. Everyone is expect, at least, that an incredibly simple block reward formula in the whitepaper works in the code. That is not the case, and incompetence in one area almost always indicates incompetence elsewhere.

4. and 5. (no clue how this relates to 5) - collusion on its own is irrelevant. Of course it will be ineffectual. It would always be coupled with the compromise or the DDoSing of additional "masternodes". In such an event, the number of available masternodes is massively reduced, which means the the little Google spreadsheet is incorrect. Many hosts will null-route a dedicated server (even more so a VPS) if it is experiencing a DDoS. Other attacks such as a DDoS group constantly requesting a stream of blocks from a masternode would lead to its traffic exceeding normal use and massive traffic bills. Similarly, a DDoS group could broadcast thousands of bad blocks a second to a masternode, leading to it chewing through CPU cycles doing very heavy X11 verifications, ultimately leading to it becoming inaccessible or being killed by the oomkiller. Those are just off the top of my head, of course, and the attack stands regardless of whether these specific scenarios can be mitigated against.

[FreedomCoin]

I agree with both your statements. (I think I saw one more comment?)

From my point of view, I always check the very top or the peak of the "pump", if I can express myself like that. And I always like to see where's the bottom or where is the "base", where people would rather hold then sell. And at the moment, we can't see these details from Cloak, but DRK has hit the bottom at the moment in my opinion, while Cloak is still rising. We shall see very soon how things turn out.

So if you take the Cloak's volume as a Pro, is way to dangerous to say, because as fast as you can earn money, you can also lose it..

-N.

Since Cloak has been out on the market less time, and is currently listed on less Exchanges. I think the price can drop and rise more aggressively. As you stated, it goes both ways. Dark has been dropping pretty smoothly for the last month so we will see with time how gracefully the price of Cloak readjusts itself.

Nice thread!

What I would like people to compare:

1.  POSA vs. the RC4 Masternode System


2. One Market  vs. the opportunities with the Rc4 Masternode System


3. The Developer Team Cloak vs. The Developer Team Dark

Cheers guys!

Disclaimer: I want to be neutral so I cannot discuss, I ask questions

1. I believe the PoSA algo has been used for some time so there is more real world testing done with it. Please correct me if I am wrong, the RCs Darkcoin has released were pretty Darkcoin centric and not based on existing algo’s. Nothing wrong with not taking the beaten path, and with that came many more RCs. But he keeps trying and that’s whats important. I hate to quote Edison as I am a Telsa fan, but he has a good point “"I have not failed 1,000 times. I have
successfully discovered 1,000 ways to NOT make a light bulb."

2. OneMarket and the MasterNode systems are both brand new techs, With one Market you will get away from the centralized Tor site issue that many other Darknet sites suffered from. And regarding MasterNodes, it’s a great way to get involved in getting Devidends from the Darkcoin network without the huge waste of power consumption of POW. As before the only other way was POS, which was basically getting interest for holding coins in your wallet. MNs help secure the network, and you get paid at the same time, but without the massive power comsumption.

3. As Sleepyx stated a couple posts after you not much is known about the Cloakcoin Devs. Evan is known and I believe they were talking devs on the darkcoin forum to use their real names for their avatars. Not sure how that turned out.

Darkcoin uses a trustless system of multiple premixing advanced conjoin variant more like it.

More pros for darkcoin

- while darksend+ is still closed source how it works has been explained (unlike PosA - could be great, could be useless, who knows, hope it's good because competition is good)

- Code review by the creator of conjoin sudoko - kristov atlas so if he says it's good, it's good.

- Higher volume over a longer time period (cloak is shooting up and well done to them but on average DRK has had way higher volume for way longer)

Cons
the instamine could you include http://wiki.darkcoin.eu/wiki/FAQ#Was_Darkcoin_Instamined.3F
Written about in detail and people can make their own minds up.

And include sources in general..

I believe the Darkcoin team stated they will open Darksend+ code, though Cloak has not made any claims they are planning on releasing source code.
Code review by the creator of conjoin sudoko - kristov atlas: I believe we are still waiting on his findings, I am quite excited to see what he has found.. Does anyone know if Kristov is planning on working with the CloakCoin Devs to do the same?

+1 on the volume

Added sources as well.

The issue with Darkcoin is the release at the most  inconvenient time, Sunday 4 AM and then instamining the shit out of it with 50 Amazon AWS nodes and 50 microsoft cloud computing, no windows wallet is just another minor fact.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=560138.msg7535561#msg7535561
I did have a fair few darkcoins but exited Dark and got Cloak about a week ago.

Yes it was unfortunate when they launched, I wonder what their reasons were for only a 7 day POW system. To me it is quite suspicious….

And this is just another few reasons why Darkcoin coin will succeed:

• Darksend+ technology which has over 6 months of development and been written from the ground up to evolve previous solutions, this is how you get better, you try, and try again until you succeed. Success very rarely happens on the first go
• Darksend+ huge advantage that coins are anonymized & denominated through 8 masternodes and sent back to the user. The user can then send straight to the recipient anonmyously. This removes any responsibility/liabilities that MN owners could have. Competitor coins all forward coins through their systems which is flawed.
  
• Professional solution explanations with diagrams to clearly how the proposed solutions will work
• Full transparency to the testing environment where everyone is involved, nothing is hidden
• Open communication about what bugs they are tackling, this shows confidence in the solution
• World class team, leading innovation which all coins just look toward and copy in some way shape or form
• Taken seriously enough to have Kristov Atlas onboard to help review and improve the technology
• Over 830 masternodes which their potential has not even begun to be realized, and already solves many economic pitfalls apparent in the BitCoin node design. 830 Masternodes is likely more than any competitor has for wallets open at a single point in time.
• IP obfuscation solution has been announced and the solution will be open sourced after Kristov review is the last piece of the puzzle.

Now compare this to some of the competitors who:

• 4-6 weeks old and have not had any REAL discussions on how the technology actually applies to design & attack weaknesses. When questioned, replies like "we have thought and tested through these scenarios"....so suddenly you are world leading security experts and can test against all known attack vectors.
• Release whitepapers with a box with a single word in it which supposed to encompass the entire solution, my 3 year old can do this
• Have to tell their users to "refrain" from using the solution when they release it, then why release it?
• When questioned about their solution, delete the posts in their thread and in the media deliver one line statements like "the data is encoded to hide the sender"...but how..?
• Cannot even get anonymity working so lets start coding an entire openmarket to give more hype....If you dont think anonymity is a serious and complex enough solution, you obviously have no idea.
• Can only make videos as justification to prove it works.
• Have no background to the development team as they are 100% anonymous. What if they are just great video editors and graphic designers.
• Both of the main competitors use Proof of Stake and have given only 1 week of PoW....this is taking centralization to a new level.
• Dev's have admitted to not having great anonymity, and are still trying to think of solutions for bad actors such as centralized black listing which was floored in the XC rev 1.0 design and hence thrown out. Additionally now possibly copying Darkcoin by requiring to have "small investments" to become a node
• Have made no announcements or plans to open source.
  

"Full transparency to the testing environment where everyone is involved, nothing is hidden:"

I believe a lot of their code is not subject to review, only when working closely with their team such as Mr Atlas would be able to see whats in the software at this moment.. Hopefully that will change soon.


"4-6 weeks old and have not had any REAL discussions on how the technology actually applies to design & attack weaknesses."

I believe they will find out the hard way when hackers test it.


"Darksend+ huge advantage that coins are anonymized & denominated through 8 masternodes and sent back to the user."

I am curious how long it will take to send and receive coins when going through 8 MNs. Seeing RC4 live should answer that.

Note though, that he is not creating new cryptography, he is using well established, true and tested existing cryptography.

Mathematicians and cryptographers have often produced new crypto that has later been proven faulty.

Oh absolutely, I'm not suggesting he invent new cryptography. I'm suggesting he provide cryptographically sound mathematical models to show how these "masternodes" are impervious to collusion, Sybil attacks, or an attacker DDoSing the DarkCoin P2P port on enough of them so that they control a sufficient number. This is the sort of thing anyone competent would do BEFORE they start coding.

So, keeping it in line with topic:

Darkcoin Cons:
- lack of peer-reviewed cryptography
- lack of understanding of threat models
- developer is clearly incompetent (see failed RCwhatever releases causing forks)
- whitepaper contains no mathematical proof of the resilience of the anonymity set to attacks
- whitepaper contains a mathematical formula for the block reward curve that is completely unrelated to the actual block reward curve (see Darkcoins in Circulation - First 128 days, and Darkcoin Block Reward Emission Curve - First 128 Days), implying either a completely incompetent developer, or a developer that actively and aggressively cheats

Cloackcoin Cons:
- lack of peer-reviewed cryptography
- lack of understanding of threat models
- "elected" nodes open to Sybil attacks and cheating
- whitepaper contains no mathematical proof of the resilience of the anonymity set to attacks
- uses PoS, which introduces lots of technical failures and methods of cheating of its own

"This is the sort of thing anyone competent would do BEFORE they start coding."


It is very hard to protect from zero day attacks by definition of their nature. Of course there are many ways to do penetration testing on your products but many will be unforeseen until they occur. It would seem both coins are testing ground breaking tech, the question is what exploits will be found.

[FreedomCoin]

Cons:
Nobody knows how it's anonymity feature works, nobody can explain it, not even a rough technical outline, and therefore nobody knows whether or not it's trustless. Are you literally sending your coins to a node? Nobody knows.