Many believed Bitcoin was anonymous when the original Bitcoin whitepaper was released in 2009. This document created the roadmap for Bitcoin and its social contract. In the section of the whitepaper that deals with privacy, it is stated that the way to maintain privacy would be by preventing the information from flowing in a different place. This could mean keeping the public keys secret. Public can view that someone has sent money to another person, without any information linking it to them. A second firewall is used, which requires that each transaction be accompanied by a unique key pair. This prevents the transactions from being linked with a single owner.
Bitcoin’s users could move money around the globe without the need for a third-party. This was a key feature that made it so popular. Users could send money around the world without having to reveal their identities. At least, that’s what the users believed.
The Daily Beast reported in August 2017 that the Internal Revenue Service had purchased software designed to track people who use Bitcoin. This was based on a contract obtained by them.
This shows that the authorities are concerned not just with criminal activity associated with Bitcoin but also those who use Bitcoin to conceal their wealth or avoid taxes.
According to the contract, the acquisition was made in order to assist the IRS with tracking the flow of money within the Bitcoin ecosystem. Contract was signed by Chainalysis – a company that offers its “Reactor” software to track, visualize and analyze Bitcoin transactions. Chainalysis users include banks and regulators, as well as law enforcement agencies.
Software can track Bitcoin from wallet to wallet, until it reaches an exchange. The Bitcoin user is likely to cash out in dollars or other currencies. At this point, law enforcement can issue a warrant to the exchange in order to find out who’s behind the Bitcoin.
Since Bitcoin has not been in a hurry to fix this problem, they are more concerned with scaling issues. People have started to develop new crypto currencies that claim to be fully anonymous.
Consider using it as a privacy layer when purchasing crypto.
Ten cryptocurrencies with the potential to remain anonymous
Anonymous cryptocurrencies
Anonymous means “without any name”. The term “anonymous”, in colloquial usage, is used when the name of the person acting is not known. It is important that the person cannot be identified, reached, or tracked. The idea of anonymity can be seen as an attempt to achieve other values such as privacy or freedom.
1. Monero
Monero, according to the website of its developers, is the most popular cryptocurrency. It focuses on transactions that are private and resistant to censorship. Bitcoin and Ethereum use transparent blockchains, which makes transactions easily traceable. These transactions could be linked to real identities by the sending and receiving addresses. Monero, however, uses cryptography in order to protect both the sending and receiving address as well as any transacted amount.
Monero’s privacy is ensured by ring-signed transactions, rings of confidential transactions and untraceable addresses. These hide origins, amounts and destinations.
Monero can also be interchangeable or fungible, as it’s private by default. Vendors or exchanges cannot blacklist Monero units because previous Monero transactions are not connected.
2. Komodo
Komodo’s platform has strong privacy features. The platform allows investors to buy and sell goods and services while maintaining their privacy. The entrepreneur can also release their product and crowdsource funds from an audience who may want to keep this privacy.
Komodo’s native currency is KMD, which allows users to make both private and transparent transactions. KMD was forked from Zcash15, and has retained its privacy features. The most important are the Zcash Parameters and zk SNARK Technology. They allow users to transfer funds over a public chain without leaving any data for analysis.
The claim is that the privacy provided is permanent, making it one of the strongest forms of privacy on the blockchain. Zcash and zk SNARK provide users with the foundation to make KMD anonymous and transparent without leaving a crypto trail. Zcash is the fork of Bitcoin. All the features that Satoshi designed for the Bitcoin protocol can be found in Komodo.
3. Dash
PrivateSend is Dash’s key privacy feature. You can enjoy complete privacy as the source of your money is hidden. This is an innovative method where you input your money with two others. Your coins are not removed from your wallet, so you always have control over your money.
The PrivateSend system begins by dividing your transaction into smaller amounts such as 0.01 DASH, 0.1 DASH 1 DASH or 10 DASH. Masternodes are then informed of your interest in mixing denominations. Masternodes won’t know your identity.
When two people with the same denomination send a mixing request, it starts the process. The masternode transforms the inputs, and then instructs the wallets of all three users to return the transformed input to them. The wallet sends the denomination to itself directly, in a new address.
Repeat the procedure if you wish to hide your money further. The process of multiple repetitions makes it more difficult to determine the origins of your funds.
You do not need to participate in this process. Your funds will be anonymized before you make the transaction.
4. Zcash
Zcash, according to its website, is the first cryptocurrency open and permissionless that uses zero-knowledge encryption for transactions.
Zcash uses the zk-SNARK zero-knowledge construction to enable users to make public payments similar to Bitcoin. Users can send Zcash either privately or publicly. They have the option of using shielded addresses, transparent ones, and a combination. If you sent Zcash to a protected address from a transparent one, the amount will be visible. The amount will not be revealed if the payment was made to a transparent address from a shielded one.
5. Zcoin
Zcoin and Zcash should not be mixed. Both projects use the same zero-knowledge proofs and share a common author for their respective whitepapers.
Zcoin breaks all transaction links by using zero-knowledge proofs. A zero-knowledge proof basically proves that you know or did something, without divulging any additional information. You can prove that you are familiar with a password by revealing it but not the actual password.
Zcoin allows you to mint coins and later redeem them for a new number (referred to as Zcoin Spend). The coins are like newly-mined coins, as they have no transaction history. This zk proof is used to show that coins were indeed burned without having to reveal the exact coins. You are then entitled to redeem a number of clean new coins in exchange.
6. Verge
Verge utilizes multiple networks that are centered on anonymity, such as TOR or I2P. Users’ IP addresses are obscured and all transactions are untraceable.
The Onion Router, or TOR as it is known in short form, was the name of the original project. It’s an IP-obfuscation system that allows anonymous communication over a circuit-based network. I2P, a tunneling service that uses ipv6, anonymizes Verge data sent across the network.
Wraith Protocol is the most prominent feature of Verge. The Verge Blockchain allows users to select between public or private ledgers. When the Wraith Protocol has been enabled, the transaction will be linked to a stealth address. This means that it cannot be viewed through the blockchain explorer. When it’s OFF, all transactions will be linked to a public address.
7. Bitcoin Private
Bitcoin Private, a fork-merge of Bitcoin and Zclassic, is designed to bring privacy and spending capabilities to the Bitcoin Blockchain while still being cognizant of challenges, decisions, and previous failures.
Bitcoin Private uses zk-snarks for privacy purposes, similar to Zcash. This means payments will be published in a public Blockchain, but sender, receiver and transaction details are anonymized.
Transparent transactions are the same as Bitcoin transactions where all transaction data is stored on the blockchain. The same is true for transparent transactions, where the transaction data of all transactions are stored in the blockchain. The data for the shielded transaction is encrypted in a special part of the block known as the JoinSplit. This section can be verified but not deciphered by third parties.
In contrast, shielded transactions encrypt the details in a section called JoinSplit. The transactions can be verified but are indecipherable by six third party observers.
8. Spectrecoin
Spectrecoin is a privacy-focused cryptocurrency that features an energy-efficient Proof-of-Stake algorithm. It provides fast transaction confirmations and ring signatures to ensure privacy. The wallet also integrates TOR, OBFS4 and a layer of IP obfuscation.
All nodes on the Spectrecoin Network have a hidden service address. Participants to the network only know their IP addresses.
Spectrecoin also supports OBFS4, an obfuscation system that conceals the type of traffic it receives. Spectrecoin can be used in places like China and Iran where TOR access is censored. The integration of OBFS4 essentially ‘wraps up’ the TOR network traffic into another layer, making it look like normal internet traffic.
Spectrecoin offers this privacy feature as the only coin.
9. PIVX
PIVX is a cryptocurrency that was designed to preserve privacy and security for users. This is the world’s first Proof of Stake Coin with Zerocoin Protocol (called zPIV), and Zerocoin Staking (named ZPOS); an entirely new Proof of Stake Algorithm that provides unparalleled privacy and transaction speed.
zPIV offers coin mixing services using zero-knowledge proofs, which ensure anonymity and traceability for both the sender as well as the recipient. Each coin sent with zPIV has been made 100% fungible, as they have no history.
The wallet of a user who wants to transfer zPIV amounts to PIVX addresses sends to the blockchain a proof that the amount is zero knowledge. This allows for the conversion back into PIV in one step.
As zPiv creates new coins when spent, if a user can prove that they have coins in their accumulated pool with zero knowledge, then the transaction history of the coin from the previously linked addresses will be unlinked, resulting in an untraceable payment.
10. NavCoin
NavCoin, a cryptocurrency based on Bitcoin, offers additional features such as speedier transactions and lower electricity consumption. NavCoin uses the Proof of Stake algorithms to secure its network, unlike Bitcoin.
NavTech is a separate blockchain platform and software built on the NavCoin Protocol to allow private transactions. Users can choose to encrypt the transaction data to be sent over the NavTech Blockchain, and thus cut off the connection between two addresses.
NavTech’s private payment system is based on RSA. This widely-used and well-studied algorithm. The keys are currently 2048 bits long, which is considered to be safe.
Legal authorities are concerned that anonymous coin can be used to conduct illegal activities such as money laundering or the sale of prohibited substances. FBI investigation of the anonymous Silk Road marketplace proved Bitcoin’s use for criminal activities.
Privacy currencies are considered illegal by many due to their misuse. Privacy coins are legal.
Since 2013, the US Senate has recognized virtual currencies as legal exchange methods, as do decentralized payment systems. Digital currencies are allowed in other countries, such as the United Kingdom. However, they must be subjected to VAT. It is still unclear whether the EU will regulate crypto markets.
This is a comparative analysis of coins that are privacy-focused – originally appeared on Reddit.
Comparison:
Monero (XMR) vs. Bitcoin (BTC) vs. Zcash (ZEC) vs. Dash (DASH) vs. Verge (XVG).
The comparison between Monero and Bitcoin, and other so-called privacy coins is meant to be objective and factual.
Please send us a message if you think there are any errors.
| Terms | Criteria |
| Private | The amount of coins you own, send and receive are not observable on the Blockchain. There should be no “rich list” (a list of the largest coin holders). |
| Untraceable/Unlinkable | The coins you send and receive are not traceable (to or from), nor linkable by way of transaction history. |
| Fungible | Every coin is worth the same value and is thus mutually interchangeable. No coin risks potential blacklisting nor devaluement due to deprecating transaction history. |
| Decentralized | All nodes have equal power and control; there are no nodes that have more influence than others, i.e. masternodes. The currency is not created, maintained nor represented by any one person or company, i.e. a central authority. |
| Private | Untraceable/Unlinkable | Fungible | Decentralized | |
| Monero (XMR) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Bitcoin (BTC) | X | X | X | ✓ |
| Zcash (ZEC) | ? | ? | X | X |
| Dash (DASH) | X | X | X | X |
| Verge (XVG) | X | X | X | ✓ |
- Privacy, Traceability, Linkability
Monero’s default privacy setting is encrypted. This includes stealth addresses, and RingCT (RingCT).
This FREE guide will help you find out more about influencers and whales.
Email Subscribe
The recipient can receive several payments at once, and the Blockchain will not link their address to anyone else’s. The stealth address system allows for this, as a randomly generated one-time transactional address is created automatically by each sender. All payments to the recipients are sent through unique blockchain addresses, which prevents links and masks the recipient.
The original sender can still trace the movement of coins by the recipients (if they ever do), by using the outputs in the blockchain. Ring signatures are used to solve the issue of traceability. Ring signatures mask the outputs so that the sender cannot tell which coins are being moved. This provides untraceability. The outputs are masked by grouping transactions on the blockchain together to hide them and allow for plausible denial.
In January 2017, Monero introduced ring-confidential transactions (RingCT), an improved version of ring signatures. confidential transactions is a cryptographic method that hides the transaction amount, but still allows the network to confirm the transaction amount, without having to disclose any details. Confidential transactions include cryptographic proof that sums of input and output are the same, but without divulging the numbers. Source.
Monero Project currently develops Kovri – a C++ version of the I2P Network. Kovri adds an additional layer of privacy and security, the most important being that IP addresses are not associated with transactions . Kovri, which is in the process of development, will be available soon.
Linkability can be prevented by using stealth addresses. Ring signatures mask the output so that the sender cannot track where and when the coins sent to the receiver are moved. This obfuscates traceability while providing plausible denial. RingCT is a type of RingCT. Confidential transactions are cryptographically hidden, but still allow the network to confirm the transaction without having to disclose any details. Kovri masks the IP address of a user so that it is not linked to their transaction.
Monero by default is private, but users can choose to selectively reveal their balance. This is done by sharing the key. Monero has a semi-transparent option and is by default private. A transactor can choose to show their payment, or allow their balance to be revealed with their key.
- Fungibility
Monero’s untraceability, unlinkability, and cryptographic privacy features prevent coins from being devalued or tainted with transaction histories. Monero is not at risk of being blacklisted or devalued. All coins have the same worth and can be interchangeable.
- Decentralization
Monero’s leadership is a volunteer effort. Forum funding system is used to fund developers. Developer meeting logs and development decisions are made public. All changes and the source code of Monero Project are accessible on ‘s official Monero GitHub.
- Privacy, Traceability, Linkability
Bitcoin is not a privacy-preserving technology and has never made such a claim. Bitcoin’s blockchain is transparent. Every transaction is visible to anyone. The amount sent, the history of that transaction and its status are all easily viewed. Bitcoin transactions can be easily traced and linked. Your Bitcoin address may be “anonymous”, in the sense that it contains no personal information. name, address, etc.) If you attach a name, address or other information to your bitcoins (e.g. If you attach a Bitcoin address to it, then at some point in the future your bitcoins will be cashed out (e.g. You can buy Bitcoins from a retailer, but you risk linking your identity with your Bitcoin addresses and your Bitcoins’ transaction history.
- Fungibility
All Bitcoins do not have the same worth. Bitcoin’s blockchain is transparent, so the history of transactions associated with your Bitcoin can devalue it. Exchanges, regardless of your innocence or guilt, have blacklisted Bitcoins in the past.
As per our standard policy, any transaction that we consider to be in violation of our Terms of Service will result in a blacklisting of all associated addresses. The spokesperson said that they are monitoring the situation closely to see if any more addresses have been associated. Source.
- Decentralization
Bitcoin is a decentralized system. It is notable that it was the first peer-to-peer network to be decentralized.
- Privacy, Traceability, Linkability
Zcash employs a method for cryptographic privacy known as “zk SNARKs”, which stands for Zero-knowledge Succinct non-interactive Argument of Knowledge. Zero-knowledge proofs are a simple way of proving that information sent to another party is true. The amount of money is not broadcasted, but only the fact it’s true. HTTP Source . In other words: “You can verify that computations are correct without executing them, and you won’t even know what was performed – only that they were done correctly.” HTTP Source .
Zcash has no privacy concerns on a cryptographic level (even though zk SNARKs is a relatively new development, and there’s been little peer review), but it’s worth examining how Zcash handles privacy. Zcash allows users to choose optional privacy. Privacy (“shielding”), therefore, isn’t enabled by default. Zcash’s blockchain shows that as of this writing, approximately 5.05% (or a small percentage) of funds is held in private addresses using zero-knowledge to guarantee privacy. However, the majority of Zcash transactions are public and easily observable. As of this writing, according to Zcash’s use statistics only about 500 transactions in the last month have been “fully shielded”, masking recipient and sender, along with the transaction amount, on an equivalent level as Monero default privacy. Only a fraction of the 148541 transactions that were transparent and the 20818 transactions that were partially shielded, or 0.3%, of the transactions in the last month, used the “full” shielding feature. This is equivalent to Monero’s default transaction privacy.
Zcash does not come with a “privacy by default”, mainly because of the inefficiency of zk SNARKs. It is expensive and slow to create a zero-knowledge transaction (zk-SNARKs). You need a complete node running, as well as 4GB RAM for a few minutes before the transaction can be sent. Source. Because the majority of blockchain transactions are transparent, users that use privacy functions stand out. An attacker may try to isolate these few privacy-focused users. When mixing services, Bitcoin transactions can appear suspicious. This is the case for ZCash as well. “Monero transactions are not suspicious, because all of them look the same.” source.
Zcash supporters, on the other hand, reject this information. It is argued that the first step before a block reward is spent must be to send the ZEC to a secure address. This is because it is programmed in this way, and can’t be bypassed. That is what ‘default privacy’ is. Proponents reject claims that only 10% of Zcash transactions are private, stating that 23% of network transactions are protected. .. These arguments are, however, misleading. Bitcoin Core developer Greg Maxwell stated the following in a Coinbase presentation:
The private transaction option is optional because Zcash could not plausibly mandate it. As a result, only a small percentage of transactions on the Zcash network actually make use of this feature. The raw figures show that 24% are private transactions, but this is misleading because most of the miners use mining pools and they immediately blind the coins. If you separate the mining load then it could be as low as 4%. This ‘perfect anonymity’ system doesn’t provide the best anonymity. It’s cool, I like it, I am glad people are trying out this system, but I wouldn’t want to propose it for something as important as Bitcoin. Source.
Due to Zcash’s transparent blockchain it is possible to corroborate transactions. For example, if a transparent account sends an amount to a shielded wallet and then transfers that same amount back to the transparent wallet. Knowing the inputs and outputs allows us to infer what was previously private. ‘” Source.
Matthew Green is currently a member of the Zcash team. He wrote Zerocoin, whose protocol has been improved into Zerocash and which then gave rise to Zcash. He said previously, “Zerocoin will give you an incredible level of privacy, and we can add features that allow the police to, for example, track money laundering.” “A backdoor.”
- Fungibility
Zcash is not fungible because the transactions and blockchain are public by default. This makes it possible for a third party to blacklist or deny Zcash, just like Bitcoin. Zcash, therefore, is not fungible even if the coins are “mixed” by sending them to both a shielded and transparent address. It is possible, as stated above, to corroborate transactions when an address that is transparent sends money to a shielded account and then transfers the same amount to another address. Knowing the inputs and outputs allows us to infer what was previously private. ‘” Source.
- Decentralization
Zcash, a cryptocurrency, is operated by the Zerocoin Electric Coin Company . It has a number of investors and a CEO. Source.
In the first 4 years the company will take 20% of the coins that are mined. This is a reward for “founders” and “investors”. The coin production will drop to 25 coins every 10 minutes after the first four years. Only then, will miners get 100% of their mining. After the 21,000,000 coin cap is reached, “founders and investors” as well as employees, advisors, and other staff can own approximately 10% of the coins. Source.
Zcash (i.e. The Zerocoin Electric Coin Company was based on Zerocoin’s original project that yielded Zerocash, and then the Zcash cryptocurrency. Source.
Zcash launched using a multi-party calculation, also called a trusted setup. “The public parameter (zk-SNARK) providing and verifying key” was constructed by six people in a special ceremony.
- Andrew Miller (Zcash advisor)
- Peter Van Valkenberg (Zcash “board member” Source. )
- John Dobbertin, a pseudonym, is a person who has yet to be identified. I do not know yet when John or I are ready. )
- Zooko Wilcox, founder and CEO of Zcash
- Derek Hinch, NCC Group (a cyber-security consulting group).
- Peter Todd (Bitcoin Core Developer).
The Zcash Protocol requires a trusted setup phase due to technical issues. This secret key (also known as “cryptographic toxic waste”) can be stolen to create counterfeit coins and steal from all users. All six participants must either collude to reveal the secret key or have their integrity compromised. The emphasis is on the second option: There are many ways in which participants can be compromised without their consent. Source.
The total number of coins in circulation is not guaranteed from the start, and it may be impossible to know how many there are. Nick Szabo said that trusted third parties were security holes. . Nick Szabo is the father of smart contract technology. . It is impossible to audit Zcash in order to determine whether the “multi-party computation ceremony” failed or will fail again in the future. This “multi-party computing ceremony” for the trusted setup took place from October 21 to 23, 2016. Source.
Peter Todd, one of six people who took part in Zcash’s trust setup and a Bitcoin Core developer, said the following:
Be 100% clear, the @zcashco trust setup is a hidden backdoor. has no method of proving that it’s been disabled. It is 100% different from other systems. 3:44 PM, 1 November 2016 source .
Trusted is what the zcash setup means. It is not trustless. source . 10:34 PM, 1 November 2016 .
In May 2017:
Thinkpad T520 I used for the @zcashco trusted setup was 100% vulnerable to this: https://arstechnica.com/security/2017/05/the-hijacking-flaw-that-lurked-in-intel-chips-is-worse-than-anyone-thought/ … See: https://support.lenovo.com/it/en/product_security/len-14963#ThinkPad … 4:19 PM – 8 May 2017 Source.
The air gap should have been able to protect the set-up because it was only the network computer that had and not computenode. It shows that the paranoia is 100% warranted. 4:22 PM, 8 May 2017. Source.
Airgap is the only thing that could prevent the Intel AMT from compromising the @zcash trust setup. 4:22 PM, 8 May 2017. . Source.
As a response to , if you were asked: Does this make any difference in the way that you view the sacredness of the Zcash Ceremony?
A hacker may have compromised DVDs that were burned and checked on laptops with vulnerabilities. 4:34 PM, 8 May 2017. source.
It’s possible to burn DVDs that are and not only read-only. Source. 4:34 PM 8 May 2017.
How will you recheck your DVDs in response to the tweet? I guess it’s possible to backdoor DVD via twin sector method https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_Disc_and_DVD_copy_protection#Twin_sectors … 1/2
It seems reasonable to check a variety of DVD burners with and without burning capability. Source . 4:56 PM 8 May 2017. ..
As a response to a Tweet: The ISO may have been compromised by subtle means (specific libraries that are known for being bad, e.g. The MPC could have been implemented badly, or even the ISO itself.
I think that there’s not been enough focus on this. It’s a lot of stuff you can only determine after the event. 3:35 AM, 9 May 2017. Source.
Bitcoin Core developer Greg Maxwell stated the following in a Coinbase presentation:
Zcash cannot be unconditionally secure with the current technology. Not even close. Zcash is a crypto that requires the use of a “trusted setup”. This means a group of people who are trusted must come together. If they cheat they will be able to break it and cause unbounded inflation. If there is a crypto-break, or if the trusted setup was broken, that’s bad news. They did some stuff in Zcash, with a ritual that increased trust.
Zooko Wilcox, CEO and founder of Zcash, stated in a discussion on Twitter about the ransomware attack, and the difficulties associated with converting illicitly obtained cryptocurrencies into fiat currencies:
By the way, if we try hard enough, we could make Zcash so that it is not traceable by criminals, like WannaCry. But still, completely anonymous & fungible. … 6:22 AM – May 12, 2017 . Source.
… at least as long as the criminals are willing to pay fiat money (years, decades? decades?). source . 6:23 PM, 12 May 2017.
/// 6:25 PM – 12 May 2017 sup>a href=”https://twitter.com/zooko/status/863203438259191808″>Source/a>. /// 6:25 AM – May 12, 2017 CSS Source.
He then backtracks.
What if we pretend that I didn’t say this? 4:56 PM, 13 May 2017. source .
- Privacy, Traceability, Linkability
Dash does not have any cryptographic privacy. Dash offers “privacy”, utilizing a version of CoinJoin, which was originally created to “anonymize Bitcoins”. Dash is similar to Bitcoin in the sense that it uses a blockchain which by default is transparent, but offers optional privacy through mixing. The “PrivateSend’ feature is required to mix the coins. This sends them through a chain of CoinJoins. PrivateSend, in other words, mixes coins sent by the user with coins sent to other users through PrivateSend. The “privacy” of the coins increases the more “chains” and users that the coins “chain” together.
Source. This does not stop an attacker who has great resources (e.g. A government or group of hackers could consolidate masternodes to serve nefarious ends. There is also no way of auditing whether or not the masternodes are logging any information. The threat is exacerbated because most masternodes reside on VPS servers. This presents an unknowable vulnerability where the VPS provider could log data without consent from the masternode’s owner. PrivateSend’s mixing process can take several hours, or even days, to finish, depending on how many rounds you choose to use.
Dash’s blockchain offers transparency and a rich list. The fact is that all transactions can be viewed by anyone. Coins mixed with the PrivateSend function look suspicious compared to regular transactions.
- Fungibility
Dash is transparent and uses “privacy” only if it is desired. This means that an entity could blacklist or deny Dash addresses and coins.
- Decentralization
Dash provides masternodes, which are incentivized and require a certain setup to work. Masternodes are not only required to deposit 1,000 Dash coins in order to operate, they also have greater power, influence and control over regular nodes. Dash, then, is not completely decentralized because a small, wealthy group consolidates more control and power.
Dash also uses a feature called “sporks”, which is a multi-phased fork, that allows Dash’s development team to release its updated code to the whole Dash network. Sporks, which are variables that represent different functions and features, allow the Dash team to enable or disable features by using a secret key.
On August 30, 2017, Dash Core Developers announced that a possible exploit would enable an attacker with “6 or more Masternodes”, to perform either a double-spend or network fork. The development team responded by remotely disabling the affected feature (InstantSend) via sporks to prevent the attacker from launching the attack until the fix is released. The Source. “The only problem with Sporks” is the fact that they are a single key. It’s [sic] controlling a network that is decentralized.” source.
sup>a href=”https://dashpay.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/DOC/pages/103922706/Sentinel”>Source/a>./sup>. The Source. According to @fluffypony, with the power of the spork, Dash’s development team can – for instance – invalidate blocks from the last 24 hours to invalidate all transactions within those blocks. This opens up a vulnerability that allows the Dash Team to “deposit Dash, sell it and flip a button invalidating the deposit in the name of a fix.”
Dash’s centralized nature is due to the fact that it relies on sporks, the trusted system.
The “Dash Treasury” retains the remaining 10% of coins per block, and will be allocated to any independent contractor or service provider who wants to provide services such as programming, marketing, graphic design, or other services that help improve and promote Dash currency. The remaining 10% is retained by “Dash Treasury”, which will be allocated monthly to independent contractors or service providers who want to “hire” Dash to perform services such as marketing, graphic design or programming.
- Privacy, Traceability, Linkability
Verge does not offer any cryptographic privacy. Verge offers only “privacy”, which is achieved by using Tor and I2P Routing to obscure traffic and hide a user’s IP Address when they transact. Source. The blockchain does not offer any cryptographic privacy, including the ability to link and track transactions, addresses or amounts. The blockchain is transparent and allows anyone to see all information including amounts and destinations of transactions. Verge’s blockchain has fewer transactions, which makes it less private, and more traceable and linked. Verge also offers a list which is why it’s not at all private.
The video was released on September 4, 2017 and then taken down and uploaded by another party. It announced the implementation of the stealth address. However, this is not confirmed, and stealth addresses do not provide enough privacy. This is especially true when it comes the traceability and privacy of the amount being transacted.
- Fungibility
Verge’s blockchain is transparent, so it’s possible for an entity or person to blacklist Verge addresses and coins.
- Decentralization
It is also a Bitcoin-clone and thus carries the decentralization attribute.
