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Zcash (ZEC)

Bittrex Says Sayonara To Monero And Other Prominent Privacy Coins

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Bittrex made news earlier this week after it decided to suspend trading services for XRP. The crypto exchange is once again making news after it bid adieu to popular privacy coins. The cryptocurrency industry started out as a station free from any scrutiny from the government or any form of regulation. However, it seems like that’s all in the past now as regulations are getting more severe which has coerced several crypto exchanges to comply by the regulators. Bittrex seems to be getting on the good books of financial watchdogs with its latest act.

Bittrex Kicks Out XMR, ZEC As Well As DASH

Back in 2019, the FATF’s travel rule shook the crypto world. Prominent privacy coins like Monero [XMR], Zcash [ZEC] along Dash [DASH] was subject to immense unrest after the financial regulators categorized these assets as a medium for illicit activities. The hidden traction details posed as a huge drawback for these coins. While several exchanges were considering delisting privacy coins, irrespective of their popularity, Bittrex went ahead and announced the same.

In a recent tweet, Bittrex revealed that it intended to delist Monero, ZCash, and Dash on 15 January at 23:00 UTC. The tweet read,

The exchange’s blog post did not reveal the exact reason for the removal of these assets, it suggested that its regulatory standards, as well as compliance-related problems, could pave the way to the delisting of assets. On 15 January, all pairs that users were trading the aforementioned privacy coins would be nonexistent. The blog post further read,

“After the markets are removed, Bittrex generally seeks to provide users up to 30 days to withdraw any delisted tokens, but in certain instances the withdrawal period may be shortened. Users should withdraw any tokens before the posted withdrawal deadline.”

The crypto exchange affirmed that users could withdraw their tokens unless the exchange is subject to technical difficulties.

This announcement led to an array of downfall. Privacy coin Monero was seen dropping by over 17% at the time of writing, thanks to the Bittrex delisting news. At press time, the coin was priced at $136.80. DASH and Zcash were also following suit as these assets plummeted by 13.33% and 11.16% in the last 24-hours.

Research: 99.9% of Zcash Transactions are Traceable

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A recent analysis of the traceability of the leading privacy coins on the market suggests that 99.9% of Zcash transactions can be tracked since most users do not make use of the privacy features provided.

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University focused on the privacy features of the top two privacy coins, Monero (XMR) and Zcash (ZEC). According to the study report, the launch of the strict, security and anonymity conditions of its extensive community has maintained the reputation of the crypto as undetectable.

99.9% of Zcash transactions can be trailed

On the other hand, the study states that despite Zcash offering robust cryptographic features, over 99 percent of users do not have the privacy features at their disposal. The report defines ZEC as a Bitcoin fork that aims to  “completely break the link between the sender and the receiver.”

In addition, the study concludes that Zcash is not currently extensively used. The researchers mention the May 2020 darknet study, which claims that ZEC is not the most favourable of the privacy coins used in the dark web. ZEC uses SNARKs or zero-knowledge succinct non-interactive knowledge arguments to avoid any interplay between the prover and the approver. This is a barricade that hinders attempts to interconnect addresses.

However, ZEC provides both privately protected and anonymously open transactions. Researchers found that only 0.09 per cent of Zcash users over 30 days; take full advantage of the privacy features at their disposal.

30% of Monero transactions can be trailed

In addition, the study points out that more cryptocurrencies are looking to label themselves as anonymous. These altcoins sell the concept that they offer absolute anonymity to transactions.

The study focuses on multiple XMR characteristics that are geared to non-traceability and non-linkability. In order to ensure no interlinking, a one-time address for each transaction is adopted. In addition, Monero avoids trailing by using unique ring signatures, a form of zero-knowledge proof, close at hand with decoy inputs dubbed mixins. However, the study found that 30% of XMR transactions can be monitored precisely.

ZCash Blockchain to Play an Important Role in Building Coronavirus Contact Tracing Application

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The spread of coronavirus has uncovered a number of vulnerabilities in today’s society. This crisis was not restricted only to developing countries, but also to a number of developed nations.

Several institutions have been wracking their heads in order to come up with solutions to combat the raging pandemic. In the midst of this, ZCash, a popular cryptocurrency organization, has begun developing its own contact tracing system to stem coronavirus spread.

The ZCash application will be used to track people who have come into contact with the virus. According to the developers, the key difference between the ZCash app and those on the market was the privacy factor. ZCash developers have pointed out that the open-source setup of the application will ensure that user information is always kept private.

Many companies, both in the mainstream and decentralized ecosystems, have stepped up to contribute what they can. Sydney Ifergan, an Honorary Advisor of Hong Kong International Blockchain Association recently tweeted:

“Ideally, we need contact tracing technologies which do not steal our privacy. We need to really think beyond the pandemic. Good that #Zcash Foundation is a part of making contact tracing without surveillance vide the #TCN Coalition.”

Experts have said that contact tracing was one of the easiest ways to decrease the pressure on local governments and stem the spread. One of the biggest challenges governments have faced are related to keeping people inside their homes and identifying who the actual carriers are. Russia, for example, has been toying with the idea of creating an application that would monitor citizens’ movements but that has naturally received backlash from critics.

According to ZCash, one of the key objectives of the application will be to operate across platforms as well as in several regions around the world. The application will be part of the Coalition for a Temporary Contact Number [TCN]. TCN is an extensible open-source ecosystem that is free to use and ready for immediate implementation. To ensure the smooth operation of the system, the temporary tracing number protocol will be compatible with any mobile device.

Peter Van Valkenbrrrgh, a board member at ZCash added that everyone should be vigilant against the imposition of tracing and identity technologies. He believed that such features could have negative long term effects on citizens’ privacy and autonomy. The approach of total tracing on people’s lives may be happening in China but it should not happen in the US, said Valkenbrrrgh.

Tron’s Justin Sun takes to Twitter to promote ZCash’s zk-SNARKs

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The cryptocurrency market is now at a critical juncture. The prices have dipped, and several people have started spreading rumors and FUD. It is at this time that Justin Sun has taken up the responsibility of uniting the members of the cryptocurrency community together.

Collaborations between cryptocurrency organizations have been considered as a hallmark for developments in the digital assets industry. Experts and proponents of the industry have reiterated the adage that the involvement of several minds to carry the crypto field forward is a significant key for mainstream adoption. This mantra seems to have hit home with Tron’s chief executive Justin Sun, who recently tweeted:

“I’d like to give a shout out to Zcash & all developers that contributed to zk-SNARK!  We’d like to contribute our efforts to zk-SNARK & make it available in smart contracts to support TRC-10 & 20 tokens & DPOS mechanism. We’ll contribute more to privacy coin!”

ZCash is currently ranked 23rd on the cryptocurrency charts and was steadily climbing up before the bear market took over. Sun’s step of promoting a compatriot has been seen as a move to bring the cryptocurrency community together at a time of crisis. Zk-SNARK’s was created by ZCash to act as a stalwart for zero-knowledge cryptography.

The “Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Argument of Knowledge” refers to a proof of construction where any single user can prove the hold on specific information. According to ZCash, that feature is “a secret key, without revealing that information, and without any interaction between the prover and verifier.”

Zk-SNARK’s blocks malicious actors from creating counterfeit coins by generating the public parameters through an elaborate multi-party ceremony. The feature can be added to any existing distributed ledger solution as zero-knowledge security later, especially for enterprise companies and their use cases.

Tron’s offer to make zk-SNARKS available in smart contracts can be considered as an attempt to build a smart contract application more viable and secure. The Foundation had made several strides in smart contract implementation over the past couple of weeks, and its tie-up with Samsung was the icing on the cake.

The Tron community or the Tronics has fully backed Justin’s decision, and some of the members have even gone as far as to claim that it might even trigger a bull run. The ongoing bear market hit a crescendo when Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, broke below the $7000 barrier while Tron fell by 5.41 percent during the 24-hour time frame.

Disclaimer: The presented information is subjected to market conditions and may include the very own opinion of the author. Please do your ‘very own’ market research before making any investment in cryptocurrencies. Neither the writer nor the publication (TronWeekly.com) holds any responsibility for your financial loss.

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‘Mimblewimble should not be considered as a viable replacement to ZCash or XMR,’ claims new research

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The Mimblewimble technology and the Grin token based on it had created news earlier in the cryptocurrency industry after claims of new security measures and an increased use cases for the tokens. Recently, however, a cryptocurrency industry official has revealed that he was able to break Mimblewimble’s privacy technology using cheap methods.

Ivan Bogatyy, the General Partner at MetaStable Capital, claimed that the new technology’s privacy was fundamentally flawed and that he was able to uncover sender and receiver addresses for 96 percent of Grin transactions.

What makes this news more astounding was the fact that the details could be snatched away from users in real time. According to Bogatyy, Mimblewimble faced systemic issues that could not be fixed with a debugging and urged users to not consider it as a viable replacement to privacy-oriented cryptos such as Monero and ZCash.

According to the author of the paper that pointed out the shortcomings of the technology:

“Several researchers have hypothesized a possible privacy weakness in Mimblewimble. My contribution is to demonstrate the precise way to perform an attack, prove its viability on a live network, and measure its efficacy. In live testing on Grin, I was able to unmask the flow of transactions with a 96% success rate. Therefore, it’s now clear that Mimblewimble should not be relied upon for robust privacy.”

Bogatty has pointed to Mimblewimble’s linkability feature as its downfall, adding that cryptocurrencies like ZCash did not face this problem because it is an unlinkable cryptocurrency blockchain. Because of the linkability feature, anyone can track a sender/ receiver’s location after deobfuscating the transaction graphs.

The author also made a comparison analysis with Mimblewimble against ZCash and Monero. When it comes to the internal architecture of a ZCash transaction, it was found that each private set included all shielded coins. These shielded coins are the ones that are assumed to provide anonymity as well as privacy.

Monero transactions derive their privacy from the set of all “decoy transactions”. The paper admitted that Monero did have its specific set of ingrained issues but still performed better than Mimblewimble on a per-privacy factor basis. The main problem in Mimblewimble pointed out by the author was that it has one unshielded coin that can be tapped into for transactional information.

The research was candid in mentioning that despite its flaws, the Grin token [based on Mimblewimble] was still more privacy-oriented than Bitcoin.

Disclaimer: The presented information is subjected to market conditions and may include the very own opinion of the author. Please do your ‘very own’ market research before making any investment in cryptocurrencies. Neither the writer nor the publication (TronWeekly.com) holds any responsibility for your financial loss.

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What can Litecoin learn from Monero, Zcash and other privacy coins?

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Litecoin’s co-founder, Charlie Lee, explains the company’s hidden work on Litecoin core development and states that privacy feature “MimbleWimble” shall be ready within 2019. While Litecoin will soon have its privacy-feature, what should it learn from existing privacy-centric coins? Let’s dig deeper.

LTC to Hit Privacy Feature in 2019

Few argue that Litecoin’s eight years journey comes by copying the Bitcoin’s code, Charlie Lee went on to Twitter and explains how and what development aspects the project is focusing on.

It comes in the wake of firing criticism on Lee’s action of cashing out his LTC stash and community’s talk of no code commits appear in 2019. On August 10, 2019, Lee released a series of tweets, explaining that a handful of core developers are working on the Litecoin Core. Lee says that;

It’s no secret that we have purposefully kept Litecoin’s code very close to Bitcoin’s code. Since we are mostly just merging in Bitcoin changes, we only need a lead Litecoin Core developer doing the merges and the rest of us help with code reviews, testing, and gitian builds.

Lee defends Litecoin development FUD, stating that the similar arguments occurred in 2018 and bets that people might have a similar thought in 2020 also. While addressing the concern of the community, urging privacy-enabling protocols in Litecoin, Lee hints MimbleWimble and Confidential Transactions feature.

He quickly marks that MimbleWimble will be live sometime in 2019. While this was announced earlier in Feb, there were no further updates occurred, neither from founder nor from the company. For which, he says that “he dropped the ball” and shifted focus on adoption. However, he later requested an apology for lack of communication. Moreover, he claims that “fungibility is extremely important and says he will get the ball rolling on MW/CT again.”

That said, I believe it’s time now for me to shift focus from adoption back to development. I still think fungibility is extremely important and I will get the ball rolling on MW/CT again. This time, I won’t make any promises on dates.

While he denies declaring any date for the development of MW, users can expect sometime this year.

The Lesson for Litecoin from Existing Privacy-Centric Coins

Litecoin by having Mimblewimble will debut privacy feature just like other privacy-centric coins such as Zcash, Monero, Dash, and many others.

Monero is by far known for its privacy-centric feature but doesn’t bother working within the regulatory regime. Since its launch in 2014, Monero has now hit the market cap of 1.3 billion. It says that crypto exchanges will shift in crypto-friendly countries and Monero remains available for trading across a handful of crypto exchanges in these countries.

ZCash – similar to Monero, ZCash is a cryptocurrency mostly comes in the picture for its cutting-edge privacy feature. It claims that most regulators, including the UK, US, and Singapore, welcome ZCash and eventually its trading are also available across top exchanges such as Coinbase and Gemini. While ZCash works similar to Cash, it claims that existing AML and terrorist financing rules can be applied to it.

Dash – This cryptocurrency perhaps is one of the leading assets in terms of adoption. It was created as a fork of Litecoin in 2014, and just like Litecoin (LTC), the transactions and addresses of Dash are also transparent. The project built DarkSend on top of Dash’s architecture as a privacy feature.

Besides, it has recently signed a partnership deal with BlockchainIntel with a mission to develop a tool that analysis crypto transactions and addresses. This tool will eventually help exchanges (that list Dash) to detect high-risk transactions and address.

Research believes that the soon after collaboration announcement, Coinbase exchange announced its decision to explore Dash cryptocurrency.

Sources:

Coinut

Editor’s note: The article was updated on August 22, 2019, to mention Coinut being used as a primary source while writing it.

Disclaimer: The presented information is subjected to market condition and may include the very own opinion of the author. Please do your ‘very own’ market research before making any investment in cryptocurrencies. Neither the writer nor the publication (TronWeekly.com) holds any responsibility for your financial loss.

Never miss our daily cryptocurrency news, price analysis, tips, and stories. Join us on Telegram | Twitter or subscribe to our weekly Newsletter.