Hey Guys, Just wanted to have a quick chat re privacy coins | Coin Bureau Insider

Hey Guys,

Just wanted to have a quick chat re privacy coins

As you folks may know, I am a fan of Monero and have covered it on numerous occasions on the channel.

Many people have asked me my view on Zcash given that it is perhaps the biggest challenger to Monero.

Well, I have covered Zcash in the past and I do think it is an impressive piece of kit. However, there were a few things that I did not necessarily like. These include the corporate dev team as well as that elaborate "ceremony" key destruction event.

However, perhaps one of the biggest concerns for me is the opt-in privacy. Basically, users will have to choose whether they would like to send a shielded (private) transaction.

This is in contrast to Monero where *all transactions* are private by default. There is no chance to opt-in.

So, why is this better?

Well, when you send a shielded transaction on Zcash, the transaction is automatically viewed with suspicion. Other users choosing to use transparent transactions and addresses impacts on your privacy as a shielded (hidden) transaction sender.

I think this handy image sums it up best:

https://i.redd.it/y3feevo2ca371.png

Simply, having a part private part private blockchain invites intense scrutiny on the private transactions. With Monero on the other hand, everything is private. You cannot discern between them and hence, cannot discriminate.

Yes, Zcash is more favourable from an exchange listing perspective but if it’s at the expense of privacy, that defeats the purpose. Exchanges that do list ZEC won't be accepting those shielded transactions.

My hope is that one day we will get to stage where there will be much less reliance on centralised exchanges. If we could get to a reality where all trading is done on chain in a decentralised manner - that would be the dream.

And, on this point, a few weeks ago we had the first XMR-BTC atomic swap.

https://twitter.com/coinbureau/status/1398351873330008080

There are also several other cross-chain solutions which could act as a bridge for XMR. Those that come to mind include the likes Thorchain:

https://twitter.com/THORChain/status/1382549265319223298

There have also been tokenized ERC20 XMR solutions such as wrapped Monero etc.

So, XMR could not only be private but decentralised in that there would be no reliance on CEXs.

I will need to come back to the privacy coin question at some point but thought I would just address it quickly now