Converging on Cryptocurrencies #2

Cryptocurrencies in General:

A bitcoin venture capitalist has created a prize competition for a new block cypher.

Asked on Slashdot: what cryptocurrency should people get into?

Bitcoin:

Due to the huge boom in bitcoin mining in Washington state, one utility wants to raise rates on the miners.

Researchers have found an easy way to crack the passwords (pdf) on bitcoin wallets.

How Chinese/Western cultural differences are causing problems for bitcoin development.

Apparently advocating for the use of bitcoin for third world nation is a form of "techno colonialism," according to a UN report.

Is Bitcoin going through a schism?  Or isn't it?  Or did it already with the creation of the altcoins?

The best way to improve  profitability for bitcoin mining might be to allow errors...wuh?

Some think bitcoin's future is really bright.   Others think its the blockchain that has a future, not bitcoin itself.

The launch of Bitcoin Classic may have been thwarted by several groups refusing to adopt the new software.

Anonymity:

The European Union wants to end "anonymous" transactions by bitcoin and prepaid credit card users.

The Estonian Supreme Court upheld a ruling that an entrepreneur was required to disclose information on his bitcoin using clients.

Crime:

Silk Road is a gift that keeps on giving.

A Proposal to Revamp Bitcoin Based on TOR Technology

Transaction Remote Release (TRR): A New Anonymization Technology for Bitcoin

Authors:

ShenTu et al

Abstract:

The anonymity of the Bitcoin system has some shortcomings. Analysis of Transaction Chain (ATC) and Analysis of Bitcoin Protocol and Network (ABPN) are two important methods of deanonymizing bitcoin transactions. Nowadays, there are some anonymization methods to combat ATC but there has been little research into ways to counter ABPN. This paper proposes a new anonymization technology called Transaction Remote Release (TRR). Inspired by The Onion Router (TOR), TRR is able to render several typical attacking methods of ABPN ineffective. Furthermore, the performance of encryption and decryption of TRR is good and the growth rate of the cipher is very limited. Hence, TRR is suited for practical applications.

pop sci write ups.

Shining a Light on Darkcoin

Someone out there likes anonymous money.

In only a month, the little-known bitcoin alternative known as Darkcoin has rocketed nearly tenfold in value–from around 75 cents a coin to almost seven dollars. Its selling point: Darkcoin offers far greater anonymity than bitcoin, mixing up users’ transactions so that it’s incredibly difficult to trace a payment to a person. And though few have yet to accept that more-anonymous coin for actual goods and services, the promise of Darkcoin’s privacy features seems to have sparked a miniature boom. It’s one of the fastest growing among the wave of cryptocurrencies that’s followed bitcoin’s success, with the total value of its combined coins topping out at nearly $30 million.

Darkcoin, supporters argue, serves a real privacy need. Despite its reputation for being more anonymous than traditional money, the bitcoin network actually allows anyone to see every transaction on a public accounting ledger known as the blockchain. Users often have to take extra steps, like mixing their coins in a “laundry” service, to prevent those addresses from being tied to their identity by any government or corporation that wants to snoop.

Darkcoin adds an extra layer of privacy by automatically combining any transaction its users make with those of two other users–a feature it calls Darksend–so that anyone analyzing the blockchain has a harder time figuring out where a particular user’s money ended up. “A large community believes that the way bitcoin’s blockchain is designed is a problem,” says Evan Duffield, the 32-year old Arizona-based software developer who launched Darkcoin in January. “Darkcoin has this anonymity aspect to it, which is attractive to a lot of people.”

link.

Dark Wallet: an Attempt to Anonymize Bitcoin Transactions

Government regulators around the world have spent the last year scrambling to prevent bitcoin from becoming the currency of choice for money launderers and black marketeers. Now their worst fears may be about to materialize in a single piece of software.

On Thursday, a collective of politically radical coders that calls itself unSystem plans to release the first version of Dark Wallet: a bitcoin application designed to protect its users’ identities far more strongly than the partial privacy protections bitcoin offers in its current form. If the program works as promised, it could neuter impending bitcoin regulations that seek to tie individuals’ identities to bitcoin ownership. By encrypting and mixing together its users’ payments, Dark Wallet seeks to enable practically untraceable flows of money online that add new fuel to the Web’s burgeoning black markets.

“This is a way of using bitcoin that mocks every attempt to sprinkle it with regulation,” says Cody Wilson, one of Dark Wallet’s two 26-year-old organizers. “It’s a way to say to the government ‘You’ve set yourself up to regulate bitcoin. Regulate this.’”

link.