Monero Announcement - Reading Assignment

Privacy Coins - Ultimate Course
#121

  1. April 25th 2014

  2. 7

  3. The ZK environment allows an anonymity set that includes everyone in the network because the validity of an output can be proven without knowing the corresponding public key until it is spent

  4. The mixing of outputs, not inputs

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#122

When was the thread published, and how many times has it been read?
[XMR] Monero - A secure, private, untraceable cryptocurrency
April 25, 2014, 12:38:50 AM
Activity: 54
Merit: 120

How many ‘core team’ members are there?
The official core team members are (in no particular order) - Riccardo “fluffypony” Spagni, luigi1111, NoodleDoodle, smooth, tacotime, Franciso “ArticMine” Cabañas, othe
7

What are the stated benefits over ZeroCoin and ZKP-based approaches?
Ring signatures are much simpler and more mature, with many peer-reviewed papers published over more than a decade.

What are the stated benefits over CoinJoin-based approaches?
The differences arise in the departure from the Bitcoin protocol, which allows XMR to use new cryptography to provide decentralized and trustless mixing of superior quality.

XMR’s ring signatures are also far more secure and convenient than CoinJoin because they mix outputs not transactions. This means a transaction doesn’t involve waiting around for other senders to mix with. Nor is a user restricted to mixing only if others are sending the same amount. Arbitrary amounts can be sent at any time without anyone else’s participation. This feature makes a timing analysis of the blockchain useless.

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#123

What a colourful article! I love how the fluff was just striped away the people posting just presented what they thought. Really enjoyed the main post and the follow up comments.

#124

Ok, just saw Read 132403 times.

#125

  1. When was the thread published, and how many times has it been read?
    April 25, 2014, 12:38:50 AM. (Read 4640908 times)

  2. How many ‘core team’ members are there?
    Riccardo “fluffypony” Spagni, luigi1111, NoodleDoodle, smooth, tacotime, Franciso “ArticMine” Cabañas, othe

  3. What are the stated benefits over ZeroCoin and ZKP-based approaches?
    Ring signatures are much simpler and more mature, with many peer-reviewed papers published over more than a decade

  4. What are the stated benefits over CoinJoin-based approaches?
    Transaction doesn’t involve waiting around for other senders to mix with. Nor is a user restricted to mixing only if others are sending the same amount. Arbitrary amounts can be sent at any time without anyone else’s participation. This feature makes a timing analysis of the blockchain useless.

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#127
  1. The thread was published on April 25, 2014. 12:38:50AM and read 4641366 times.
  2. There are 7 core team members for (XMR) Monero.
  3. The stated benefits over ZeroCoin and ZKP are Ring signatures & one time keys.
  4. The stated benefits over the CoinJoin based approach are
 using the ring signature to randomly mix outputs instead of transactions.
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#128

  1. When was the thread published, and how many times has it been read?
    April 25, 2014, 12:38:50 AM - It has been read 4,641,588 times.

  2. How many ‘core team’ members are there?
    At the time of posting there were 7 core members listed.

  3. What are the stated benefits over ZeroCoin and ZKP-based approaches?
    ZeroCoin uses Zero Knowledge Proofs which is more experimental and untested cryptography. It also obscures the entire-economy rather than just the sender/receiver.

  4. What are the stated benefits over CoinJoin-based approaches?
    XMR’s ring signatures are more secure, and it relieves the dependence on the operator that CoinJoin has.

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#129

1.Published at 25.04.2014 ----- 4641746 times.

  1. There are 7 core team members.

  2. The stated benefits over ZeroCoin and ZKP based approaches are Ring signatures and statekeys.

  3. Benefits are mixing outputs, not the transactions. So no waiting for other senders for mixing, so no request for a central server.

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#130

  1. When was the thread published, and how many times has it been read?
    April 25, 2014, 12:38:50 AM - 4641895 times

  2. How many ‘core team’ members are there?
    7

  3. What are the stated benefits over ZeroCoin and ZKP-based approaches?
    ring signatures and one time key

  4. What are the stated benefits over CoinJoin-based approaches?
    Unlike the “CoinJoin” mixing method, CryptoNote mixes outputs not transactions. This means no other senders need to be participating with you at the same time or with the same amounts. Any arbitrary amount sent at any time can always be rendered fundamentally indistinguishable

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#131
  1. When was the thread published, and how many times has it

been read?

the thread was originally published mon April 25, 2014, 12:38:50 AM; as of 29.01.2021, it has been read (Read 4641928 times , as of 29.01.2021

  1. How many ‘core team’ members are there? There are 9 Core Team members of Monero

The official core team members are (in no particular order) - Riccardo “fluffypony” Spagni, luigi1111, NoodleDoodle, smooth, tacotime, Franciso “ArticMine” Cabañas, other

  1. What are the stated benefits (of Monero aka of or in 2014) over ZeroCoin and ZKP-based approaches?

Ring Signatures (more secure and convenient than CoinJoin because they mix outputs not transactions ) and one-time keys (that make transactions unlikable)

  1. What are the stated benefits (of Monero aka XMR in 2014) over CoinJoin-based approaches?

XMR = mixes output(s), not (just) transactions. As a user, one is not bound to only mixing when others send equal amounts, making at any time, any amounts available to be sent, without relying on the participation others, effectively making a blockchain timing analysis effectively useless.

2 Likes
#132

Monero Announcement - Reading Assignment

  1. When was the thread published, and how many times has it been read?
    It was published on April 25,2014 and has until to this day 31/01/2021, been read 4.641.964 times.

  2. How many ‘core team’ members are there?
    7 core team members.

    • Riccardo “fluffypony” Spagni,
    • luigi1111,
    • NoodleDoodle,
    • smooth,
    • tacotime,
    • Franciso “ArticMine” Cabañas,
    • othe

  3. What are the stated benefits over ZeroCoin and ZKP-based approaches?
    It uses dual layers of privacy provided by one-time keys and ring signatures.

  4. What are the stated benefits over CoinJoin-based approaches?
    Monero mixes outputs, but not transactions like CoinJoin and therefore no other senders are needed to be participating with the user at the same time, or with the same amounts.
    Arbitrary amounts can be sent at any time without anyone else’s participation. This feature makes a timing analysis of the blockchain useless.

1 Like
#133
  1. When was the thread published, and how many times has it been read?
    Apr 25th 2014. Read over 4.6 million times :open_mouth:
  2. How many ‘core team’ members are there? 6
  3. What are the stated benefits over ZeroCoin and ZKP-based approaches?
    ZKP is relatively new so issues may arise down the road.
  4. What are the stated benefits over CoinJoin-based approaches?
    CryptoNote mixes outputs not transactions
1 Like
#134

Monero Announcement - Reading

  1. The thread was published on 25th April 2014 at 12.38 AM.
    It has been read 464,2291 times.

  2. There 7 core team members - 1. Riccardo “fluffypony” Spagni", 2. Luigi1111, 3. NoodleDoodle, 4. smooth, 5. tactime, 6.Franciso “ArticMine” Cabanas, 7. othe.

  3. The stated benefit over ZeroCoin and ZKP(Zero Knowledged Proofs) is that it aims for a balance through dual layers of privacy provided by one-time keys and ring signatures. Ring signature are simpler and more mature( review papers published over more than a decade prove its efficacy).

  4. The stated benefits over CoinJoin - based approaches is that

  • fundamental cryptographic approach does not have vulnerabilities showed by Zerocoin and ZKP (eg VPS companies hosting the vast majority of nodes which will rely on the integrity and good behaviour of these nodes.
  • the quantity of anonymity is much higher as it uses a randomly selected nodes which is less likely to exhibit bad faith.
  • ring signatures are far more secure and convenient because of it mixing outputs not transactions
  • arbitrary amount can be sent anytime without anyone else’s participation. This makes the timing analysis of the blockchain useless.
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#135
  1. The thread was published on 4/25/2014. Where do you find how many times a thread has been read? Everyone’s answers are different in the forum.
  2. It looks like at least 6 with fluffypony leading.
  3. The stated benefits over zero coin and zero knowledge proofs are that you can’t double spend in order to preserve anonymity. It uses one time keys and ring signatures.
  4. The benefits over coinjoin is that it mixes outputs instead of transactions which means no other senders need to be participants with you at the same time or with the same amounts. Also, there is no need to trust operator.
1 Like
#136
  1. When was the thread published, and how many times has it been read?
  2. How many ‘core team’ members are there?
  3. What are the stated benefits over ZeroCoin and ZKP-based approaches?
  4. What are the stated benefits over CoinJoin-based approaches?

1- It was published on April 25, 2014, 12:38:50 AM, and was Read 4642333 times.

2- Seven

3- The ring signatures and the one time keys.

4- It mixes outputs and not TXs, and no need for a central operator.

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#137

  1. Monero was announced on the 25th of April in 2014 at the Bitcointalk forum, and since then has been read 4,642,870 times.

  2. There are seven official core team members of Monero including, fluffypony (Riccardo Spagni), luigi1111, NoodleDoodle, smooth, tacotime, ArticMine (Franciso Cabañas), and othe.

  3. ZeroCoin and zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP) implement recent research-level cryptography and lack sufficient analysis for security vulnerabilities, making them susceptible to future exploits. Whereas, ring signatures are much simpler, mature in design, and backed by decade-long research. Also, in ZKP-based approaches, there is a need to trust the generating party as they are required to destroy the RSA private key. If an attacker compromises the system of ZK, any damage caused remains hidden to everyone.

  4. New changes cannot be implemented to the cryptography of Bitcoin due it is hard-coded in its protocol. As a result, the input/output pairs of Bitcoin transactions cannot be mixed with other input/output pairs without a trusted operator. Monero solves this by creating a separate blockchain with new cryptography and provides trustless mixing.

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#138
  1. April 25,2014 and 4.64M
  2. 7
  3. At the time Zero-Knowledge Proofs were young and untested. Secondly if a ZKP was compromised a hacker could attack the network and spend fake coins without anyone being the wiser.
  4. The sender doesn’t need to wait around for others to also be sending money which limits the anonymity set in CoinJoin. Secondly you don’t have to trust a 3rd party mixing service or node to secure your information.
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#139

When was the thread published, and how many times has it been read?

April 25, 2014, 12:38:50 AM read 4643105 times

How many ‘core team’ members are there?

7

What are the stated benefits over ZeroCoin and ZKP-based approaches?

This type of cryptography has been around for a long time where as ZKP and ZeroCoin have not yet proven they are secure. The RSA private key must be destroyed by the generating party so the trust lies with them to do it.

What are the stated benefits over CoinJoin-based approaches?

It uses new cryptography techniques to provide trustless decentralised mixing techniques of a higher standard. Traditional mixing services hold information on servers that could be compromised or a government agency could force them to hand over information. Also with other CoinJoin iritteration trust lies with the integrity of the network. Monero ring signatures are far more secure as they mix the outputs and not the transactions, doesn’t need to wait for other mixers or rely on matching denominations with users looking to transact because it uses a previous transactions as a decoy.

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#140

  1. The thread was published on 25 April 2014 and was read 4643210 times.

  2. There are 6 core team members: Riccardo “fluffypony” Spagni, luigi1111, NoodleDoodle, smooth, tacotime, Franciso “ArticMine” Cabañas

  3. ZeroCoin and other ZKP-based approaches use state of the art, not tested, cryptography.
    “Other issues with ZKP include the RSA private key used to initiate the accumulator, which must be trusted to be destroyed by the generating party. It also obscures the entire economy, not just sender/receiver identities. If the ZK system is compromised, then an attacker can continuously spend coins that don’t exist using false proofs. This damage is hidden from everybody due to total blinding and consequently at any given time it’s not possible to know if the network has already been compromised. There is a tradeoff between these inherent risks and the maximal anonymity set provided by ZKP. CryptoNote aims for a different balance through the dual layers of privacy provided by one-time keys and ring signatures.”

  4. It’s more secure and convenient because a transaction doesn’t involve waiting around for other senders to mix with.

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#141

  1. The Monero Announcement Thread was published on April 25, 2014, 12:38:50 AM and, as of March 9, 2021, has been read 4643400 times.

  2. There are 8 core team members: Riccardo “fluffypony” Spagni, luigi1111, NoodleDoodle, smooth, tacotime, Franciso “ArticMine” Cabañas, othe

  3. One benefit of XMR over ZeroCoin/ZKP-based approaches is that

“Ring signatures are much simpler and more mature, with many peer-reviewed papers published over more than a decade”

Compared to ZKP (zero-knowledge proofs) where

“The largest risk is that this is recent research-level cryptography that hasn’t been subjected to years of cryptanalysis, so exploits may emerge down the road”

Another benefit of XMR over ZKP is that with ZKP, a big issue is

“the RSA private key used to initiate the accumulator, which must be trusted to be destroyed by the generating party. It also obscures the entire economy, not just sender/receiver identities. If the ZK system is compromised, then an attacker can continuously spend coins that don’t exist using false proofs. This damage is hidden from everybody due to total blinding and consequently at any given time it’s not possible to know if the network has already been compromised.”

Sounds like quite a huge downside to me!

  1. One benefit of XMR over CoinJoin-based approaches is its

“departure from the Bitcoin protocol, which allows XMR to use new cryptography to provide decentralized and trustless mixing of superior quality. The critical problem with mixing services is the need to trust the operators
”

On comparison, another downside of CoinJoin-based approaches is

“In practice, a few VPS companies host the vast majority of nodes and this approach relies on the integrity and good behavior of these nodes.”

Finally, XMR has the upside of its ring signatures that

“mix outputs not transactions. This means a transaction doesn’t involve waiting around for other senders to mix with. Nor is a user restricted to mixing only if others are sending the same amount. Arbitrary amounts can be sent at any time without anyone else’s participation.”

1 Like