However you may feel throughout this article that I am a little biased towards ZCoin. And yes, I will not deny this. Because I have been a long time community member of both of these projects and personally I think ZCoin has a much more transparent community and are actually concerned about the issues that are pointed in their technology. I will post facts and evidences of my findings. You should form your own opinions and identify the better project irrespective of the popular opinion.

For people who want a quick overview, there is a summary section at the end. However, I highly recommend to go through the complete article.

Let me start this article with the most common misconception that people have. They think that ZCoin is a fork of ZCash.

ZCoin is NOT a fork of ZCash

You can’t get any more wrong than this. ZCoin is based off the ZeroCoin paper while ZCash is based off the ZeroCash paper. The only common thing between these is that both these papers have the same authors. And yes, their names start with the letter ‘Z’.

Fun Fact: ZCoin was initially named Moneta

Philosophy

Before doing a deep dive between the protocol level differences, there is something I want to point out. The researchers behind ZCash have always thought about making a backdoor.

Bitcoin add-on makes your virtual purchases private

The article clearly states “….would give you this incredible privacy guarantee, then we could add on some features which let the police, for instance, to be able to track money laundering. A back door.”

Well, then, it’s not really private is it? The thing with bitcoin users is that they don’t like the people tracking their activity. That’s why they are using bitcoin. Adding a backdoor is a sure-fire way to guarantee that nobody uses their service. Simply suggesting that they *might* add a back-door is enough to keep me from using it.

Allowing authorities to view where the transactions went in a “backdoor” kind of defeats the purpose of it being anonymous.

The founder and CEO of ZCash tweeted this recently.

zooko on Twitter

And by the way, I think we can successfully make Zcash too traceable for criminals like WannaCry, but still completely private & fungible. ...

Now, for someone who is interested in anonymous coins, that is a complete turn-off!

This is from zerocash-project.org, an older site that visitors browsing the new z.cash domain will be unlikely to find. After all, Zcash requires trust to work, and hiding the details by using a slightly rephrased question doesn’t build confidence. The answer should also acknowledge that Zcash cannot guarantee that they will succeed in the trusted setup.

Now, coming back to the protocols.

ZeroCoin protocol is an earlier protocol and the authors then went on to create a new protocol call ZeroCash. Many people ask why ZCoin is using an “obsolete” technology. To answer this question, we will have to first understand why did the authors decide to create a new protocol.

Basically, ZeroCoin has a larger proof size (approx 25 Kb) whereas Bitcoin has a transaction size of around 280 bytes. So the greater proof size was a big blocker for them at that time. On top of that ZCoin can be minted only in fixed denominations (like 1, 25, 50, 100 and so on). ZCash removes these limitations. They have smaller proof size and no restrictions on denominations. Sounds so much better, right?

But then these benefits come with their trade-offs.

Audit-ability of Supply

The security of any blockchain ledger comes down to public verifiability of two properties of every transaction: that they are authorized by all required parties, and that they do not affect the total currency supply.

I explained in the previous article on how ZCoin works. Just to summarise it quickly, basically you take a coin which has it’s whole transaction history behind it. You burn a coin and prove to the network that you have burned a coin without specifying which coin you burnt and then you receive a new coin which has no transaction history. In such kind of a system, if there is any flaw, any number of coins can be generated.

Fun Fact: This has happened with ZCoin

Zcoin Bug report

But then this is nothing to be worried about. Because this shows that ZCoin was able to track this bug only because they have an audit-able supply. While in ZCash, you can’t as they do not have an audit-able supply.

Whereas in ZCash someone can print as much money as they want, for free, and in total secrecy.

This concern has been raised many times with the ZCash community but they have always hand-waved it. I personally do not think it is responsible to hand-wave this concern as it is actually one of the most important aspect of a currency. But then again, it’s their project and it’s their decision on how they interact with the community.

For the more curious ones, here’s a link that talks more about the supply manipulation topic.

How To Compromise Zcash And Take Over The World

Cryptography

To achieve small proof sizes, ZCash uses very new cryptography technique. This technique has been developed in the last 2–3 years. This technique is called zkSNARKS. Very few people in the industry right now understand about this technique.

Fun Fact: Zooko, the creator of ZCash himself admits that he does not understand zkSNARKs completely.

There is a difference between publishing a paper and peer-review. Outside of those involved with Zcash, there is almost no peer-review that the entire approach — from the zk-SNARK implementation to the setup — is sound, and that’s not from lack of trying. Several of the brightest minds in the cryptocurrency space have been asked, and none feel confident enough to implement or teach zk-SNARKs, let alone vouch for the legitimacy of the trusted setup (the details of which were only recently revealed).

It will require time for folks to get a sufficient enough grasp of zk-SNARKs before they can begin to evaluate the full safety and security of what Zcash is proposing to do.

In contrast, ZCoin uses RSA encryption and accumulators which has years of development behind it and has been battle tested in numerous production applications. It is the backbone of all the financial, defence, space and all the others highly secure applications.

Peter Todd points out here that if RSA is broken, how bitcoin and ZCoin will be least of our concerns :P

ZeroCash explores a very unknown territory and what they are doing is great. But I personally value the security of a financial network more than anything because my money is stored there. ZCoin has some minor problems like larger proof sizes but then the security it provides is orders of magnitudes higher given ZCash’s unauditable supply and experimental cryptography. And there are very promising efforts within the ZCoin community to decrease the proof sizes.

Trusted setup

This is another major concern and the one that turns me off personally. In ZCash you have to trust a random bunch of people to generate some special parameters and then destroy them. The problem is that you have to believe that all of these individuals destroyed the keys in isolation. And combine that with the unauditable supply which we discussed above, this is a huge problem.

The overall gist is that a trusted setup involves a group of some number of people running a computer program on multiple machines. Assuming there are no flaws in the approach, if at least one those people manages to correctly follow the setup procedure on a computer that is not compromised, then the project should live up to its claim of having a knowable number of coins.

Here is a link if you want to deep dive.

On the other hand, the ZCoin team is fully confident that they can remove the trusted setup using the Sigma protocol (more on that later in another article).

Fun Fact: ZCoin in it’s current state uses these parameters from a factoring challenge 20 years ago. There was a 200k USD bounty for anyone who could break and no one could.

Anyway, future developments on Sigma protocol will completely remove the need to have a trusted setup of any sort.

In words of Greg Slepak,

In Zcash’s current state: it is impossible to know whether a successful attack occurred. Unless a saboteur turns whistleblower, we’ll know it was compromised only after damages have occurred. And the more valuable Zcash is, the more dangerous it is. There is no “Undo” button.

Here is a great video interview of the community manager explaining the main differences.

Summary

Zerocash protocol was meant to improve on Zerocoin protocol on these issues:
1. Zerocoin still requires a basecoin to convert back before being allowed to spend. Zerocash has no more basecoin.
2. Zerocash’s proofs are much more efficient and smaller than Zerocoin’s.
3. Zerocoin uses fixed denominations to mint (1, 25, 50, 100) while Zerocash is not subject to such limitations.
4. Greater privacy with Zerocash since sender/receiver/amount are all obscured.

Zerocoin’s advantage over Zerocash are as follows:
1. Although Zerocoin’s proofs are larger and occupies more storage space, the computational requirements to generate a private transaction are many times faster. Zcash requires large amounts of RAM and minutes of computational time. Zerocoin requires seconds to use and is not memory intensive. Basically Zerocoin uses more storage space but is computationally much less intensive.
2. Parameter generation for both Zcoin and Zcash requires a trusted setup but Zcoin’s parameters are arguably less controversial. (https://github.com/zcoinofficial/zcoin/wiki/Parameters-in-set-up-phase-for-Zerocoin-in-ZCoin)
3. Most importantly is that in Zcoin, total supply is still visible so if there’s a flaw and someone is secretly creating coins for themselves, this can be much more easily detected. With Zcash, because everything is hidden, if a flaw is exploited, it may be almost impossible to detect!
4. Zerocoin’s tech is more peer reviewed and better understood than Zcash’s. Zcash’s use of zero knowledge proofs uses ZK-Snarks which very few people understand. Even Zooko himself admits he doesn’t understand it (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6RLjcGVUnw&feature=youtu.be&t=17m30s). Note that Zerocoin’s paper was only like 15 pages. Zcash’s paper is more than 50 pages so Zcash’s is considerably more complex which means more things that can go wrong.

I hope I have given you a good insight on how these technologies differ and what are the advantages/disadvantages of using them. However if you have any more questions or want more details, ZCoin has a very transparent and active community over at slack. Come ask questions, give suggestions and contribute. Remember this is a community driven initiative.

Until next time, see you space cowboys!

ZCoin compared to ZCash. was originally published in The ZCoin Digest on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Anerkennung an grishasn :)

Не важно, что вам «ничего не скрывать». Конфиденциальность — это право, предоставляемое лицам, которые поддерживают свободу выражения мнения, собраний и ассоциаций. Все это необходимо для свободного демократического общества.

Поэтому аргумент в стиле “если тебе нечего скрывать, то тебе нечего бояться” вне рамок этого обсуждения.

Утверждение о том, что вам безразлично право на неприкосновенность частной жизни, потому что вам нечего скрывать, ничем не отличается от утверждения, что вам безразлична свобода слова, потому что вам нечего сказать. (Эдвард Сноуден)

Биткоин

Большинство из нас знает о Биткоине. Мы знаем о том, как он позволяет децентрализованно передавать ценности по всему миру, повышая безопасность и конфиденциальность. Но это не так.

БИТКОИН НЕ ГАРАНТИРУЕТ ФИНАНСОВУЮ КОНФИДЕНЦИАЛЬНОСТЬ!

Да, биткоин не является конфиденциальным. Это осознало большинство людей, которые часто сталкиваются с криптовалютами. Ежедневно появляются новости и статьи, в которых люди пишут о том, как блокчейн Биткойна был проанализирован, и люди определили, кто использовал платежную сеть для передачи ценностей.

Вот несколько ссылок для особо любопытных:

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/is-bitcoin-anonymous-a-complete-beginner-s-guide-1447875283/

https://news.coinify.com/6-reasons-bitcoin-not-anonymous/

Ладно, Биткоин не конфиденциален, но ведь это нужно только преступникам

Этот аргумент мы продолжаем слышать снова и снова.

Хорошо, преступно ли ожидать, что, если я совершу перевод человеку, это лицо не сможет просматривать баланс на моем счете и прошлую и будущую транзакции, которые я сделал или сделаю?

У меня есть небольшой бизнес, и я бы не хотел, чтобы мои конкуренты знали, сколько денег у меня на счете, с кем я имею дело и в каком объеме. Это будет очень плохо для моего бизнеса. Я не считаю, что это делает меня преступником.

Представляем ZCoin

ZCoin — это сообщество, основанное на стремлении предоставить людям свою заслуженную финансовую конфиденциальность. Он позволяет передавать финансы по всему миру без ущерба для вашей конфиденциальности.

Людям, которые не знакомы с криптовалютами и не знают, как они функционируют, я рекомендую присоединиться к нашему каналу на Slack. У нас очень дружелюбное сообщество. Множество заинтересованных людей посещают его каждый день и ведут разговоры о конфиденциальности и о том, как ZCoin обеспечивает ее для пользователей.

Вот видео, которое немного прояснит ситуацию:

https://youtu.be/aEbawhzhLqM

Тем, кто знает, как работает криптовалюта и блокчейн, я расскажу о том, что делает ZCoin настолько особенным.

Как я уже упоминал выше, Биткоин является публичным гроссбухом, и все транзакции транслируются по всей сети. Существует много методов, которые были разработаны и могут использоваться для связывания отдельных идентификаторов и организаций с транзакциями. Это нарушает конфиденциальность в сети Биткоин.

ZСoin гарантирует полную финансовую конфиденциальность по протоколу Zerocoin. Протокол Zerocoin использует доказательства с нулевым разглашением для обеспечения нулевой утечки информации об отправителях и получателях транзакций.

Что такое протокол Zerocoin?

Доказательство с нулевым разглашением — это метод, при котором один человек может доказать другому человеку, что данное утверждение истинно, не передавая никакой информации, кроме того, что утверждение действительно верно.

ZCoin использует доказательство с нулевым разглашением. Когда кому-то посылают Zerocoin, человек знает только то, что X сумма денег была отправлена ​​на его кошелек. В отличие от биткоинов и всех предыдущих криптовалют, нет никакой другой непреднамеренно идентифицирующей отправителя и получателя информации или любой связанной с ними истории транзакций. С Zerocoin история транзакций отсутствует.

Интересный факт: исследовательская работа о Zerocoin была процитирована почти 200 раз. Для сравнения, ZeroCash (другая популярная исследовательская работа, используемая конкурирующей криптовалютой ZCash) была процитирована всего два раза.

Общий объем эмиссии ZCoin составляет 21 миллион. Как и у Биткоина, награда за блок уменьшается наполовину каждые 4 года.

Есть так много интересных технических деталей и новостей, о которых я хочу поговорить, но это темы для отдельных статей:

• Что такое протокол MTP, его преимущества и то, что ZCoin является первой криптовалютой, которая его реализовала и применила
• Znodes
• Чем ZCoin превосходит ZCash
• Sigma Protocol (Trustless Setup) [То, что меня больше всего волнует :D]
• Интеграция Tor / I2P
• Удивительная команда и сообщество ZCoin

А пока вы ждете, предлагаю изучить вот эти ссылки:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1638450.0

https://youtu.be/GijBiepK0ws

Лично я бы рекомендовал присоединиться к нашему сообществу на Slack. Там вы познакомитесь с множеством людей, которые обсуждают, как сделать ZCoin еще лучше.

И помните, что ZCoin — это сообщество, в котором мы всегда приветствуем людей, готовых внести свой вклад.

Присоединяйтесь к нам на slack.

Присоединяйтесь к нам на reddit.

Финансовая конфиденциальность. Представляем ZCoin. was originally published in The ZCoin Digest on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

German Translation

It doesn’t matter if you have “nothing to hide”. Privacy is a right granted to individuals that underpins the freedoms of expression, association and assembly; all of which are essential for a free, democratic society.

So the argument that “if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear” misframes the whole debate.

Arguing that you don’t care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don’t care about free speech because you have nothing to say. (Edward Snowden)

Bitcoin

Most of us know about Bitcoin. We know about how it enables transferring value across the world in a decentralised manner. Thus increasing security and privacy. Except the fact that it isn’t so.

BITCOIN DOES NOT GUARANTEE FINANCIAL PRIVACY!

Yes, Bitcoin is not private. Most of the people who deal with cryptocurrencies on a frequent basis have realised this. We have a daily influx of news and articles where people are writing about how the Bitcoin blockchain has been analysed and people identified who have used the payment network to transfer value.

I am attaching some links here for the more curious ones!

• Is Bitcoin Anonymous? A Complete Beginner's Guide - Bitcoin Magazine
• 6 Reasons Bitcoin is not anonymous - Coinify Newsroom

Well, okay Bitcoin is not private. But only criminals want privacy.

This is an argument we keep hearing over and over again.

Ok, is it criminal to expect that if I make a transaction to a person, that person should not be able to view my account balance and the past and future transaction that I have made or will make?

Well, I have a small business and I would not want my competitors to know how much money I have in my account and who I am dealing with and in how much amount. This will be almost catastrophic for my business. I don’t think that makes me a criminal.

Introducing ZCoin

ZCoin is a community based effort towards providing people their well deserved financial privacy. It enables you to transfer value globally without compromising your privacy.

To people who are new to cryptocurrencies and are not fully aware of how a cryptocurrency functions, I will recommend them to join our Slack channel. We have a very friendly community. A lots of concerned people frequent there every day and have intelligent conversations regarding privacy and how ZCoin ensures it for the users.

I am also attaching a video which will make a lot of things clearer.

To people who know about how a cryptocurrency works and the basic aspects of a blockchain, let me tell you more about what makes ZCoin so special.

As I mentioned above, Bitcoin is a public ledger and all the transactions are broadcasted to the whole network. There are many techniques which have been developed and can be used to link individual identities and organisations to transactions. This breaks the privacy in bitcoin network.

Zcoin guarantees complete financial privacy through the Zerocoin Protocol. The Zerocoin Protocol uses Zero-Knowledge proofs to ensure zero leakage of information about senders and recipients of financial transactions.

What is Zerocoin Protocol?

A zero-knowledge proof is a method in which one person can prove to another person that a given statement is true, without conveying any information apart from the fact that the statement is indeed true.

Zcoin uses zero-knowledge proofs by making a zero-knowledge cryptographic statement. When someone is sent Zerocoin, the person only knows that X amount of money was sent to their wallet. Unlike Bitcoin and all previous cryptocurrencies, there is no other unintended identifying information about the sender and receiver, or any attached transaction history. With Zerocoin, transactional history is completely removed.

Fun Fact: Zerocoin research paper has been cited almost 200 times. In comparison, ZeroCash (another popular research paper used by ZCash, a competing currency) has been cited only half the number of times.

There will be 21 million ZCoins. ZCoin follows the same halving cycle as Bitcoin (every 4 years).

There are so many interesting technical details and news I want to talk about but I don’t want to leave with a lot in the first article itself. There are a lot of things I want to talk about:

• What is MTP protocol, it’s advantages and how ZCoin is the first cryptocurrency to implement it.
• Znodes
• How ZCoin is superior to ZCash
• Sigma Protocol (Trustless Setup) [The thing I am most excited about :D]
• Tor/I2P integration
• The amazing team and community behind ZCoin

But I will leave them for future articles.

Still, if you are as excited as me when I first heard about ZCoin and can’t wait to just dive in, I will leave you with a few links. There will be focused articles on each of these topics quite near in the future. But yeah I can understand if you don’t want to wait :D

[ANN] Zcoin (XZC) - Implementing Zerocoin technology for financial privacy

What I would personally recommend most will be to come join our slack community. It is such a vibrant place and you get to know so many smart people having deep discussions on how to make ZCoin even better.

And remember ZCoin is a community based effort, we always welcome people who are willing to contribute.

Join us on slack.

Join us on reddit.

See you space cowboys!

Financial Privacy & Introducing ZCoin. was originally published in The ZCoin Digest on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

What is Safe Exchange?

Safe Exchange is a marketplace that enables its users to buy and sell goods and services using a complete suite of anonymous systems that are married to the blockchain.

Why is Safe Exchange required?

When Bitcoin began it exposed to the world a trustless decentralised ledger that is enforced by cryptography and transparent consensus that could transfer value around the world with middlemen. A significant problem however arrived with the use of this system in commerce due to the limited protection of the users’ privacy. A number of projects sprung up around the idea and so far we have anonymous transfer of coins over a blockchain. Now is the time that we invite anonymous commerce that is decentralised so that contracts can be forged where the origin is untraceable and un-linkable on the blockchain. We need a protocol that the user can choose the manner in which to carry out their trades, and the manner in which they choose to interact with other traders.

What is the goal of Safe Exchange?

Our goal is to provide a platform that protects people’s civil liberties from criminals/hackers and overzealous states affecting its citizens. This system that is developed with simplicity, and accessibility.

What is the Chille Blockchain?

The Chille Blockchain is the blockchain on which the exchange of goods and services will actually take place. The Chille Blockchain will have a Proof of Work mine-able cryptocurrency: At the launch of the Chille Blockchain 0.5% of Chille’s money supply will be paid out to the Safe Exchange Coin holders.

What is the difference between Safe Exchange Coin and the Chille coin?

Safe Exchange coins are your shares in the Safe Exchange organisation whereas Chille coins are the currency which will be used for the exchange of goods and services.

What is the advantage of holding SafeExchange coins?

Owning Safe Exchange Coins makes you a part of the Decentralised Organization. They are a cryptocurrency which offer a number of advantages over other kinds of assets:

• They are used in voting on decisions
• Can be easily traded and exchanged
• Enable earning dividends in real time
• They are limited and safe from inflation
• At the launch of the Chille Blockchain 0.5% of Chille’s money supply will be paid out to the Safe Exchange Coin holders.

Who is the team behind Safe Exchange?

• Daniel Dabek → Founder of Safe Exchange, and Lead Rust developer
• Pavle Aleksic → Lead Javascript developer
• Marija Blesic → Accomplished Architect, and Graphic Designer

Where is the source code of Safe Exchange available?

github.com/safex

Are there any updates released by the team?

This is the latest development update which was released by the team. (https://safe.exchange/t/safe-exchange-development-update-july-4-2017/716)

What are the best resources to learn more about Safe Exchange?

It is recommended to start by first watching Daniel Dabek’s (Safe Exchange founder) interviews.

• Interview with Crypto Coin Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeEig6bl9Ro&t=3s
• Interview with Life Is People: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Dtn74Mzfqw
• Another interview with Life Is People: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcsPRtWRov8&t=1655s

After that you can check out the Safe Exchange Forum (https://safe.exchange/)

It is also recommended to go through the Safe Exchange BitcoinTalk: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1378204.0

And of-course, there is a community slack which is buzzing with enthusiasts discussing all the upcoming features and answering questions.

What are the important links related to the Safe Exchange organisation?

• Website: https://safex.io
• Forum: https://safe.exchange/
• Slack: https://safex.herokuapp.com/
• BitcoinTalk: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1378204.0

SAFEX — Frequently Asked Questions! was originally published in SAFEX Digest on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

So, what do you do when Bitcoin’s platform doesn’t meet your cryptocurrency needs? You re-program the entire thing, from low level database structure, to the mining algorithm, to the network timing protocol, to the hash size, private and public key size, the whole works. Well, Colin Cantrell has done just that to create Nexus Coin.

What is Nexus?

It’s a connection between two or more things. It can connect economies. It can connect people. The project is called nexus and the name was chosen specifically because as it can describe the complete scope. But just focusing on the block chain currency aspect — it is essentially a pure SHA-3 p2p decentralised network.Nexus has about 15 new features to advance the Bitcoin protocol.

One of the key components of nexus is to provide options for everyone.

The problem is we cannot boycott the system if we have no other options.

Genesis of Nexus!

Colin got into cryptocurrencies in 2013 and soon realised that ‘It is the new way!’. The way that the banking system is designed is not sustainable for the future. There is no transparency in the world’s currency — how much is printed, etc. We do not have a say in the global monetary system.

One can advance the financial system and do all kind of things but what is the point if you can’t put it in people’s hands.

Colin initially started building mining pools and protocols. And then he started work on Nexus. It started with Coinshield where the aim was to protect people from all the scams that were originating in the crypto space. Later Colin started to think about building an economy and a decentralised internet. And Nexus was born.

What about Nexus makes it useful and better than most of the scam coins?

• Nexus channels include Prime Channel (CPU Mining), Hashing Channel (GPU Mining), and Nexus Proof of Stake (nPOS). So to take over Nexus, one will need to have 51% of the CPU mining power and also 51% of the GPU mining power, which in turn makes it a very significant cost for the attacker.
• Quantum Resistant — Right now the security of the whole bitcoin financial system banks on the security of one hashing algorithm (SHA 256). Nexus uses SHA3 [Skein and Keccak]. So that way there is a balance. If there is a collision in Skein, then Keccak can balance it out and vice-versa similarly. This gives the highest quantum security till date.
• Instead of reward halving every 4 years, the supply follows a logarithmic decay graph. This does not put as much pressure on the market suddenly when the Bitcoin reward is halved.
• The reputation of Nodes (computers in the Peer-to-Peer Network) and corresponding Trust Keys (addresses that receive interest payments) is established by their honest contributions of Time, Weight, and Trust on the network. These Trust Keys become very valuable as it takes a great deal of effort to build Trust. Currently the interest rate is a variable rate that increases from 0.5% to 3% within one year the longer you build Trust on the Network. This also helps secure the network as it takes time and effort to build trust.
• Bitcoin has a single threaded (synchronous) messaging system which means the things happen in queue and that is why the block propagation and thus the network is too slow. Nexus puts everything on multithreaded data connections and everything moves much faster and this will be very important when new people start flooding into the system. Currently the Nexus network can process 50,000 transactions per second.

How can Nexus overcome the Bitcoin network effects?

The hope is that Bitcoin adapts with the circumstances. Right now there is too much cost to make significant changes in the Bitcoin protocol. As Nexus advances it’s technology even further, the hope is that Bitcoin can find value in it and use it as well. Because here’s the proven experiment. The goal is collaboration and not competition with Bitcoin. Nexus’s learnings and technological advancements will be used by the complete industry. After all, that is the purpose of open-source.
And if Bitcoin doesn’t, then we have Nexus with all the improvements proved over time.

What is Nexus’s current status?

Nexus has a very active slack channel with around 2500 members. The trading channel is one of the best in whole of the crypto-space. The community members are very active and we have a plethora of ideas and suggestions made almost every day. There is a reddit page as well. Nexus is available for purchase on Bittrex and Cryptopia.

What was the biggest challenge while building Nexus?

The biggest challenge Colin faced was learning to think like Satoshi. He spent months locked in his room, letting Satoshi’s code eat him alive! This gives him the creative freshness which is very much required in the ecosystem right now (given we have coins that are literally clones of Bitcoin and add no substantial value).

I hope you guys liked the info. I highly recommend checking out the slack channel. There is a community over at bitcointalk as well. Join us there. Nexus has one of the best communities in the whole crypto-space. Come say hi! :D

I have been involved in the crypto-space for quite some time now. What attracted me to Bitcoin and the suite of other cryptocurrencies was the fact that it enables me to transfer value to anyone else, anywhere in the world world without the control of any central intermediary. This is a grand vision and something worthwhile to be a part of.

However there is one missing piece still. Right now, buying/exchanging digital currencies/tokens or for that matter anything over the internet involves an intermediary. We have exchanges like Coinbase, Poloniex, Bittrex and so many more and all are centralised. Even the marketplaces for trading stuff over the internet involve centralisation. By centralisation I mean to say that they are controlled by one governing body.

And all the problems which Bitcoin helped us escape from come again into picture by the involvement of these centralised exchanges and marketplaces.

• Funds are stored with the exchanges/marketplaces and not with you. And that is a serious security flaw.
• They have access to all the order books and they are subject to manipulation.
• They reserve the right to freeze your accounts or censor your views.

I can go on and on about this but I am sure you get the idea.

I am sure most of you know about the Mt. Gox incident where lots of funds (belonging to common people) were lost. There have been many similar mishaps. The miserable customer service. Frozen accounts, there are plenty of people who have been affected by this.

The correct path forward is the development of decentralised exchanges/marketplaces. I am sure this is going to be the next big thing in the crypto-sphere.

With decentralised marketplaces all your funds are in your control and no one can steal/freeze them. There is no censoring authority and complete anonymity for your trades.

SAFEX is the leading pioneer in this space. I will briefly outline some of the points which make me think that SAFEX is an amazing bet:

Frugal

Daniel Dabek, the visionary behind this concept raised 1.2 million MaidSafe coins in late 2015. This is another thing I like. Raising millions of dollars for your idea (which a lot of scam coins seem to be doing right now) is in my opinion not required and is definitely not healthy for the ecosystem. Daniel raised just enough so that they can proceed with the development and regular business operation.

Transparent

Transparency regarding the organisation operations and decisions are the foremost priority. The team developed a voting app so that the token holders could have a say in the important decision of discontinuing with the third parties and building their own blockchain. There are regular posts in the slack channel. Even the issues that come sometimes are reported in a very transparent manner.

Amazing Leadership

Daniel has been very perseverant and dedicated towards SAFEX. He launched the crowd-sale single handedly, wrote the entire voting application which uses the tokens that are stored on the bitcoin blockchain, and the user experience of voting. He clearly knows all of his development skills and remains a very transparent leader. The team is growing now owing to the recent developments which I will talk about later.

Unlimited Potential

Start to think what a decentralised marketplace can achieve and your mind starts to boggle. Sky is the limit. If Exchanging products/services/currencies in a decentralised manner around the clock doesn’t excite you, I would love to talk to you because I am obsessed with the idea. I am pretty convinced that SAFEX is going to give the likes of Amazon, Alibaba, Freelancer services and established digital currency exchanges a run for their money. This is a network which cannot be shut down ever by anyone!

Incentive mechanism

So there are 2 tokens

• SAFEX coins which represent your ownership in the SafeExchange organisation. You have the right to vote on proposals and steer the direction of the organisation.
• Chille coins which are the currency which will be used for the marketplace.

SAFEX coin holders receive an initial amount of Chille coins (when the chain is launched) + dividends for the applications being built as well as the transaction fees over the network.

Market-cap

SAFEX as of now stands at a market-cap of around 7 million USD and is one of the most undervalued coin in the crypto-sphere as of now. The potential upside is huge. I highly recommend to check it out if you are looking for good investing opportunities.

The team has recently moved their operations to a company office. The team is growing as we speak and the community is growing day by day with a number of highly intelligent and motivated people working continuously towards a world of FREE TRADE.

Daniel Dabek on Twitter

safex office now in motion first $crypto balance sheet company in #belgrade #serbia $btc

You can sign up to the SAFEX slack channel with https://safex.herokuapp.com

Join the community. Say hi! https://safex.slack.com/

Check out the website as well for more information!

What SAFEX means to me? was originally published in SAFEX Digest on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

What brought me to Nexus?

I have been involved in the cryptocurrency world for over a year now. Like everyone, Bitcoin was my first encounter in this universe. The ability to send money to anyone in the world within a few minutes without depending on any other entity excited me to the core.

As I read up on Bitcoin more and more, I could start to see the limitations of Bitcoin as a payment network.

• Scalability
• High transaction fees
• True anonymity
• Security of the chain (The whole payment network’s security relies on one hashing algorithm :P)
• GOVERNANCE (This is the big one)

Of-course all the technical limitations of Bitcoin can be solved over time by making modifications to the protocol (given there is will from the Community). Some of these changes are easy to implement and some would require a huge refactoring/rewriting of the code.

However, the major issue I see with Bitcoin is governance. The Bitcoin Network is becoming more and more centralized over time. The miners control most of the hashing power (thus the system) and the core team controls most of the modifications/improvements that can be made on the network.

Nexus’s vision to decentralize this centralization is what attracted me the most.

And the fact that despite being a fairly low market cap coin right now, Nexus has one of the most active development teams and a very close knitted community. Many in the Nexus Community are very strong holders who believe in the vision and contribute actively to the Community.

With Nexus there was no pre-mine, no instamine, nor was it an ICO. This is a true grassroot currency (like Bitcoin) which was launched fairly. This gives me immense trust in the intentions of the team.

What Nexus means to me?

Nexus for me is not just a coin. It is a new economy where freedom and decentralization is of utmost importance. Nexus is my prized possession which I will continue to hold and see the power of decentralization engulf this world. Of-course owning Nexus gives me the front seat to this revolution.

Colin Cantrell, the founder and lead developer of Nexus is one of the most inspiring and knowledgeable people I have come across in the cryptosphere. The clarity in his mind, his deep knowledge of cryptography and security, and his unwavering dedication for Nexus gives me chills. He is one of the few people in this industry whose heart is inthe right place and he shows it with humble demeanor, his dedication, and perseverance.

This was my first article on Nexus. I hope gave you a good initial overview of why I support the Project. I will talk more about the actual protocol, technical advantages, and the Team/Community in my future articles. Please feel free to ask anything that comes to mind.

If you would like to find out more information or see what the Nexus Community is about, feel free join the Nexus Slack. There you will find many intelligent and motivated people actively designing the economy of the future. See you there!

Join the Nexus Earth community on Slack!

If you liked this, you can sponsor my beer!

NXS — 2QxkXDAm3Fvh1sXNrNEHufMJVK4FA9ZBsofT5MKPsMiRtB5Ajr3

BTC — 1PMcUew7ZhpyncdkNC53U12qtcBjU1Qoku

ETH — 0x847bb8411379Fd753B6C41b0bF66AE5290494E44

Aeon, as it stands right now is the most overlooked currency in the crypto-sphere.

History of Aeon

An anonymous developer on the Bitcoin Forum named “Aeon” launched AEON.

Aeon was launched on June 6, 2014 as a fork of Monero and with the same maximum supply of 18.4 million coins. It has a similar emission curve to Monero (XMR) albeit offset by about 6 weeks.

There was no “premine” or “instamine,” meaning that no crypto’s were generated and/or held before launch. Aeon is a true grassroot coin launched ‘fairly’ in all aspects.

In October 2014 the original developers discontinued work on Aeon and the project was considered abandoned. However, in April 2015, after a display of community approval, all of Aeon’s assets were handed over to a new developer (smooth) concurrently working on the Monero project. The Aeon project was thereafter rebranded and a new roadmap announced.

Team of AEON now

“Smooth” (the core developer of the Monero Project) became new and Lead Developer of AEON on April 26, 2015. He is one of the most knowledgeable and competent person in the crypto-sphere as of now.

“Smooth” readily admits that he also develops for Monero. In his camp, “Smooth” has “Arux” for “Release engineering, Q/A, support.”

How is Aeon different from all the other cryptocoins?

Decentralized digital currency is slowly becoming a normal part of everyday life. Yet everybody’s main internet device continues to be their cellphone, a device with a low-powered CPU and limited available storage.

AEON is about enabling this era, enabling an age where all people everywhere have the freedom to privately send and receive money with whatever gadget they already own.

Quoting smooth (the lead dev for AEON):

AEON is certainly targeting running a node on a smartphone, but I don’t think it is possible to completely rule out Monero (someday) doing that too.

As answered above by others the idea is to do experimental and perhaps even stupid things. Some of them may be adopted by Monero in time, others may not.

Also, as I said earlier in Monero’s history when the clones were first appearing, what makes a coin stronger is defeating clones. (I reject the idea of expecting to stop cloning by trash talking clones or cloning, as Adam for example tries to do.) Every coin so defeated serves as credible evidence that the community, process, and technology of the original is sufficiently fit.

So you can think of AEON as a sparring partner to keep Monero healthy and strong. :)

• Privacy: AEON uses a cryptographically sound system to allow you to send and receive funds without your transactions being easily revealed on the blockchain (the ledger of transactions that everyone has). This ensures that your purchases, receipts, and all transfers remain absolutely private by default.
• Security: Using the power of a distributed peer-to-peer consensus network, every transaction on the network is cryptographically secured. Individual wallets have a 24 word mnemonic that is only displayed once, and can be written down to backup the wallet. Wallet files are encrypted with a passphrase to ensure they are useless if stolen.
• Untraceability: By taking advantage of ring signatures, a special property of certain types of cryptography, AEON is able to ensure that transactions are not only untraceable, but have an optional measure of ambiguity that ensures that transactions cannot easily be tied back to an individual user or computer.
• Fast: AEON uses CryptoNight-Lite algorithm to vary block rewards and a limit the supply. This is new tech. Makes Aeon fast and sleek!
• Pruning: Another major adaptation with AEON is “pruning.” Many will understand this term, as it relates to bloated blockchains. Monero has that issue, but it can change. For the layman, just know that the amount of data stored in a the blockchain ‘ledger’ becomes more unwieldy each passing second. If one can reduce the data storage requirement without loosing critical information, the entire system speeds up.

I hope I gave you guys a good ‘quick’ introduction to AEON [The lightweight CryptoNote digital currency].

There is so much more to talk about — the specifications, the roadmap and most importantly the close knitted and intelligent community working together to make this common vision a reality.

I will continue to keep writing more articles on AEON and will talk about the technical specifications, user adoption and all the other things you are interested in.

Finally to quote the Aeon BitcoinTalk thread:

Well, Aeon is ready for you.
Are you ready for Aeon?

If you got till here, congratulations! Join us on reddit — https://www.reddit.com/r/Aeon/

The community is very friendly and always welcomes new people with open arms :D

Also, if you liked this post, consider donating :)

BTC — 1RKzVJ18bD4QvRMKte6dMi7dTKRC3prTU

AEON- Wmu2DJoBYxJdjGUcCtRpZpieCwWWcTrAi6ar3pjbV1QVEjUpRsFe3nGdGFxQshhviZRpEt9LLbpS6YL6aM5RireS2nNUenkub

XMR — 45V7F3a9RANDP31aratTTJ7pnQ45JEaDD52JxQX48ei6TNhKhbPhX5K3T8ZnT2RPg23yn7d9Q2tdgFzHjvybVgCzSjfHfEv

ETH — 0x847bb8411379Fd753B6C41b0bF66AE5290494E44

Sources —

1. https://www.reddit.com/r/Aeon/
2. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=641696.0
3. http://www.aeon.cash/
4. https://thecryptopapers.com/2016/05/27/aeon-the-untraceable-blockchain/
5. https://toughnickel.com/personal-finance/The-Crypto-Papers-Rebirth-of-AEON

More than a century after first emerging into the fog bound gas lit streets of Victorian London, Sherlock Holmes is universally recognizable. Even his wardrobe and accessories are iconic. The Inverness Cape, deerstalker hat and calabash pipe and figures such as his best friend and housemate Dr Watson, arch nemesis Moriarty and housekeeper Mrs Hudson have become part of the popular consciousness.

His extraordinary infallible powers of deduction utilized in the name of the law, his notorious drug use and his popular catchphrase “Elementary my dear Watson”!

And yet many of these most recognizable features of Holmes don’t appear in Arthur Conan Doyle’s original stories.

Doyle’s great detective solves crimes in all sorts of ways not just using deduction. He speculates and at times even guesses and regularly makes false assumptions.

Furthermore Mrs Hudson is barely mentioned. No one says “Elementary my dear Watson” and the detective and his sidekick live apart for much of the time.

Moriarty, the grand villain only appears in two stories.

The detective’s drug use is infrequent after the first two novels and Holmes is rarely in thrall to the English legal system. He much prefers in acting his own form of natural justice to sticking to the letter of the law.

Finally many of the most iconic elements of the Holmesian legend aren’t Doyle’s either. The deerstalker cap and Cape were first imagined by Sidney Padgett.

The story’s initial Illustrator, the curved pipe, was chosen by American actor William Gillette so that audiences could more clearly see his face on stage and the phrase “Elementary my dear Watson” was coined by author and humorist. P.G. Woodhouse.

So who exactly is Sherlock Holmes? Who’s the real great detective and where do we find him?

Purists might answer that the original Sherlock inspired by Arthur Conan Doyle’s University mentor, Dr Joseph Bell is the real one. But the fact remains that that version of Sherlock has been largely eclipsed by the sheer volume of interpretation leaving Doyle’s detective largely unrecognizable.

So there’s another more complex but perhaps more satisfying answer to the question but to get there we must first consider the vast body of interpretations of the great detective. Since Conan Doyle’s first story in 1887, there have been thousands of adaptations of Holmes making him perhaps the most adapted fictional character in the world.

That process began with Victorian stage adaptations and accelerated with the emergence of film. There were more than one hundred film adaptations of Holmes in the first two decades of the twentieth century alone. And since then there have been many thousands more in print and on film television stage and radio

Holmes has been reinterpreted by people everywhere, in remarkably different and often contradictory ways. For instance he featured in a number of allied anti Nazi propaganda films during World War 2 and both Winston Churchill and Franklin Delano Roosevelt were avid enthusiasts, the latter even joining the Baker Street Irregulars, a Holmesian appreciation society. Holmes also appeared in various German language film adaptations some of which were said to have been much loved favorites of Adolf Hitler.

So let’s return to our question! Will the real Sherlock Holmes please stand up?

Sherlock is a cultural text repeatedly altered over time as each new interpretation becomes superimposed over those that preceded. This means that Sherlock continually evolves embodying ideas and values often far removed from those found in Conan Doyle. And after each particular story ends, Sherlock rises again, a little changed perhaps with a new face and fresh mannerisms or turns of phrase but still essentially Sherlock, our Sherlock!

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Will the real Sherlock Holmes please stand up? was originally published in TechnologyMadeEasy on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The primary message I guess I have is that every one of you represent an enormous potential for change because we all know that injustice still exists.

It exists here in the United States. In every poor neighbourhood and in every inner city in every rural community all across the country. There is quiet desperation. Young people’s lives are filled with sadness and desperation. Anarchy and chaos are obviously all around the world. We see those same symptoms of hopelessness made manifest in all places, in places that too often are forgotten about and not written about until they flare up in tragedy.

So I hope that all of you who are on the brink of doing extraordinary things decide to channel that talent and that energy and that imagination to figuring out how do you move the process along for a better history. How do you put your shoulder against the wheel and move that boulder up the hill.

I’m absolutely confident that if all of you take up that challenge the world is waiting for you ready to be changed because I think we live in this moment in history where the hunger for change, the hunger for something new is widespread. The desire to break out of the ordinary, the self interested, the petty, the trivial is everywhere and they’re waiting for you. And so I hope that you drive yourself in the wonderful directions in the years to come.

If you enjoyed reading this article, hit the little green heart button to show your love! It gives me the energy to write more :)

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Barack Obama’s advice to Entrepreneurs! was originally published in TechnologyMadeEasy on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.