shadowcoin

[Laforge]

http://shadow.cash/

Sounds promising or just another altcoin? Any opinions/experiences?

 

[Kevin Beal]

I don't know nearly enough to know for sure, but from what I can tell, it's a clone of bitcoin, but uses a different way to verify transactions. The new technology is an implementation of a zero knowledge proof (great explanation of the concept, here).

 

Zero knowledge proofs were conceived of more than a decade ago, but most cryptographers (at least those in the cryptographic money scene) only really started thinking about how it could work with cryptocurrencies in the last year or so, according to Gavin Andresen (bitcoin chief scientist) in a recent talk (this one maybe? I can't remember). In the talk Gavin mentioned that he thought it was exciting and that it could possibly be some part of bitcoin in the future.

 

This may become part of a side chain technology. Side chains are blockchains (public ledger) that is split off ("firewalled") from the main bitcoin blockchain, but bitcoin could be transferred at will back and forth between. The side chain could leverage different technologies for faster transactions, improved anonymity and other features that are still too experimental for the main blockchain. The new side chain could be a new coin whose is backed by bitcoin so that you can take advantage of bitcoins network effect (meaning a safer investment).

 

I don't think alt coins are going anywhere, but it should be noted that, depending on your goals, it may be better for new projects to be side chains, or Ethereum contracts (based on the concept of smart contracts). You don't even need to be a programmer to write ethereum contracts (online editor here).

 

In other words, I don't know about shadowcoin specifically, but the technology itself is liked enough by people that would know, that it is going to get implemented in more cryptocurrencies.

 

Shadowcoin specifically is a lot more than that one aspect though. If they can really deliver on the anonymous marketplace, browser and chat services they're working on, I think it's definitely a very valuable technology (which is a better cause for investment than price speculation)

 

Having a truly anonymous browser, chat and marketplace is not an easy task at all. Tor has problems of it's own, and it appears their browser interfaces with Tor. Decentralized and anonymous marketplaces aren't easy either. The Silk Road was not decentralized, but it worked pretty well. This would be like a silk road that no one could take down, and the transactions themselves are verified in a way which is truly anonymous, rather than on the pseudonymous (sort of anonymous) bitcoin. That would be enormously valuable if people used it.

 

Having these anonymity features could potentially draw people in for reasons that are not simply speculation, which is the best way to get people invested, since they aren't just going to pull out of shadowcoin the first sign of a large amount of selling pressure. It's also a currency that could draw people in from users of another cryptocurrency trying to take advantage of the anonymity features and then sold back for the original coin in a different wallet.

 

Shadowcash is currently the 39th largest cryptocurrency, which means more than it did a year ago. That's impressive for any coin, I guess, but I don't pay enough attention to the altcoin scene to feel confident in investing in any of them. I bought some Ether during the Ether sale, but I can't trade the genesis block hasn't been mined yet. I think, generally, you should stay away from investing in anything you don't know a whole lot about. It's interesting enough to me that I will be keeping an eye on it.

 

That my opinion, a casual observer from the outside of the cryptocurrency scene. I'd be interested to hear from someone who actually uses this type of technology.

[WorBlux]

Its not exactly a bitcoin clone, it's more of a lightcoin clone with proof of state vs proof of Work.  (Uses scrypt hashing and fast block times)

 

The tokenization of shadowcoin for zero proof transaction is a nice feature, but lack of formal governance is not.

 

Someone controls the github at the very least.  What you need for a truley decentralized code base is core code that is provably correct from the start. I think shadowcoin is getting very close to the coin that can surpass bitcoin.