I don’t see any mention of addressing privacy/anonymity in the front pages. How does Algorand compare to Monero or Zcash’s anonymity features?
I think Algorand is better.
At launch, Algorand transactions will be no more anonymous than those in Ethereum or Bitcoin – there just hasn’t yet been enough time to implement Zcash- or Monero-like anonymity features. Anonymous transactions are on our roadmap though – we definitely want them long-term.
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also worth mentioning here is that when algorand open sources their blockchain the mimblewimble protocol of grin/beam could also be implemented with algorand POS/consensus but it is a different blockchain format and would require a new chain
You’re obviously new right? Transactions are not mixed in Algorand.
When you say we who are you referring to? Just asking since your username can confuse other people as a possible authoritative voice of the Algorand team.
Referring to your argument, I think the opposite: anonymity is something that will make a blockchain more adoptable.
Does a company want to make public to competitors how much it pays for things?
Do you want anyone to know how much you transfer to your family members?
Do you want anyone to know how much you earn?
Anonymity through fancy account creations and shadowing is quite difficult to do correctly in practice. It isn’t rocket science to do some metadata analysis to infer information about who is who.
The goverments opinion discussion is quite complex, and other things can help in proving claims without exposing data… but that’s another discussion.
I think we have to avoid a common confusion between having private transactions and anonymous transactions.
I agree that individuals and companies have the right to operate private transactions but it is true that anonymity is a dangerous feature going forward as it can be used for money laundering or other illegal transactions.
In those particular cases any government can then make the simple fact of holding Algos illegal in their respective jurisdictions. Historically it happened with DigiCash way before Bitcoin even existed…
Plus Zcash and Monero are not even completely anonymous.
The money-laundering argument is often used to justify banning the use of encryption for the general population.
If you are concerned about optimizing for government adoption, I agree with both that they wouldn’t like it. Another interesting discussion is the assumptions about the honest behavior of governments or agencies.
You can also argue that governments wouldn’t like a censorship resistant blockchain.
Sorry we as in I. I’ll delete the post. Thanks.
I prefer mass adoption, the incrementally provide security as business cases arise and are decided upon by the community. In this way, you get adoption fast while meeting regulatory hurdles and once a tipping point is reached, governments would have to cede some ground if widely requested.