Proposed anonimity feature : The Dark Blockchain
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Another possible problem with dark addresses is that when the transaction is added to the block chain by the miner software, it will need to know the amount being transacted. At that point the amounts being processed would be exposed and it may be able to leak information and that would reduce anonymity.
However, in a viable network, that may be an acceptable level of risk. It does not give the actual addresses and is hard to extract.
By using multi-signature / public, private key technology to do the dark transactions, new encrypted addresses would be created for each transaction performed. Those new addresses would be readable by the sender and receiver of the dark payment.
The miner software would combine the sender and receive key which gives it permission to see the transaction value, it would not know, or need to know the real addresses.
The dark blockchain addresses then act as though the transaction are sent in a sealed envelop. But, in this proposed implementation, even the address on the envelop is obscured to outside observers.
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This is very interesting.
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Well it would be a powerfull feature.
The biggest drawback I see is, that it is an open invitaion to money laundring, as the transaction is even more hidden than the current open transaction.
We all know, that all crypto curencies have the reputation to be used for money laundring and if the dark blockchain will be implementeed, these voices would become louder… with good reason.
I’m not really sure if feathercoin should go this path…
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We all know, that all crypto curencies have the reputation to be used for money laundring and if the dark blockchain will be implementeed, these voices would become louder… with good reason.
I’m not really sure if feathercoin should go this path…
Kristov Atlas’ recent talks have convinced me that the ability to keep your transaction private is essential for everyone’s personal security. If the police suspect someone of money laundering they can ask to see their wallets, with a warrant, like they have to do now with your bank account.
At the moment, as Kristov pointed out, Bitcoin protocol gives out too much side channel information. In the example he gave, I might want to buy an engagement ring and I have every right to keep that secret until I propose. Or run a company where it is insider trading to leak financial information. Where information is exposed through side channels that could leak.
It also obvious that one reason crypto currency is needed to help such as bloggers in North Korea, or sending money to a dissident in totalitarian regime. The current Bitcoin side channels are preventing that happen.
I am also extremely keen on technology being useful to the “developing world”, it would help in anarchistic situations that the local militia don’t know you got some Bitcoins, as your daughter might end up being kidnapped and ransomed for them…
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The main side channel problem I saw with Bitcoin protocol is all transactions are fundamentally linked. This means all transactions are traceable, and easily cross linked if you can combine, say IP addresses (like the N$A can). Thus it is useless for its fundamental principle to be anonymous digital cash.
My first thought was that there is a way to perform transactions off line, so they don’t appear on the block chain, but are valid.
It still might be possible to extract a private key, send that to someone. The old address becomes invalid, but the new address doesn’t appear on the blockchan till the private key is registered again.
If this is possible then the main disadvantage is each private key is the full amount for that address.
However, that could be pre processed, by sending the correct amount to yourself first, before generating the exact key from an address with the full amount of coins in.
I’ll be interested to watch and read some more about what the state of the art is. I was assuming Dark coin or such would already be doing this, although I think it isn’t the same as zero coin, or other schemes I’ve read about…
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If a warrant was raised to check a suspect for money laundering, would that be possible without the address holders consent?
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If a warrant was raised to check a suspect for money laundering, would that be possible without the address holders consent?
In Britain you can be forced to disclose encrypted information. They removed the right of silence a while back.
I’m more interested in its use to prevent unlawful snooping by the police and security forces, particularly in totalitarian regimes.
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I support privacy and if the only way to achieve that on a blockchain is with anonymity features then I agree they should be developed.
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Academic Study on Bitcoin’s privacy.
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Could this also be done with a side chain?
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Could this also be done with a side chain?
I was thinking this. A two way pegging system for darkchain coins?
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Here are the 2 talks / interview by Kristov Atlas on the level of Bitcoin anonymity and why that is important - these talks got me thinking a Dark Blockchain would now be possible, using Multi-signature transactions / Public, Private key encryption technologies.
Great talks.
Kristov Atlas, pt1 : Anonymous Bitcoin, Cryptography and Online Safety - #203
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xSMEuhEWGM&list=UU_lvvd3d3K7NgLtWstl6YNg
Kristov Atlas is a network security and privacy researcher who studies crypto-currencies. He is the author of Anonymous Bitcoin: How to Keep Your Ƀ All to Yourself, a practical guide to maximizing financial privacy with Bitcoin. Kristov is also a correspondent for the World Crypto Network, appearing regularly on the the weekly roundtable show “The Bitcoin Group”, and host of “Dark News”, a show about un-censorship technologies.
Kristov Atlas, pt2 : Anonymous Bitcoin, Cryptography and Online Safety - #204
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ym8oDhwhHGg
This episode is part 2 about Bitcoin, cryptography and online security and safety and is called Anonymous Bitcoin, Cryptography and Online Safety: It’s being released on Wednesday, July 2, 2014, and was recorded yesterday on Tuesday, July 1, 2014.
Kristov Atlas is a network security and privacy researcher who studies crypto-currencies. He is the author of Anonymous Bitcoin: How to Keep Your Ƀ All to Yourself, a practical guide to maximizing financial privacy with Bitcoin. Kristov is also a correspondent for the World Crypto Network, appearing regularly on the the weekly roundtable show “The Bitcoin Group”, and host of “Dark News”, a show about un-censorship technologies.
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On the subject of security, most people now understand that the security services have compromised our hardware and are complicit in inserting or retaining bugs and features which can be compromised by bots, trojans and malware. Email services such as Google and AOL would appear to be completely open to snooping by the USA and others, especially if you are not a “USA citizen”.
Bitmessage has been developed as an open source and peer to peer answer to secure data transmission. It makes using complex encryption security available to the normal user (I’ve only got a PhD, so I include myself in that).
You send a receive address to the person encryption the message, that is a public key to encrypt the data. Only you have the private key which can decrypt their return message.
The disadvantage of Bitmessage is that it uses a small amount of CPU power to encrypt messages and like with torrents, you are a node passing messages around. However, it is easy to send a PM saying message awaits, you are only leaking that secure information is being sent.
In particular, for Feathercoin, as more members get involved, it is important that private discussions can occur, or password and other secure information can be passed between members. It might be personal information, like you are ill, or going on holiday. This is especially as such information is routinely intercepted by “who knows who”, and forums and email will always be hackable.
“There is no such thing as 100% secure system”, according to “Wrappers complex systems unsecurity principle.”.
Test Bitmessage: BM-NAvPCPDMTG5PSN5JV8uuU5BcdWENjC4G
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Could this also be done with a side chain?
I think side chains are still a proposal for Bitcoin 2.0. Side-chains would effectively be new blockchains that are backed by Bitcoins, in much the same way that fiat currencies used to be backed by gold. They could be backed by Feathercoin at that stage of development the Feathercoin client would include side chain facility.
So, Feathercoin could have Dark Side Chains, assuming we can fully invent how the Dark Blockchain / Dark Addresses will work. It would also be possible to also start a separate Dark Blockchain coin.
By being flexible, Feathercoin is making itself more relevant to it’s community / distributed direction, for instance, by returning to GPU mining. Developing extra anonymity features is another area that could be beneficial to that philosophy. It is also an area that attract development assistance and finance from interested partners as the first major coin proposing such an update to increase user security / anonimity.
We can (at least) investigate some aspects / consequences of including Dark Address in the normal Blockchain as it is a relevant area for for further discussion, particular with world security situation in mind.
http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/19/bitcoin-2-0-unleash-the-sidechains/
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Yes the digital millennium act in the USA is far reaching.
The biggest part about it is any company that is considered US owns is subject to it and must had over data if requested by US federal agencies and are not allowed to tell the data owners.
To realise how deep that goes, if as an Australian citizen I decide to use Microsoft’s dropbox, gmail even though I’m an Australian citizen under the act the US governement has the right to request access to my infromration, even if it was stored by Google or dropbox outside of the USA.
This is where the term ‘data sovereignty’ comes into play.
Should I choose to have my information hosted by a company that is not a US owned company the only way ot could be legally collected by the US government is if they have a treaty with the country that is hosting it and through those legal channels request it, making it much harder for my information to be legally snooped on.
Most state (and I’m guessing federal) agencies in Australia have IT policies that their information can only be stored by Australian companies and in most cases it is not even allowed to leave the state it is for, this is to protect themselves against foreign countries laws giving that country the right to snoop on their information
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Notice that the EU declares snooping Illegal and an infringement to human rights and the UK government quickly rush through laws to retain powers at all costs. Most people condemn dragnet surveillance but few will take action to protect themselves for fear of making themselves look like they have something to hide.
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http://www.techweekeurope.co.uk/news/tor-us-attack-identity-privacy-150044
The Tor Project has warned users of a lengthy campaign which may have unmasked users of the suppsedly anonymous service â€" and pointed the finger at researchers funded by the US government.
The Tor service keeps users’ identity and location secret, but for the first five months of this year, it was infiltrated by servers which have been altering traffic in a bid to identify users, according to a blog post from project leader Roger Dingledine. From circumstantial evidence, the Tor Project says the effort is likely to have come from researchers at Carnegie-Mellon University, funded by the US government, whose paper on idenitifying Tor users was pulled from the Black Hat security conference earlier this month.
Tor is under attack from all sides: last week, the Russian government offered four million roubles for a way to eavesdrop on converasations on the secret network.
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I’ve done some more research and haven’t found another coin that has proposed or invented the Dark Blockchain yet. Looks like we are first.
Wonder if Darkcoin would bounty the development?
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I was completely unaware of this myself but I thought recently, we should have the choice to have our coins anon…
A choice though. Businesses need to have transparency.
Colored coins on one side, and Dark coins on the other, and in the middle, your regular ol’ normal coins.
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I was completely unaware of this myself but I thought recently, we should have the choice to have our coins anon…
A choice though. Businesses need to have transparency.
Colored coins on one side, and Dark coins on the other, and in the middle, your regular ol’ normal coins.
It’s part of my original specification that we could have normal light or dark addresses. You would choose when you create the address.
