[FAQ] Feathercoin Wallet Advanced Feature - Stealth Addresses

wrapper

I’ve been adding some information to the Feathercoin Wallet guide and am just working on a stealth address section. Grateful for any comments / example contributions.

https://github.com/wrapperband/FeathercoinWalletGuide

Of the large amount of work @Lizhi contributed to Feathercoin over the last year, stealth addresses was the least publicized / described in the development process. So here is the text so far for anyone who wants to try them.

Stealth Addresses

Stealth addresses were developed for Feathercoin out of the discussion of producing Private Blockchain Addresses or Dark Blockchains. Feathercoin, like Bitcoin has an open Blockchain or public register, in order to prove that the technology works and the correct transfers took place. Now the technology is accepted, there is then no need to make the amounts being transferred visible to other than the sender and receiver which can be achieved using Stealth Addresses.

What are Stealth Addresses?

Stealth addresses are a way for a payer and a payee to have a private exchange of funds. Vertcoin was the first cryptocurrency to develop the Stealth Address, also referred to as the SX address.

How are Stealth Addresses implemented?

A Stealth Address functions differently than a standard Feathercoin address.

The address is first generated using your Feathercoin wallet. Next you make it public to the payers. Once public, each payer can use the stealth address to generate a standard but unique Feathercoin address only known to him. Finally, the payers conduct the transactions using their individually generated addresses, and you import them in your wallet with the corresponding stealth address. This way each such Feathercoin address and transaction is only identifiable by you and the payer who generated that exact address. The outsiders are left outside.

Where are Stealth Addresses useful?

Stealth addresses can be useful for businesses. If one normal address is used on a website link it means it allows tracking of transactions and spending by anyone viewing the blockchain.

Whereas, one stealth address can be used on the website, it acts like an envelope, so the contents of the transaction are not made public.

One common usage might be donations, where some organisations anonymity for their patrons.

How secure are Stealth Addresses?

The main drawback with stealth addresses is, like mixers and Tor, if too few people use the service they me be easier to connect stealth transactions with a normal address.

Create a Stealth Address

Click ion the Wallet menus item Receive coins. Use the check-box to generate the Stealth Address.

Stealth Address

Feathercoin Wallet Search for your Stealth Addresses

To access the stealth address search, click on the Help menu option, then select SX Tool to access the search box. Input the height of Transaction Block numbers through which to search for your transactions.

@Ghostlander @Lizhi @Wellenreiter
Testing Stealth Adresses mining :
I am just testing Stealth Addresses with NSGminer and using p2pool. So far the stealth address is recognized and displayed, awaiting a block payment.

wrapper

@Lizhi @Ghostlander @Wellenreiter

The results of testing Stealth Address with NSGMiner and p2pool.

The miner appears to work and gets accepted shares. p2pool displays the Stealth Address, but no shares are shown on the chart, the hash rate is normal.

The Stealth address does not appear on p2pools list of potential payouts.

Observation : I have p2pool local, so will look again at messages as it appears to be accepting shares.
Conclusion :

NSGminer appears to handle stealth address
p2pool needs checking for unnecessary Address length checks, or such, i.e. will probably work with minor changes.

SX Search, Test results :

No indication it was running a “long” search, even over small length of blocks.
Added issue FTC, simple enhancement to pre-fill end field with current block number.

wrapper

@Lizhi @Ghostlander @Wellenreiter

Stealth Address Testing

Tasks :

For multiple times / users

Test every wallet option through normal operations.
Stress test all wallet operations
Test and double check with alternate tester any areas of operation where specific changes have been made, in addition to normal tests.

Results of Tests :

I was able to crash SX search
Action : Issue added Github.
I never received any of the multiple coins earner 8 hours mining with stealth address.
Action : Need further investigation. Knowledgeable parties request for assistance
I was not able to send “internally” to a stealth address, just shows - fee.
Action : Need further investigation. Knowledgeable parties request for assistance
Poor graphics and GUI design noted,
Action : minor changes made, graphic review in progress