[HN Gopher] Why is Bitcoin losing the dark-net markets?
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Why is Bitcoin losing the dark-net markets?
Author : yamrzou
Score : 34 points
Date : 2022-05-29 09:24 UTC (13 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (wildsnow2d9.substack.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (wildsnow2d9.substack.com)
| drummer wrote:
| Within less than 2 years monero will have taken over darknet.
| Then itll go mainstream.
| bitxbitxbitcoin wrote:
| Definitely heard this 2 years ago, 4 years ago, 6 years go and
| even 8 years ago.
|
| I think it'll take a lot longer than you/we think.
| hammyhavoc wrote:
| Do you hold Monero?
| lawn wrote:
| Privacy, like encryption, really needs to be convenient to be
| effective at scale.
|
| While you certainly can achieve good enough privacy with Bitcoin,
| it's cumbersome as you need to jump through several hoops and
| it'd rady to make a single mistake that makes it all moot.
|
| That's why all these opt-in solutions are doomed to failure, and
| the best (and only) solution is privacy-by-default like Monero
| does.
|
| And the auther is correct that Bitcoin's culture is the problem,
| as the Bitcoin community will never hardfork to enforce privacy
| in this manner, so Bitcoin will never regain adoption on dark-net
| markets.
| digianarchist wrote:
| Is it? Haven't used Dark Net Markets in a while but I just logged
| onto the largest market according to Dread, and it looks like
| Bitcoin is not just widely accepted but the market default
| currency.
| spiritchasa wrote:
| What's the 411 on MimbleWimble?
| phyro wrote:
| If you're interested in a non-technical explanation of
| Mimblewimble, I tried to explain it through pictures here
| https://phyro.github.io/what-is-grin/mimblewimble.html
| pharmakom wrote:
| I read the whole thing, thanks for sharing.
|
| One thing I didn't understand... if the kernel set grows for
| every new utxo, then is it possible to match a previous utxo
| with a newly added utxo by repeatedly trying kernels until
| you find the one that works for the pair?
| tromp wrote:
| every transaction comes with one (or sometimes multiple)
| kernels. it also comes with a scalar offset, that gets
| summed when merging transactions together, making it
| impossible invert the merging (unless you saw the original
| txs, e.g. in the mempool).
| smegsicle wrote:
| does anyone here speak jive?
| spiritchasa wrote:
| What's the OP's thought on Mimble Wimble as recently implemented
| on a Scrypt based POW chain.
| tromp wrote:
| MW hides amounts and addresses [1], but not the transaction
| graph. However, MW can be extended with a coinswap protocol [2]
| that obscures the tx graph as well, giving pretty good privacy,
| while improving scalability. Also see this comparison of 3
| blockchains [3].
|
| [1] https://forum.grin.mw/t/scalability-vs-privacy-chart
|
| [2] https://forum.grin.mw/t/mimblewimble-coinswap-proposal
|
| [3] https://phyro.github.io/grinvestigation/why_grin.html
| Deritiod wrote:
| Funny enough: the trust in darknet comes from customer ratings,
| seller deposit and moderators.
|
| Not from Bitcoin.
|
| A great example on why 'trust' only works for everything inside
| the Blockchain only.
| sshine wrote:
| > A great example on why 'trust' only works for everything
| inside the Blockchain only.
|
| Having a "trustless" component at the core of a Blockchain has
| made us all re-examine the places where we deeply rely on trust
| for real interaction. It is ironic how "trustless" technology
| is so apt for scamming if you can trigger peoples desire for
| wealth at the same time. "You don't have to trust me" was
| always a great bait for a victim who takes trust for granted.
| You just need to say high numbers and people will wire money to
| you.
| rvz wrote:
| Because Bitcoin is not 'anonymous' and it is traceable and it
| never guaranteed privacy features in its whitepaper unlike
| privacy coins like Monero, MobileCoin, Grin and Zcash?
| randomhodler84 wrote:
| And now Litecoin with MWEB! (NB: LTC enabled privacy support
| last week).
| jmclnx wrote:
| I am surprised no one mentioned that it is possible to trace
| bitcoin. To me, that is the biggest reason for its use declining
| in the "dart-net" (tm). (edit, just saw someone mentioned tracing
| already)
|
| To me, I still equate bitcoin and others to a ponzi scheme, but
| this article make me wonder if its real value depends upon its
| use for illegal activities. If use in these activities drop, I
| can see large drops in bitcoin value.
| wcoenen wrote:
| > _I am surprised no one mentioned that it is possible to trace
| bitcoin_
|
| You mean, other than the fact that that's what the whole blog
| post is about? :-)
| sshine wrote:
| > I am surprised no one mentioned that it is possible to trace
| bitcoin.
|
| The many ways to CoinJoin that the article covers address just
| that. (Just saying for completeness.)
|
| > this article make me wonder if its real value depends upon
| its use for illegal activities
|
| Bitcoin has many values to many people. Speculation was most
| often at the top, money laundering / unsanctioned money
| transfers, drug trade, trafficking and similar non-speculative,
| criminal uses second. With the recent changes, speculation may
| come to have a smaller share than before, but still
| significant. Since the dream of STONKS was always what made the
| general population condone crypto currencies, maybe we'll see a
| decline in support in western societies. At least, with the
| heavy AML effort in the EU, it could go that way. I sense that
| Asia is not going that way soon. From what I've read (I'm not
| in Asia), it is as hyped as it ever was. I suspect it fits with
| gambling cultures.
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