World news – US – Darkcoin to Dash: The 5-year struggle to rename privacy coin – decrypt

In the spring of 2014, Wired published a story titled,’ Darkcoin, Bitcoin’s cousin, is booming. It’s about an emerging privacy coin that sold for around $ 7

If you’ve never heard of Darkcoin before, it’s because it’s now called Dash and although it was the first to incorporate CoinJoin shuffle, shareholders say it’s no more private than Bitcoin so, when ShapeShift recently removed the Dash List Besides privacy-first Monero and optional Zcash for privacy, the group that helps run the Dash network has encountered a problem.

“We have always had a completely transparent blockchain with all inputs, outputs, amounts and addresses fully transparent,” said Ryan Taylor, CEO of Dash Core Group for Decrypt. “We are very proud to have implemented CoinJoin, but there is no legal basis for treating Dash differently than Bitcoin.” Because it is a matching transaction protocol

The root of the privacy coin naming dates back half a decade, when the network launched DarkSend, and has since been renamed PrivateSend, which is Dash’s trade name for the specific CoinJoin app found in Dash’s desktop wallet. ”Private sending is a process that users can perform before A transaction that mixes the holdings of the portfolio so that « the external auditor cannot determine the source of funding »

Dreamed of by Evan Duffield, the creator of Dash, who left the company at the beginning of 2017 and left it in the hands of the Dash Core group

According to Dash, it hasn’t done much in terms of privacy since then Taylor said, “The primary focus has shifted somewhat to speed and usability rather than improving privacy,” and he said the current privacy option is “good enough to keep your curious neighbor away.” / p>

« Is it good enough to prevent the CIA from analyzing your transactions with tools like Chainalysis or CipherTrace? » He continued, « No, but that’s not what this is trying to achieve »

What Dash is trying to achieve is becoming a daily transactional currency. It’s now the 29th coin by market cap reported, of $ 678.9 million. Dash’s main growth market is Latin America, where it was introduced as a kind of Bitcoin Cash alternative and was incorporated into Payment systems for many retail and restaurant chains, including Burger King

Taylor estimated that only about 0 2% of transactions use CoinJoin on the Dash network. He said, “You cannot use CoinJoin and make transactions at the same time”

However, the naming of privacy currency has stopped early even though Bitcoin users can do the same, provided they use a service like Samurai Wallet or Wasabi Wallet

Glenn Austin, Chief Financial Officer of Dash Core Group, speculated that the Department of Justice’s cryptocurrency implementation framework released last month may have played a role in deleting ShapeShift.

“The acceptance of anonymized-optimized cryptocurrencies or ‘AECs’ – such as Monero, Dash, and Zcash – by MSBs [money services companies] and the dark markets has increased the use of this type of virtual currency.

The report also confirms that these currencies can help circumvent anti-money laundering (AML) and anti-terrorist financing (CFT) regulations. Therefore, she said, “Companies choosing to offer AEC products must take into account the increased risks of laundering. Funds and financing of criminal activity, and they must assess whether appropriate anti-money laundering and terrorist financing measures can be adopted to address these risks « 

Although the report is mistaken by claiming that Monero, Zcash and Dash operate on a « non-public or private blockchain, » some exchanges undoubtedly deemed the risks enumerated as unworthy, said Veronica McGregor, chief legal officer In ShapeShift, to Decrypt earlier this week: “We are eliminating company risks from a regulatory point of view, so, for the time being, we are not working with these coins”

Taylor and Austin told Decrypt that Dash has worked with exchanges before – to prevent them from deleting Dash and persuade them to re-list it.This includes eToroX, which abolished the coin in 2019, only to reverse course.

The Dash Core group wants to work with ShapeShift as well According to Austin, “We’ve heard rumors that they were considering [deleting Dash] and contacted [McGregor] on several occasions over the past few months Unfortunately, our communication remained unanswered.It is especially frustrating because the write-off could have been avoided altogether with a simple 10-15 minute call. ”

This does not agree well, Taylor said, “The technology is technically different from Zcash or Monero, as this information is hidden on the blockchain.” In Dash it is not like that so we have a hard time dealing with Monero and Zcash as compliance risks, when there are no risks. Compliance

Dash, Bitcoin, Monero, Zcash, ShapeShift, Cryptocurrency exchange