Interesting, thanks for the insight. So it seems the main differences between the two, is that Shadow is on a bitcoin blockchain, which gives it some advantages. For example it can plug in better with existing infrastructure, and have benefits of both transparent chain and anonymous chain. Also since only about 1% of transactions are used for anonymity, it will have less blockchain bloat than Monero where 100% of the transactions are done using ring sigs.
If only 1% of transactions are used for anonymity you will have massive timing anonymity leaks and such. If you take transparent coins, convert to anon, pay someone, and he converts back (both of which are logical if most commerce is taking place non-anonymously) then the whole thing is quite obviously traceable.
I don't really see much advantage to a coin that is 99% transparent, and definitely see disadvantages. Just use Bitcoin, or if you really want PoS, use whatever is the leading PoS coin, probably BitShares I guess. BitShares has stealth addresses by the way.
I wonder if this destruction and reminting gives it any privacy advantages.
It does not. The creation and destruction process is entirely transparent.
Smooth is right Shadow is very similar to cryptonote. I was reading cryptonote whitepaper, and its some genius stuff going on in there. We should be honest about what the system is and its pros and cons. I like Monero, seems like a cool coin, much better than DRK. I do think Shadow does have some advantages being on a bitcoin blockchain. Also I believe Shadow differs in the anonymity system in one major way from what I can tell, and that is the destruction and minting of SDC. To me it seems like this extra part of the system does something extra to sever the link between identities, but I could be wrong. Hopefully the review will help clarify that. Hope our communities can all be friends, as we all are striving for the same goal of privacy and anonymity.