Quote from: boolberry on December 03, 2015, 06:29:13 PM

Your post history suggests you have a great interest in CryptoNote so that comment is hard to understand coming from you. You know demand for privacy is far more than a small niche. Why else would you spend so much time involving yourself with privacy related coins?

I was really into privacy back then. CryptoNote was a radically fresh approach a couple of years ago when I saw it. I was growing more interested in crypto scene, but I seemed to be overlooking the way the technology is adopted and what drives large corporations. I reconsidered a lot of things since then.

Yet, I like CN as a technology, and I did get quite knowledgeable in it during the last years.

Quote from: smooth on December 03, 2015, 07:25:03 PM

Disagree. Real business and corporate money will struggle greatly with transparent blockchains. They don't have the same exact privacy goals as individuals and freedom advocates, but they have their own. In particular, not wanting to be spied on by competitors nor front run in markets. That's why, for example, CT is critically important even in Blockstream's closed blockchain Liquid.

I believe you're saying that under an assumption that corporations will adopt a form of blockchain that is already available on the market. I'm not so sure. Banks and certain IT companies do express their interest in blockchain, but judging from what I've heard them talk, it's more about permissioned blockchains.

It is a entirely different paradigm of privacy. You still have blockchain, which is easily auditable and verifiable for any party that might have such rights, but a competitor would not be able to even connect to the blockchain.

I assume this may prove to be more efficient for corporate goals than using permissionless anonymous blockchains, or even permissioned anonymous blockchains. I don't see big urge for the companies to be adopting open blockchains or particular cryptocurrencies, at least for now. There are of course certain cases when that can still be beneficial (e.g. on-chain bonds for smaller companies).

To say it in another way, the technology has converged on the market, but its tested application seems to be diverging from the original libertarian/anarchistic/openness ideas proposed by free-thinkers. Well, the time will say.

However, a real huge problem is parallel to what we might be discussing here. I bet nobody can point to a company or a particular painful use case that CryptoNote or Monero can be serving. The real market I mean, not our dreams of such. We've all been involved in creating a new better economy, while the course of history shows that we rather need the traditional economy upgraded instead.

I am not trying to say that privacy is an irrelevant issue. It surely is. I'd agree with TPTB_need_war. The big data and surveillance may actually drag us into techodark ages. However, I don't see how private cryptocurrencies can be incorporated into real markets. There's no decabillion market value here. And unfortunately, I would remain pessimistic on the perspectives: I doubt that there will ever be such a market.