Post
Topic
Board Announcements (Altcoins)
Re: [ANN][DASH] Dash (dash.org) | First Self-Funding Self-Governing Crypto Currency
by
DaveJones
on 02/09/2016, 22:55:50 UTC
tl;dr If you were able to overcome people's general laziness and get 50% of the network to switch to your too-good-to-be-true-cheap VPS, you'd have a 0.39% chance of deanonymizing an 8 round PrivateSend.

Ouch. Not to play into the hands of the trolls, but that point distresses me on these grounds:

1. It assumes "laziness" as a motive for behaviour. That is usually a dangerous assumption, imho, as it justifies inaction. "Shoganai", as the Japanese saying puts it. "Whatcha gonna do - people are lazy." It's a copout.

2. The very numbers that reassure for an 8-round PrivateSend become alarming for a 2-round send. We should investigate worst-case situations rather than take comfort from best-case ones (especially if we believe people will make lazy choices).

3. The analysis does not account for cumulative effects of snooping. A crumb gathered here and there could turn into a full loaf if the hypothetical snoops were patient and diligent enough.

As others have suggested, this issue may be the skeleton outline of something that can be improved, a delightful unintended consequence for trolldom.



I'm glad to be of service. Just a shame your network can't be equally useful.

Now we have some measure of consensus that the dashcoin network can be fucked over with just a few $$ and some patience, perhaps people around here will be a little more polite, especially when making wild claims about Sybil restiance.

If the Node40 guys ever needed to raise some money quick, like needing to fund a divorce payout (it can happen) or pay off a gambling debt, they could easily pull off a nasty trick or two while shorting dashcoins on exchanges.

BTW, feel free to send a 1,000 XMR donation to the XMR dev fund for helping you identify and flesh out this issue.