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.
Oh common now Mr Jones...seriously. All cryptos are works in progress. DASH's superiority lays on the fact that we can fund...and fund very handsomely professional development from our built in funding system to address any issues that may arise.
So I wouldn't sit there and gloat about anything...you've added some intelligent points to the discussion, so please don't degress to trolling activity, its unbecoming of you.
no one is loosing sleep over a perceived issue with DASH in its infancy...so first lets finish DASH Evolution!