Re: [ANN] Zcoin - The Zerocoin cryptocurrency, guaranteeing financial privacy
READ THIS CAREFULLY BEFORE HOPPING ON BOARD THE HYPE.
If you don't know already Gary and Poramin are the two devs leading this project. There is some good momentum building up as more and more people are become interested.
I too have been quite enthusiastic about the coin. Hell, I have been spreading the word days before it even launched, as seen here.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=895020.msg16331329#msg16331329
But a reply from a dev in the vertcoin thread which he later deleted made me look into it a bit deeper.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=895020.msg16332895#msg16332895
As you can see etang6000, who is leading the vertcoin project now had this to say about Poramin :
"Poramin did create vertcoin, but he also created a few other coins that had huge premines and we're deemed scams . He also was caught doing so pretty shady stuff . He was more or less asked to leave vertcoin or pushed out"
This worried me and I started to dig up further and came aross this AMA from Gary from 2015
https://forum.bitcoin.com/ama-ask-me-anything/i-m-gary-le-co-founder-of-moneta-the-world-s-first-implementation-of-zerocoin-ama-t2408.html
I highly recommend going through the entire AMA.
There has been a lot of accusations floating around them.
They created Zerovert coin back in late 2014 and just when it hit some major exchanges a huge premine dumping took place and the devs never replied in that thread ever again.
https://forum.bitcoin.com/ama-ask-me-anything/i-m-gary-le-co-founder-of-moneta-the-world-s-first-implementation-of-zerocoin-ama-t2408.html#p7037
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=846471.0
Zcoin is just rebranding for their other project by the name of Moneta.
https://news.bitcoin.com/first-implementation-zerocoin-released-introducing-moneta/
They took their old code just renamed it as close as possible to Zcash and launched exactly a month before Zcash's launch to get the most juice out of their rusting project.
There has been zero github activity for moneta in over a year
https://github.com/zebbra2014/moneta/graphs/contributors
Github activity as compared to Zcash https://twitter.com/dmfay89/status/779368584086626304
For those saying the devs will correct the faulty codebase in due time ,well they had over a year to fix it and they did nothing.
Gary has had some other serious accusations thrown at him to which he never gave a clear reply.
https://web.archive.org/web/20141016203212/http://blog.kevinzhang.me/posts/tracking-down-gary-le-the-thiel-fellow-and-dartmouth-dropout-who-tried-to-impersonate-me-an-encore.html
https://forum.bitcoin.com/ama-ask-me-anything/i-m-gary-le-co-founder-of-moneta-the-world-s-first-implementation-of-zerocoin-ama-t2408.html#p7140
So basically the devs have had a history of dumping and abandoning projects and nefarious behavior.
Bittrex and other major exchanges are well aware of it and would be hesitant to list it anytime soon.
Sincerely hope Zcoin is going to be different than their other coins and it works out for all of it's supporters but due diligence is warranted.
If you don't know already Gary and Poramin are the two devs leading this project. There is some good momentum building up as more and more people are become interested.
I too have been quite enthusiastic about the coin. Hell, I have been spreading the word days before it even launched, as seen here.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=895020.msg16331329#msg16331329
But a reply from a dev in the vertcoin thread which he later deleted made me look into it a bit deeper.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=895020.msg16332895#msg16332895
I wonder how many of you know that Vertcoin creator Poramin Insom is coming up with a Zerocash competitor which is going to be launched very soon.
https://news.bitcoin.com/zero-knowledge-zcoin-launching-soon/
http://zcoin.tech/about.html
There is a possibility of zerocoin implementation on vertcoin via sidechains as hinted by him earlier.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=404364.msg9632734#msg9632734
No wonder this coin has been under accumulation for so long!
In before polo troll box gets a whiff of this.
Poramin did create vertcoin, but he also created a few other coins that had huge premines and we're deemed scams . He also was caught doing so pretty shady stuff . He was more or less asked to leave vertcoin or pushed out https://news.bitcoin.com/zero-knowledge-zcoin-launching-soon/
http://zcoin.tech/about.html
There is a possibility of zerocoin implementation on vertcoin via sidechains as hinted by him earlier.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=404364.msg9632734#msg9632734
No wonder this coin has been under accumulation for so long!
In before polo troll box gets a whiff of this.
As you can see etang6000, who is leading the vertcoin project now had this to say about Poramin :
"Poramin did create vertcoin, but he also created a few other coins that had huge premines and we're deemed scams . He also was caught doing so pretty shady stuff . He was more or less asked to leave vertcoin or pushed out"
This worried me and I started to dig up further and came aross this AMA from Gary from 2015
https://forum.bitcoin.com/ama-ask-me-anything/i-m-gary-le-co-founder-of-moneta-the-world-s-first-implementation-of-zerocoin-ama-t2408.html
I highly recommend going through the entire AMA.
There has been a lot of accusations floating around them.
They created Zerovert coin back in late 2014 and just when it hit some major exchanges a huge premine dumping took place and the devs never replied in that thread ever again.
https://forum.bitcoin.com/ama-ask-me-anything/i-m-gary-le-co-founder-of-moneta-the-world-s-first-implementation-of-zerocoin-ama-t2408.html#p7037
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=846471.0
Zcoin is just rebranding for their other project by the name of Moneta.
https://news.bitcoin.com/first-implementation-zerocoin-released-introducing-moneta/
They took their old code just renamed it as close as possible to Zcash and launched exactly a month before Zcash's launch to get the most juice out of their rusting project.
There has been zero github activity for moneta in over a year
https://github.com/zebbra2014/moneta/graphs/contributors
Github activity as compared to Zcash https://twitter.com/dmfay89/status/779368584086626304
For those saying the devs will correct the faulty codebase in due time ,well they had over a year to fix it and they did nothing.
Gary has had some other serious accusations thrown at him to which he never gave a clear reply.
https://web.archive.org/web/20141016203212/http://blog.kevinzhang.me/posts/tracking-down-gary-le-the-thiel-fellow-and-dartmouth-dropout-who-tried-to-impersonate-me-an-encore.html
https://forum.bitcoin.com/ama-ask-me-anything/i-m-gary-le-co-founder-of-moneta-the-world-s-first-implementation-of-zerocoin-ama-t2408.html#p7140
So basically the devs have had a history of dumping and abandoning projects and nefarious behavior.
Bittrex and other major exchanges are well aware of it and would be hesitant to list it anytime soon.
Sincerely hope Zcoin is going to be different than their other coins and it works out for all of it's supporters but due diligence is warranted.