Quote from: MoveCrypto on January 08, 2017, 04:33:21 PM

Quote from: Hueristic on January 08, 2017, 06:52:49 AM

Quote from: dinofelis on January 08, 2017, 05:39:57 AM

Quote from: MoveCrypto on January 08, 2017, 01:11:47 AM

Why do you say optional anonymity is a problem? Monero also has optional anonymity via the view key.

This is not what I mean. The feature that makes anonymous should be the thing that is always used, so that there is no "suspicion" when it is used. The goal of anonymity is to "melt into the crowd and to be indistinguishable for Joe Sixpack". It is like an envelope for snail mail. Everybody uses a closed envelope. There's no suspicion that you want to be anonymous when you use a closed envelope. If all letters would be sent in an open envelope, except those that wanted to keep private, they would stand out.
Another illustration (negative this time), is if you want to be anonymous on the street. You can put a bag on your head, but you stand out. As almost all people show their faces, so if you put a bag over your head, you stand out. Ok, people cannot see who you are, but they can see that you are a guy wanting to hide his face.

You can say it differently: if you are the *only* person using a service that wants to be anonymous, that should still work. You shouldn't depend on *how many other people* want to be anonymous to get that anonymity without standing out.
For instance, if it became a habit to publish your viewkey systematically on a public web site when you do a monero transaction, then this principle would be harmed in monero too, because those few times that you would like to be anonymous, and not publish your view key, you'd stand out again. But this is not what happens with the view key. The view key is usually only used in a very restrained circle if you want to prove something to someone ; not publicly.

Very well put, it amazes me that this needs to be explained ad nauseum.

I see your point. Applying this same principle then we could say anyone opting for optional anonymity by using monero or zcash instead of bitcoin is looking suspicious.

Zcash has two different types of addresses, transparent "T" addresses or anonymous "Z" addresses.

For example, if someone sends 1000 ZEC from a T address to a Z address, then from an outside observer's perspective, it just looks like 1000 ZEC was transferred from T address to Z address pool. They can't see any specific Z addresses, their balances, or their transactions.

A large % of people who opt to use ZEC instead of BTC will also opt to use the Z addresses instead of the T addresses. If Bob requests that someone send funds to his Z or T ZEC address, then it won't look any more suspicious than if he requests someone send funds to his XMR address.

100% fungability is the only solution for freedom.