Darkcoin and PrivacyPrivacy has always been important to the bitcoin community and perhaps it was only a matter of time before this narrative was exploited. Darkcoin is the first example of this: it is a bitcoin-derived coin that uses master nodes to create giant coinjoin transactions, thereby obscuring the link between sender and receiver.
Darkcoin has seen enormous growth with a market cap exceeded by only Bitcoin and Litecoin. This is the power of narrative. But Darkcoin was illegitimately insta-mined, has closed-source binaries, is not
technologically innovative, and has a volatility-enhancing block reward equation
1. In fact, since Darkcoin transactions are essentially bitcoin transactions with forced coinjoin, I dont see why wallets like Darkwallet cant achieve similar benefits with little of the drawbacks. I predict Darkcoin will collapse, some will call it a scam, and others will say they shouldn't have invested in something they didn't understand.
But instead of seeing the protocol-enforced privacy narrative as narrative, people might look for a more technically-sound alternative to Darkcoin and without the insta-mine black eye.
Peter R, you seem to be Darkcoin hater. I wonder why. Maybe because you invested in Monero and Darkcoin is its direct competitor? Or you simply missed the DRK train? The information you give is based mostly on rumors that FUDsters gladly spread around.
1. Insta-mine:
http://wiki.darkcoin.eu/wiki/FAQ#Was_Darkcoin_Instamined.3F2. Darkcoin is opensourced. Closed source is Darksend part for the development period only.
http://wiki.darkcoin.eu/wiki/FAQ#Is_DarkSend_open_source.3F3. Your link to Darkcoin whitepaper proves it is technologically innovative.
4. Block reward system (Dark Gravity Well) is enhanced version of Kimoto Gravity Well destined to protect the coin from multipools and miners hopping.
5. Darksend is not classical coinjoin. The main difference is that darksend is decentralized. Discussion here:
https://darkcointalk.org/threads/coinjoin-in-bitcoin-and-darksend.560/ Also it is not forced, just turned on by default.
Every your statement can be disproved.
My post from which you quoted was an academic view of the "Alt-Coin Narrative" cycle. Believing that Darkcoin will collapse does not imply that I am a "hater." In fact, I believe Dogecoin will collapse too (due to its quickly dropping mining subsidy) but I actually have a soft spot for the Dogecoin community and I am saddened for the good people losing money (because they invested without understanding Dogecoin's fundamental technical flaws).
Whether those 5 points you posted are true or false no longer really matter. Darkcoin is riding the hype cycle--only hype matters. Darkcoin is perceived as insta-mined. Darkcoin is perceived as closed-source. Darkcoin is perceived as non-innovative. Darkcoin is perceived to have a volatility-enhancing block reward. Darksend is perceived as less advanced that Cryptonote's ring signature approach (Bytecoin, Monero, etc). The fact that you feel the need to argue that this perception doesn't represent reality strengthens my case. When the hype is over, the market will use these as excuses to justify dumping the coins. The market is fickle.
For the record, I don't believe in Monero either. I gave my opinion that it may appear to The Market as a more legitimate continuation of the "privacy narrative" that began with Darkcoin, after the coming collapse.