Cryptonote coins are still in their early stages. Darkcoin has 4 months of development lead. Then there is the fact that a QT wallet already existed for Darkcoin to use since it is basically a bitcoin clone. Anyone that doesn't think that cryptonote coins will not be serious contenders if not leaders in anonymity are seriously underestimating them. I'd bet that you have taken at least a small stake in them.
Cryptonote isn't a real competitor there are too many limitations.
If anyone ever disputes receiving payment, you have no recourse. You can not generate a TX id without exposing your one and only private key exposing all your funds.
Also it is impossible to prune the block chain with cryptonote. This leads to a huge disk space requirement already rivaling Bitcoin's five year size.
In it's current form, CryptoNote coins are unable to be used as a currency until the above problems are resolved.
I don't understand that argument. How would you have any recourse if someone disputes receiving a payment sent using a working darksend? I thought the goal was anonymous transactions that can't be traced. Looks like cryptonote coins are already there.
Cryptonote is likely the protocol that will be used for any mainstream anonymous cryptocurrency. Is it buggy right now? Yes it is. But so is Darkcoin and they have a 4 month head start on cryptonote coins.
One of the devs, I think for BBR has some ideas to prune the blockchain. There are workarounds for the TX id. Multiple GUI implementations are showing significant progress. The Cryptonote coin devs are every bit as competent as the Darkcoin devs. Give them a little time as they started from scratch and have had to build everything from nothing.
Bottom line is that competition right now is a good thing. The end product will be much better regardless of which coin ends up taking the crown.