Note though, that he is not creating new cryptography, he is using well established, true and tested existing cryptography.
Mathematicians and cryptographers have often produced new crypto that has later been proven faulty.
Oh absolutely, I'm not suggesting he invent new cryptography. I'm suggesting he provide cryptographically sound mathematical models to show how these "masternodes" are impervious to collusion, Sybil attacks, or an attacker DDoSing the DarkCoin P2P port on enough of them so that they control a sufficient number. This is the sort of thing anyone competent would do BEFORE they start coding.
So, keeping it in line with topic:
Darkcoin Cons:
- lack of peer-reviewed cryptography
- lack of understanding of threat models
- developer is clearly incompetent (see failed RCwhatever releases causing forks)
- whitepaper contains no mathematical proof of the resilience of the anonymity set to attacks
- whitepaper contains a mathematical formula for the block reward curve that is completely unrelated to the actual block reward curve (see
Darkcoins in Circulation - First 128 days, and
Darkcoin Block Reward Emission Curve - First 128 Days), implying either a completely incompetent developer, or a developer that actively and aggressively cheats
Cloackcoin Cons:
- lack of peer-reviewed cryptography
- lack of understanding of threat models
- "elected" nodes open to Sybil attacks and cheating
- whitepaper contains no mathematical proof of the resilience of the anonymity set to attacks
- uses PoS, which introduces lots of technical failures and methods of cheating of its own
