With the exception of CryptoNote no other anon coin offers even a remote chance at real anonymity. Nothing but gimmicks.
I'm pretty stunned at how many people are paying big money for CrapCoins for gimmicks like DARK, BitcoinDark, etc...
Cryptonote started with bytecoin. We already know bytecoin released fake names as its key devs, along with probably fake bios. The release of that first cn coin has huge questions around it, including whether its early blockchain is even real. Some of the promotional material of that first cryptonote coin was done in a way that copied exactly the presentation style of government projects. Not one early buyer or miner has stepped forward.
I don't know anything about cryptography but I'd be cautious.
Yes. Cryptonote offers good privacy (probably the best available today). Bytecoin (the first cryptonote coin), was some sort of scam. Monero (the first CN coin released in a fair manner) is a good coin.
There is a thin line between what data has to be hidden and what has to be public in a public ledger based peer to peer electronic currency. One of the best features of bitcoin is the public ledger. And the ledger allows anyone to see the transaction and the addresses involved. It is certainly very important. It helps in creating systems where multiple users have to verify the transaction without being the owner of it. It opens doors for creating public organizations etc.
Its not possible by cryptonote. Only the owner of the privatekey can only view & verify the transaction. So, i dont think its better.
Not really.
In CN you make a new ring sig, using the same key image but different (random) data, thats only possible if you own the private key.
Then you can disclose the random number used to create the one time address.
Everone can check that the one time address i send money to can be created using the pubkey and intermediate random number.
Ideally you pack this into a payment protocol outside of the blockchain.
And for Donationaddresses/Charities who need a transparency they can simply publish their viewkey.