I notice that I was quoted above.
There is no huge difference guys. Shadow is using almost exactly the same protocol (and methods of providing anonymity) as cryptonote with some minor tweaks (fewer denominations for each digit, which either way is a reasonable but somewhat arbitrary trade off between chain size and anonymity set size)
People said that Satoshi's Bitcoin invention wasn't so great either. They said the encryption and most of the schemes were already invented. The brilliance of Satoshi however, was putting those pieces that were invented by others before him, together in a brilliant way that created a powerful incentive system. I see what Shadow is doing as much similar. Perhaps the developers borrowed and used techniques from those that came before, but what they have done is put those pieces together in a unique genius way. It has the same essence and feel as Bitcoin does, and I like that.
That wasn't my point. You are being a bit defensive. What I'm saying is that you get the same anonymity as cryptonote. That is not a bad thing. Cryptonote is the best system yet invented for anonymous coins, so this is a positive.
The conversion/minting/creating/destroying process doesn't give you more anonymity. Possibly less, if you are converting too often (though there is no good reason to do that). But no more is needed, because cryptonote is already pretty damn good.
It's not the same. Why would had our devs bother to spend thousands hours of coding if so... the way you say this is a bit misleading IMHO.
Anyway, I guess shadow community is open and ready to answer many questions, and Dark as the leader for anon and elder one has the right to be skeptical, but lets be respectful of others sensibility.
I still have in mind Dark vs Somecoin drama and don't wanna see happening it here.