Re: [GNU/consensus] ZCash

[IngeGNUe]

On 08/28/2016 12:40 PM, lupa wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> Do you know this project? https://z.cash/
> 
> What do you think about it ?
> 
> thanks!
> 
> 

Really cool idea from a security perspective, I've been hoping to see
something like this. But, as others pointed out, it has potentially
undesirable political consequences. In my opinion, this is because it
treats every transaction as ethically neutral, even though it is
arguable that there are times when people deserve to know where money is
going, such as how large corporations spend their money.

But that's exactly what the CASH in ZCash is, isn't it? It's like
physical money (which, sans fingerprints, is just as untraceable) -- on
steroids, because you don't have to physically be in front of the person
to hand them anything. The cryptography replaces the physical world.

Let's address the potential for tax evasions and so on. There's no doubt
that something like ZCash would be in demand by humble individuals who
pay their taxes and only intend to (for example) securely donate to
people they've never met (software projects, indie music, indie media).
Shady corporations trying to evade taxes would also find it interesting
for other reasons. As a result, you get the wild west of currency, even
more so than bitcoin.

The question I have is how does one inject ethics without undermining
the security? How does one maintain that level of security without
undermining ethics? How does one have their cake and eat it? Because
that is the most interesting thing to me. Everything I had read over the
years with regard to security points at it being an all-or-nothing
principle: security for all, privacy for all. This being a good and
sometimes bad thing, depending on the circumstances and the people.
Nonetheless, if you undermine security for some, and you undermine it
for all.

Perhaps a solution would be found externally to the currency: for
example, to require certain organizations to practice transparency
(meaning they HAVE to provide view keys, or else they can't use ZCash if
they want to keep their doors open), but that doesn't stop them from --
just as it is with physical cash -- fudging the numbers a bit and using
ZCash to conceal a small percentage of transactions.

Devil's advocate: Even the extensive measures put in place to watch over
transactions in modern economies don't seem to have helped organizations
(especially large corporations) behave any better. It causes me to ask
whether something like ZCash would ultimately make any difference in
that area? Perhaps the bar would be lowered since (in the corporate
criminal mastermind's head) instead of offshore banking you have ZCash.
Which means that in order to sanction them, you would have to be a
little more creative, but it's probably doable. Bearing in mind that
physical cash has been around for centuries, and haven't we developed
systems to deal with that?...

It's worth noting that the other side of the 'coin' here, the side that
ZCash is on, is the ethical necessity of private transactions. There is
no doubt that sometimes people need that transaction privacy, for
ethically good, or simply personal, reasons.

It seems hard to imagine any currency that can evaluate the good from
the bad players, but it is getting late and I should get some shuteye.

Just my thoughts on that. Anyone else?