Zcoin creators say it has become the first “privacy coin” to adopt Dandelion to provide a higher degree of anonymity than provided in many other cryptocurrencies. Dandelion seeks to provide network privacy that further conceals the IP address of someone broadcasting a transaction on the blockchain. Some cryptocurrencies have been promoted, and utilized, due to a greater sense of anonymity. Zcoin (XCZ) is currently #97 on CoinMarketCap with a market valuation of about $57 million.
Zcoin also uses Tor integration – another method to hide your tracks. Zcoin incorporates the “Zerocoin protocol” which is described as ensuring private financial transactions using “zero-knowledge cryptographic proofs.” Users are able to destroy their Zcoins and mint clean coins with no transaction history tied to it. But Dandelion adds an additional layer of secrecy to utilization.
Dandelion is the work of researchers from Carnegie Mellon, MIT and the University of Illinois – Giulia Fanti, Shaileshh Bojja Venkatakrishnan, Surya Bakshi, Bradley Denby, Shruti Bhargava, Andrew Miller and Pramod Viswanath – who come from varied backgrounds ranging from wireless networking to privacy to cryptocurrencies. Dandelion provides network privacy that further conceals the IP address of someone broadcasting a transaction.
Reuben Yap, COO of Zcoin, said they were excited to add another layer of privacy and reduce the likelihood of link-ability to personal information.
Giulia Fanti, assistant professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, and co-creator of Dandelion, said:
“There is a lot of sensitive information in people’s financial transactions, so it’s important to ensure that their data can’t be exploited by malicious agents, especially given the public nature of cryptocurrencies. Dandelion protects users from adversaries who might try to link their cryptocurrency transactions to an IP address.”
Andrew Miller, one of the researchers of Dandelion and Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois, explained that Dandelion is implemented within the existing cryptocurrency peer-to-peer network, so it doesn’t rely on an external service.
“It’s also lightweight and fairly easy to implement on top of existing cryptocurrency gossip networks because it does not use encryption.”
The creators say that Dandelion does not make it impossible to link a user’s transaction to their IP address but it currently offers the best protection over transactions without resorting to encryption. Of course, it is this kind of technology that terrifies policymakers and their ongoing cat and mouse game with nefarious actors. But there are upstanding types who simply do not like other people snooping around their private activities.
The Zcoin team points to the fact there have been several high profile cases where people have become targets because people are aware that they hold a lot of cryptocurrencies. Individuals that don’t want to become the target of a cryptoheist are the obvious legitimate users of the Zcoin