This part seems to be the major problem zcash solves from what I can tell. Delivering on the promise of true anonymity which Bitcoin currently lacks. I see the appeal to current Bitcoin users, but outside of that group, can't see the appeal in a broad "general consumer" sense.
zcash seems like a company addressing a small problem (true anonymity) in the broader context of issues cryptocurrency faces (ubiquity, liquidity, ease of transacting, fraud prevention). Creating an entirely new currency which has to retread the efforts of building out the ecosystem to support that currency is a huge mountain to climb.
It seems you and him disagree, he says ZCash couldn't/wouldn't have happened in Bitcoin and you say it could.
Is your blog post about this still coming?
https://twitter.com/matthew_d_green/status/78153309118155571... https://twitter.com/matthew_d_green/status/78154154453702656... https://twitter.com/matthew_d_green/status/78154374789720064... https://twitter.com/matthew_d_green/status/78153489377171865... https://twitter.com/matthew_d_green/status/78154782708016742...
Ha!
> It seems you and him disagree, he says ZCash couldn't/wouldn't have happened in Bitcoin and you say it could.
Yeah, I'm just surprised he feels so strongly about that, given how little I remember him actually doing along those lines. Like I said, I actually was hired by him on a monthly retainer to do consulting... and he did almost nothing at all with that contract. :(
> Is your blog post about this still coming?
Yes, although holy fuck I have a lot on the todo list. :( I also need to writeup my part of the trusted setup ceremony too.
And a blog post on that isn't paid work, so doesn't get as high priority as paying rent. :)
It's also highlights why I feel the concept of a "decentralized" currency is essentially impossible. Someone always controls some facet of it, be it features of the currency, supply, restrictions, or value.
In the case of cryptocurrencies, the authors of the protocol and governance put in place to maintain it are the central authority. For zcash, the central bitcoin authority (whoever you referenced as 'Bitcoin') wouldn't/couldn't integrate features they wanted so they rolled their own currency of which now THEY are the central authority.
Can you cite this? If he said said it-- it's an outright lie.
This isn't how cash works, which is the real "money" in our system. At some point (even if on credit) cash is transferred for stuff. I don't want people to know which places I have a news subscription for. I don't want them to know who I donate to just from the blockchain. I have a choice to want them to know that. This is a practical problem because that means either I need to use shady services to hide these facts for normal purposes. That, or never use them except in a few cases where I don't care people know (but I also might regret that).
I think from a practical perspective, this makes bitcoin really hard to use. How do you make transactions that aren't easily traced to you by literally anyone? Answer: it's hard and possibly won't work completely.