Re: [Taler] Monero

[Christian Grothoff]

On 11/07/2016 04:22 PM, Klaus Schleisiek wrote:
> Did anybody ever look at "Monero" (https://getmonero.org/home), a new crypto
> currency?

Sure.

> Any opinions about it?

First, the key issue with Monero and Zerocash is that these systems are
suitable for criminal activity as income can also be obscured, and I
would have preferred it, if we could have avoided adding money
laundering to the list of problems exacerbated by privacy-preserving tools.

Second, Monero still uses a block chain and thus an expensive form of
Byzantine fault-tolerant consensus.  So the latency and energy costs are
possibly too wasteful to run actual global economies over it.

Third, like Bitcoin and ZeroCash it's a new currency, so additional
risks exist from exchange rate fluctuations, speculation, and the
introduction of alt-coins.  None of these answer the basic question as
to why those coins are supposed to have any value in the first place
(beyond the herd instinct), and fail to give a sane explanation as to
why central banks are inherently evil. (Naturally, sometimes central
banks are, but there is a difference between concept and specific
implementation.)

Fourth, neither ZeroCash nor Monero seem to address usability issues
nearly to the extend necessary to see widespread acceptance and deployment.


So with all of the above, these systems will fail to address the bigger
social issues of mass surveillance (but perfectly manage to underpin the
next wave of organized crime).


Finally, the anonymity (set) of Monero seems to be weaker (by design)
than in Zerocash or Taler.  But that's a very minor point.

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