[zerokernel]

I don't think cryptocurrencies are protecting anyone from any problem.

[jstanley]

OK, I'll bite. How is Monero not protecting people's privacy?

[paulsutter]

Because most Monero transactions are traceable, according to research by the National University of Singapore:

https://eprint.iacr.org/2017/338.pdf

If anyone can debunk this I’d love to hear more, but generally I think it’s dangerous to rely on claims of secrecy

[jstanley]

https://getmonero.org/2017/04/19/an-unofficial-response-to-a...

[paulsutter]

Thanks for the link. While it’s good to see the paper overstates the problem, it’s also clear that users should not assume that their Monero transactions are untraceable.

[tscs37]

I think the summary of both papers (the initial paper and monero's unofficial response) could be that monero's transactions are reasonably untraceable.

Reasonably private should be good enough for most people.

[paulsutter]

If the goal is more-private-than-bitcoin, yes, it's less traceable than bitcoin. If the goal is bulletproof-from-authorities, not so much.