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by cercatrova 1315 days ago
XKCD 538 remains ever relevant.
2 comments

Not really. That one has been solved seen Bitcoin BIP 39 with plausible deniability.

I mean: unless the attacker knows exactly how much coins you have, he has zero way to way if you're unlocking a decoy wallet or the real one.

The problem I've encountered with schemes like you're describing (such as encryption schemes with decoys) is that it also makes it impossible to verify that you've given everything up.

Say you give the attacker all of your bitcoins/data, they're now incentivized to continue punishing you in perpetuity regardless, since you could have provided a decoy.

> I mean: unless the attacker knows exactly how much coins you have,

They don't need to know the exact number. They need to have a rough idea of the number. In the most likely scenario, where a state wants access, they tend to have a pretty good idea, because they get that information from investors, state agencies, banks and seized records.

"You are hereby ordered to forfeit your cryptocurrency or go to jail."
So the number of coins I have is not revealed by the Blockchain ?

That sounds so complicated, that even someone with a physics degree from MIT will not be able to make it work.

Wow, that's from February 2nd, 2009. October 31, 2008 was when the bitcoin white paper was published.

https://xkcd.com/538/

Well, it was back when crypto still colloquially meant cryptography, not cryptocurrency. Of course, in this case it's the same thing because cryptocurrency uses cryptography underneath.
And on the current topic, crytocurrency really does mean hidden currency.
I’m pretty sure by “crypto” they meant “cryptography” (its original meaning), not “cryptocurrency” here.