🆕 Software Suggestion | Pirate Chain (ARRR)

[ian-tedesco]

Basic Information

Name: Pirate Chain (ARRR)
Category: Private/Anonymous Cryptocurrencies (if they are officially added to the website)
URL to official website: https://pirate.black/
URL to GitHub repository: https://github.com/PirateNetwork
URL to whitepaper: https://pirate.black/files/whitepaper/The_Pirate_Code_V1.0.pdf

Description

Pirate Chain (ARRR) is a relatively new cryptocurrency which focuses on privacy, security and anonymity. They have implemented different features from other privacy coins such as zk-SNARKs (zero-knowledge succinct non interactive arguments of knowledge) from Z-cash, Sapling, also from Z-cash, dPoW (delayed proof of work) from Komodo, and maybe some others that I'm missing.

I'll quote a couple of extracts from their whitepaper so people can have an idea of how the previous mentioned implementations work and how this can benefit anons that decide to use this cryptocurrency not only in terms of P/S/A but also by reducing Co2 emissions.

zk-SNARKs is a form of transaction originally developed by Z-cash in which payments can be done without revealing sender's or receiver's data, this is optional therefore most of Z-cash transactions are made between t-addr and t-addr, instead of z-addr with z-addr. This damages the fungibility of the coins, since a coin that has been spent by a drug dealer now can be traced if at any moment of block of transactions the method used was a transparent one; this on itself can lead to the price of that exact coin to be lowered, not accepted by anyone, or seized by authorities. ARRR solves this by forcing zk-SNARKs transactions and implementing the Sapling upgrade.

More on Sapling from an ecologically standpoint:

The percentage of shielded transactions is assumed to rise as Zcash’srecent implementation of “Sapling” makes processing shielded transactions only a fraction more computationally intensive than non-shielded transactions (Bowe 2017).

This also helps with the concerns about energy consumption of other e-coins discussed on issue #798 .

More on Sapling from a privacy standpoint:

The performance upgrades of Sapling unfortunately comes at a privacy cost as Sapling transactions reveal more metadata than the “old” legacy JoinSplit operations. Sapling transactions show the number of inputs and outputs used.

This functionality increases the options to differentiate between transaction types, analyse transaction data and possibly identify behaviour related to mixing. To reduce or eliminate this risk it is important to either reduce the usage of transparent addresses or simply disable it from the beginning in a new blockchain such as Pirate.

More on the relation of Pirate Chain with Bitcoin, Z-cash and Komodo:

Pirate is an asset chain part of the Komodo platform ecosystem. The Komodo project focuses on empowering blockchain entrepreneurs and the average cryptocurrency user with freedom and ease of use through blockchain technology (Lee 2018). Komodo began as a fork of the popular privacy coin, Zcash. The Zcash project itself is a fork of Bitcoin. Thus, all the features designed by Satoshi Nakamoto in the Bitcoin protocol are also available in Komodo.

As such, Komodo retains the same inherent privacy features as Zcash. Among these features are the Zcash parameters and zk-SNARK technology. Zk-SNARKS is one of the most powerful forms of blockchain privacy in existence, as the provided privacy is effectively permanent.

This statement is even highlighted by the main representative of Monero, Riccardo “fluffypony” Spagni:

“ZCash’s zkSNARKs provide much stronger untraceability characteristics than Monero (but a much smaller privacy set and much higher systemic risks).”

More on how the implementation of dPoW can benefit ARR from a security and ecologically standpoint:

Delayed Proof-of-Work stems from Komodo and provides a unique and innovative form of security which is as strong as the network it attaches to, yet does not require the cost to run that network. Delayed Proof-of-Work is a solution that utilizes multiple existing methods into a single hybrid consensus system that is as energy efficient as Proof-of-Stake (PoS), while being secured by Bitcoin’s Proof-of-Work. Users who build independent blockchains (asset chains) in the Komodo ecosystem can choose to have a block-hash, serving as a “snapshot”of their own blockchain inserted into the Komodo main chain. In this manner, the records of the asset chain are indirectly included in the block-hash of Komodo that is pushed onto the blockchain of the strongest network (now Bitcoin).

So dPoW allows even the weakest of blockchains to benefit from Bitcoin's hash-rate and this in turn makes Bitcoin's power usage more eco-friendly as it is securing the entire ecosystem of dPoW in addition to itself (Jl777c 2016). Other than Pirate, dPoW has been successfully implemented in a large number of asset chains such as Game Credits, Einsteinium (EMC2), Pungo and HUSHamongst others (Komodostats 2018).

So in order to reorganize and attack Pirate the attacker would need to destroy:

• all existing copies of the Piratechain;
• all copies of the Komodo main chain;
• the PoW security network (Bitcoin) into which the Komodoblockchain notarized data is inserted.

Furthermore, notary nodes have the freedom to switch the notarization process to another PoW network if a shift in hash rates between the large blockchains occurs in the future. Delayed Proof-of-Work provides Pirate with a higher than Bitcoin-level security, while avoiding the excessive financial and eco-unfriendly costs. Through dPoW ́s flexibility it offers a more flexible and adaptive nature than Bitcoin itself.

Why I am making the suggestion

I am making this suggestions since @Mikaela asked me to open an issue to recommend both Pirate Chain and DeepOnion and because I think are one of the best cryptocurrencies out there.

My connection with the software

I have no type of connections with the developer team or any other part of the organization.

•  I will try keep the issue up-to-date if something I have said changes or I remember a connection with the software.

[ian-tedesco]

@Mikaela what research is required here? I know standards are trying to be set but I even read the whitepaper, quoted it and tried to simply explain its features for people who are not so familiar with the topic. Should I do something more?

[Mikaela]

@5a384507-18ce-417c-bb55-d4dfcc8883fe https://github.com/privacytoolsIO/privacytools.io/issues/977#issuecomment-584231923

• I am opening an issue to ask if we even want cryptocurrencies if one doesn't exist already.