delvingbitcoin

Who will run the CoinJoin coordinators?

Who will run the CoinJoin coordinators?

Original Postby 40000bytes

Posted on: June 3, 2024 06:20 UTC

The excitement surrounding the potential of joinstr as an innovative protocol for decentralized coordination in cryptocurrency transactions is palpable, yet it appears to be in its nascent stages with significant hurdles to overcome before it can serve as a viable alternative to centralized coordinators.

A critical issue impeding its immediate adoption on the mainnet is a threading problem detailed on its GitLab page, which needs resolution (threading issue).

In the quest for enhanced privacy and security within digital transactions, ecash emerges as a potentially underestimated contender, particularly for smaller-scale off-chain coin mixing. The conceptual framework suggests leveraging ecash to route Lightning Network (LN) payments through several mints. This method aims to obscure transaction trails by diversifying the payment hashes/preimages and employing strategies such as TOR usage for request anonymization and deliberate timing of transfers to elude network-level analysis. Despite its innovative approach, the current limitation lies in the insufficient funds within any single ecash mint, which could render transaction patterns conspicuously identifiable.

An interesting discourse shared via a discussion thread highlights a practical application that integrates ecash with coinjoin, suggesting a symbiotic relationship rather than a replacement scenario. This perspective underscores a broader narrative within the bitcoin privacy enhancement toolkit, where various tools and techniques are often seen as complementary rather than mutually exclusive. Examples include utilizing coinjoin for a UTXO, opening an LN channel with the resulting "toxic change," and then applying mercury layer for transactions with post-mix UTXOs or engaging in payjoin transactions. This multifaceted approach to privacy and security illustrates the complexity of navigating the ecosystem, alongside the challenge of misdirection often perpetuated by developers regarding the interoperability and effectiveness of these various tools.