Evil Coin(EVIL)

Ukrainian national, Yaroslav Vasinskyi, also known as Rabotnik, has been sentenced 13 years and seven months in prison for his role in conducting over 2,500 ransomware attacks and demanding over $700 million in ransom payments, the Department of Justice announced Wednesday.

The social media giant's $60 million real-time data deal with Google is latest example of internet companies selling out their users who have nominally "consented" to share their personal information but have no control. Blockchains and ZK-proofs could help prevent corporate overreach, Nym CEO and privacy advocate Harry Halpin writes.

Apple developing AI to run locally on your phone, researchers ‘hypnotize’ GPT-4 to turn it evil, and Google negotiates a deep fake music deal.

Evil Pepe Coin is a hot new entrant in the meme coin space that has already raised over $1 million within ten days of its official launch. This surge in investor interest in Evil Pepe Coin ($EVILPEPE) is quite similar to the initial excitement of well-known meme coins like Pepe Coin, Dogecoin, and Shiba Inu. Especially […]

The low-cap crypto market has seen an uptick in momentum, with an array of new tokens catching investors’ attention. Three of the most talked-about tokens this week are $BITCOIN, $WLD, and $HAMS, all of which are trending on DEXTools. However, crypto investors are also taking note of Evil Pepe Coin ($EVILPEPE), which looks primed to […]

Worldcoin has a "high probability of failure," according to Slow Mist's founder.

It’s been another wild ride in the meme coin market this week, with several ups and downs catching investors’ attention. Dogecoin led the gains, surging 15% amid renewed interest, while the highly-anticipated Evil Pepe Coin presale hit the $730,000 mark. On a less positive note, $PEPE witnessed an ongoing price decline, leading to rising investor […]

The cryptocurrency market has remained relatively calm over the past couple of weeks, with Bitcoin stuck between the $29000-$30000 price range. However, major tokens are starting to show slightly bearish sentiments, with BTC now down 3.7% in the last 7 days. The negative outlook is more pronounced in Pepe coin as the token has depreciated […]

Pepe’s price has shown significant weakness of late, falling 14% in seven days and 2.47% in the last 24 hours. The recent sell-off means the 13 July rally has been canceled out, leading to a head and shoulders pattern on the Pepe price chart. To make matters worse, the price has dropped below the head […]

Will governments across the world inflict their CBDCs on their unsuspecting populations? Poor knowledge of CBDCs It was reported by Crypto Daily a year ago that 83% of respondents to a Crypto.com survey on digital currencies that was carried out by Economic Impact thought that “greater international cooperation” was needed in order to “legitimise” CBDCs. One of the questions asked in the survey was about the”barriers to CBDC adoption”. Here, only 27% of respondents said that a barrier was that they are “not well understood”. However, probably the most concerning data that came out of the survey was the following: “More than nine in ten (93%) now say they agree that issuance of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) is necessary to establish a functioning market for new financial instruments such as digital bonds or other forms of digital assets,” If one adds that executives were very “pro CBDCs” and that “nearly 87% of all respondents strongly agreed that consumer demand for CBDCs has increased in their country”, then a clearer picture emerges (if the survey is to be believed) that at least among the respondents at the time, the idea of a central bank digital currency was actually welcomed. Where is the government educational material on CBDCs? Therefore, the question has to be asked: Where are all the mainstream media articles or televised debates on the advantages or disadvantages of implementing CBDCs nationwide, or even as is being talked about by some international financial agencies - worldwide? The most important change to the monetary system since Bretton Woods is already being implemented in several countries across the world, and is being developed in many others, and there is hardly a ripple of discussion in mainstream channels. CBDCs - a technology to cancel wealth Rick Rule, CEO of Rule Investment Media, and ex-president and CEO of Sprott U.S. Holdings, had the following to say on CBDCs in a YouTube interview with Mike Maloney: “The idea that your cash, your savings, exist as a licence from your government, is terrifying to me.” He added: If you combine the idea of a technological cancellable currency, however it’s held, with artificial intelligence and the Chinese technology around so-called social scoring or social credit, you come to a circumstance where your savings which are the result of the utility that you created in society can be cancelled.” Rick Rule went on to cite the recent example of how Trudeau’s government had seized the bank accounts of Canadians who were supporting the truckers with donations. The seizures were illegal and without recourse to the courts. Rule’s fear is that CBDCs would make this kind of action incredibly easy to implement. Given the lack of any educational content from governments to citizens on the roll-out of CBDCs it would behove the citizens to make their own investigations into the matter. Time is of the essence. Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

It’s been a hectic few days in the meme coin market, with Baby Doge 2.0 exploding by over 100%. At the same time, the original Dogecoin has seen an uptick in momentum, with the coin’s price breaching the $0.07 level. Traders are also turning to the brand-new meme token Evil Pepe Coin, drawn to its […]

The price of the leading meme coin Pepe ($PEPE), fell by nearly 4% yesterday – taking the coin’s value decline to 17% over the past five days. This downturn means that last Thursday’s surprise gains have been all but erased, with the bulls now taking control. However, Pepe’s downturn isn’t dampening the hype around Evil […]

The meme coin market has a new contender looking to challenge the dominance of $PEPE – Evil Pepe Coin ($EVILPEPE). Evil Pepe Coin ($EVILPEPE) This brand-new project launched its presale phase today, aiming to capture the meme coin hype with an edgy twist on the popular Pepe the Frog character. With the frenzy around meme […]

In its latest blogpost, Choise.com, a gateway crypto platform blending CeFi and DeFi in one concept, has revealed their exclusive partnership with the ELF (European League of Football) champions Vienna Vikings. According to the official statement, this effort is intended to encourage cryptocurrency adoption among numerous fans of American football around the world. The collaboration with the Vienna Vikings marks the Choise.com’s active involvement in the sports industry. As American football is now booming across Europe, this newly forged alliance promises a global wave of interest to the ever-growing crypto ecosystem. Choise.com has already onboarded more than 1 million users in over 170 countries to its platform and keeps spreading awareness about digital assets by joining efforts with the leading brands from various sectors. Why the Vienna Vikings? The Vienna Vikings have dominated American football in Austria for the past two decades. The club boasts a truly rich heritage which includes winning the national Austrian Bowl 15 times in their history, as well as capturing the Eurobowl title 5 times from 2004 to 2007 and in 2013. The beginning of the Vikings’ journey in the ELF, the Europe’s biggest American football tournament, turned out to be striking – they triumphantly won their first season in 2022, beating the Hamburg Sea Devils in the Championship Game with a score of 27-15. This year, the Viennese club is committed to Running It Back and repeating their resounding success in the third season of the ELF. After a continuous streak of 4 wins over the Berlin Thunder, the Prague Lions, the Leipzig Kings, and the Fehervar Enthroners, the Vikings opened further their lead in the standings ahead of matchups against the Raiders Tirol and the Panthers Wroclaw. Next to that, the Vienna Vikings, rooted in the American Football & Cheerleading Club of the Vikings, have established themselves as a powerhouse program with great youth development. Among their most famous inmates are Bernhard Raimann (OL Indianapolis Colts) and Bernhard Seikovits (TE Arizona Cardinals) who are currently shining in the NFL. All this coupled with a persuasive fanbase resulted in the Vienna Vikings becoming the right partner for Choise.com, making its grand entrance into the thriving American football space. The Mutually Beneficial Relationship Choise.com is assured of a beneficial association because of the Vienna Vikings’ palpable affluence within Europe. Meanwhile, by collaborating with the reigning ELF champion, the platform will enhance the club’s branding in several aspects such as the team’s apparel, social media presence, and stadium. On top of the Choise.com logo featuring prominently in all official helmets, there is another joint initiative that has been planned for execution as well. Through their partnership with the Vienna Vikings, Choise.com intends to launch a unique line of Crypterium cards with a bespoke design celebrating the club and its team members. Crypterium card is a VISA card available for order in over 30 countries. Choise.com users can issue both virtual and plastic versions of the card, replenish it from their wallets, make worldwide payments wherever VISA is accepted, as well as withdraw cash from ATMs in more than 200 countries.To date, the product already serves over 50,000 clients. On June 24, the Vikings demonstrated their newly branded helmets for the first time. This happened during their inaugural matchup against the Leipzig Kings. The game started with the opening ceremony during which the CEO of Choise.com Vladimir Gorbunov together with his son did the honorary coin toss in the center of the Hohe Warte stadium. But the real cherry on the cake was the incredible victory of the Vienna Vikings who defeated their rivals 47-14 in acknowledgment of a longstanding cooperation with the crypto platform. Since that day, the team has remained unbeaten and only strengthened their positions in the standings after the latest triumph over the Fehervar Enthrodes, 41-12. Choise.com is an all-purpose crypto platform offering a broad set of crypto banking services at the junction of CeFi and DeFi. This includes purchasing and earning crypto in interest accounts, Web3 staking, generating profits from NFTs, as well as trying out dual-currency investments with high yields. You can also enjoy all the platform’s features on the go by downloading the Choise.com mobile app. What else makes Choise.com stand out from the competition is its latest state-of-art product – BitDriven index token overseen by acclaimed cryptocurrency researchers and analysts. Through this tool users can gain exposure to the portfolio of the most promising coins with a persuasive performance history and good fundamental reasons for substantial growth. The collective value of this portfolio is supposed to grow up to x12 after the 2024 Bitcoin halving. Choise.com will provide support to the Vienna Vikings throughout the entire 2023 season, bringing digital assets closer than ever before to thousands of its enthusiastic fans. Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

How the financial system works is bizarre beyond belief. Bitcoin is the life raft that provides unseizable wealth. How does one explain this monetary system? If an alien landed on earth and asked how the financial system worked, there is probably no economist who would be able to explain how such a complex and outlandish system actually functions. The heart of the world’s financial system is arguably the United States, and the Federal Reserve Bank. A bank that isn’t federal and has no reserves. In fact, the Federal Reserve is a private bank, with all the big US banks helping to run it and being among the shareholders. The alien might ask how on earth, or even in the galaxy, can a private bank run the financial affairs of the most powerful country in the world, and in turn influence the entire global monetary and banking system? The answer might be that it just kind of happened. Edward Griffin's “The creature from Jekyll Island” does the best job in telling the story of how a group of extremely powerful bankers and politicians travelled to a little frequented destination and held a secret meeting on setting up a central bank with which to control the country’s money. They were successful beyond belief and the bank endures to this day, with the world’s financial markets completely in thrall whenever the Chairman of the Federal Reserve makes his utterances on what the central bank will do next. How has the system endured? Some might say that what it has already done is enough, as when President Nixon announced back in 1971 that the dollar would be removed from its gold backing, allowing the country to print currency with almost no restraint ever since then. The alien could then ask how the dollar was able to keep its purchasing power, to say nothing of all the world’s fiat currencies which were tied to it. Also, hard assets such as gold - wouldn’t they rocket to the heavens? The answer would be that the dollar has lost 99% of its purchasing power since it was established in 1914, just after the creation of the Federal Reserve Bank. Gold has kept its purchasing power, as it has done throughout the history of the world and just continues to go up against the dollar despite the massive amount of manipulation that goes on in the paper futures exchanges such as the COMEX. Finally the alien may ask how the population of the US and that of other countries hasn’t risen up to protest the theft of purchasing power by the banks? The answer would be that the population is kept from discussing or hearing about how the financial system works, and this dearth of knowledge is throughout schools, colleges, and universities. How the story ends well However, the good news that could be told to the alien is that a decentralised hard money system has managed to grow under the radar of those in charge of the monetary system. It has spread across the world to become the most powerful and secure computer network that the world has ever seen. Its name is Bitcoin, and it provides wealth that cannot be taken away from the holder, not by force, nor by manipulation of central banks that drive the world’s middle classes into poverty. This is a story that can end well, and will perhaps leave the alien not feeling as sorry for us. Here is a world where an evil monetary system prevails, but where a gift in the form of Bitcoin can provide an exit out of the slavery that fiat currencies inflict. Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

The Federal Reserve did not raise rates for the first time since the inflation-inspired start of its rapid interest rate expansion. However, crypto continues its downward slide. Fed intervention A Fed pivot is on the horizon even though it may not start to actually reduce interest rates until next year. This was certainly coming given that the current mad series of interest rate hikes is forcing the economy into recession. Never before has the Fed tightened as quickly and as harshly as this following Biden and Yellen’s claims back in July of 2021 that inflation was only “temporary”. History tells us that our boom and bust cycles are caused by government and central bank manipulation of credit, and that government intervention in the markets is always a bad thing and could probably be said to be axiomatic. Attempted eradication of crypto In such a chaotic world where the dollar and all other fiat currencies are being debased like crazy, it appears that the last thing the US government needs is the slightest hint of competition to its currency. It could be argued that the government sees this competition coming on two fronts. It is now understanding the full import of cryptocurrencies - which might be classified as a type of private money. After huge successes for some cryptocurrencies, admittedly mostly driven by hype and speculation, the US government has probably decided to try and eradicate them through the auspices of its enforcement agencies (SEC and CFTC). A systemic attack on the crypto ecosystem is now taking place and lacking liquidity and with many crypto investors fleeing the sector the market is bleeding out. Bitcoin unassailable? However, there is one cryptocurrency that even the US government would have the devil of a job in taking down, and that is bitcoin. Bitcoin is the most decentralised and secure private money that exists in the world today, and given that it runs purely on code there is nothing any government or agency can do to stop it. Be that as it may, the rest of the market is obviously having an effect on bitcoin as large crypto businesses run into difficulties with sizable chunks of bitcoin on their books, and Mt Gox and the US government are selling their bitcoin into the market. Once this selling pressure is gone though it might be expected that bitcoin would begin a dramatic rise as investors rush out of a worsening dollar, to say nothing of the rest of the fiat currencies. BRICS currency on the horizon The other front where the US can expect huge competition is from the BRICS nations. In August, at a Summit in South Africa, these nations are expected to announce a new currency which could be backed by gold and/or other commodities, or could even become a rival reserve currency to the dollar by having its own deep and liquid bond market, with the bonds bought by citizens in 20 or so countries that are in or on the point of joining the BRICS nations. So whether it be Bitcoin or the BRICS nations, the dollar is likely to undergo the most profound and serious rivalry since it came into existence. With the unpayable debts owed by the US government and nothing but thin air and promises backing the currency, a new world order may be on the way. Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

The US economy is sinking towards recession as GDP came in at only 1.1% for Q1. Bitcoin on the other hand is continuing its rise. Economic factors Probably the most important factor for economic well being is oil. Oil drives economies, and strong demand for it signals a healthy economy that is using oil to fuel its industrial base. However, in these current times, in spite of OPEC countries reducing their output, the price of oil is continuing to decrease as demand falters due to falling economic growth. In the US, GDP growth for Q1 dwindled to 1.1%. This was an unexpectedly sharp fall given that the projection had been for 2%. In addition, the fall was also dramatic given that GDP had been at 2.6% for Q4 of 2022. De-Dollarisation Another looming problem for the dollar is that de-dollarisation is happening. Other countries around the world are starting to move away from the dollar, probably due to its recent weaponisation by the US government, by imposing sanctions against any other country it does not agree with. Russia is using yuan for trade, Argentina will pay for Chinese imports in yuan, India is settling some trades in rupees, Brazil and China are deciding whether to not use the dollar in trades between them, and Saudi Arabia is considering accepting the yuan for oil exports to China. However, de-dollarisation will likely be a slow process, given that dollar exchange reserves are nearly twice those of the euro, yen, pound, and yuan combined, and this is the same as it was a decade ago. The dollar accounts for 58% of all central bank foreign exchange reserves and this will probably not change any time soon. Nevertheless, a wind of change has begun to blow, and the dollar hegemony is on the wane. Dollar still in control Notwithstanding, the dollar has been described as the least dirty shirt in the laundry. It has its issues and detractors, but it is still the world’s reserve currency, and all the other fiat currencies are much weaker. The Brics nations of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, are said to be developing a new reserve currency that will be backed by real substance, such as commodities. The evil of CBDCs Be that as it may, fiat currencies all go to zero over time and this has been proved throughout history. The only last throw of the dice for those wishing to maintain complete control, is the imposition of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). CBDCs would enable central banks to exert the kind of control that up to now could only be read about in science fiction books. CBDCs would give the power to micro manage an individual's account, including setting time limits on spending, deciding what can and can’t be bought, and even direct sanctions should the individual do something that was thought to be against the interests of the State. Be your own bank with Bitcoin Among all this morass of fiat currency misery there is still one asset that is outside of the grip of governments and central banks, and that is Bitcoin. Bitcoin is completely decentralised, cannot be taken away, and enables an individual to be their own bank. Banks are antiquated behemoths of a bygone age. They do not serve depositors given that they make the decision of who we can or can’t transact with, they provide no return when inflation is taken into account, and if enough depositors demand their money at one time, the bank will fail given that it holds almost no deposits due to zero fractional reserve. Bitcoin is cyclical, so history tells us that it does go up and down in price, sometimes quite wildly, but it is a nascent asset class and therefore it will take time for its volatility to subside. The main thing is that it is the people’s money, and it reduces the reliance people need to have on governments and the banks. As the evil of CBDCs approaches, it would be incumbent on all to do their best to research Bitcoin with a view to getting out of a crumbling and dangerous fiat monetary system. Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

I like to browse the local ads for retro gaming items. It just takes me back to fond memories of Jet Set Willy on the Zx Spectrum with its sexy rubber keys or maybe you are more of a Resident Evil fan on the PS1. That moment the dog jump through the mirror, I literally soiled my pants. As I was looking through the ads there was one ad in particular that caught my eye. A full set of PS2 games, 2500 in total. This made me look and to my surprise they were asking for payment in Bitcoins. This to me is a game changer (Pardon the pun), if the general public are starting to embrace buying and selling with crypto currency, the tide is changing. Obviously, this person is involved in the trading of bitcoins but it was still an eye opener. Item for sale: https://www.gumtree.com/p/video-games/full-playstation-ps2-set/1277316182 What next? I have heard rumours of Amazon looking at accepting Bitcoins which would in my opinion drive up the price two or 3 times its current rate if it ever came to fruition. I think this is a while off yet but we can all dream of a future where this becomes a reality. If you are interested in what 2500 ps2 games look like and why wouldn’t you have a look at this video. (About 2m 50) or watch it all if you like man caves. It’s pretty Cool! WARNING! MAN CAVE VIDEO - YOU WILL WANT ONE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOjiGJ9DQ6E&t=17s

I like to browse the local ads for retro gaming items. It just takes me back to fond memories of Jet Set Willy on the Zx Spectrum with its sexy rubber keys or maybe you are more of a Resident Evil fan on the PS1. That moment the dog jump through the mirror, I literally soiled my pants. As I was looking through the ads there was one ad in particular that caught my eye. A full set of PS2 games, 2500 in total. This made me look and to my surprise they were asking for payment in Bitcoins. This to me is a game changer (Pardon the pun), if the general public are starting to embrace buying and selling with crypto currency, the tide is changing. Obviously, this person is involved in the trading of bitcoins but it was still an eye opener. Item for sale: https://www.gumtree.com/p/video-games/full-playstation-ps2-set/1277316182 What next? I have heard rumours of Amazon looking at accepting Bitcoins which would in my opinion drive up the price two or 3 times its current rate if it ever came to fruition. I think this is a while off yet but we can all dream of a future where this becomes a reality. If you are interested in what 2500 ps2 games look like and why wouldn’t you have a look at this video. (About 2m 50) or watch it all if you like man caves. It’s pretty Cool! WARNING! MAN CAVE VIDEO - YOU WILL WANT ONE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOjiGJ9DQ6E&t=17s

One of the first things people think they learn about Bitcoin is that it is some sort of system for completely anonymous payments on the Internet; however, the reality is that all transactions are logged on a public ledger for the whole world to see. Having said that, researchers have made strides in improving Bitcoin privacy. One of the most widely-known Bitcoin privacy tools is CoinJoin, which is a way of mixing transactions together with other users on the network. But this method of achieving better privacy doesn’t actually work that well. As Saarland University’s Tim Ruffing put it at the recent Scaling Bitcoin workshop at Stanford, “I can tell you why mixing actually sucks.” During one part of his presentation, Ruffing covered the three key reasons as to why current mixing techniques are problematic, in addition to a workable solution to these issues. All Participants Don’t Have the Same Amount of Bitcoin According to Ruffing, the first major problem with bitcoin mixing is that current solutions assume all participants in the mix have the same amount of bitcoins. Ruffing provided an example where one user, Bob, is attempting to mix 1.2 bitcoins with two other users who both have 1 bitcoin each to mix. Since Bob has a different amount of coins than the other two users (Alice and Carol) it’s extremely easy to figure out where his bitcoins ended up by taking a quick glance at the blockchain. His 1.2 bitcoin input is obviously attached to the 1.2 bitcoin output. Ruffing pointed out that change addresses are sometimes used in an attempt to get around this issue. For example, Bob could mix 1 bitcoin and then send 0.2 bitcoins back to himself as change. Unfortunately, this setup also doesn’t really work. “The problem with that is now Bob has 0.2 bitcoins that are not anonymized, and he doesn’t know what to do with it because he can’t spend it because it’s still linked to his identity,” explained Ruffing. “Maybe he could do a new CoinJoin, but then probably he would be left with another change address, so it doesn’t really solve the problem.” Issues with Spending While Mixing According to Ruffing, more problems pop up if Bob attempts to pay someone else and mix his coins in the same transaction. “In the end, you don’t only want to get privacy for your money; you want to spend it,” said Ruffing. Due to the way in which P2P CoinJoins are coordinated, Bob is effectively forced to do two transactions — first a mix and then a send — if he wants to spend his bitcoins in a manner that won’t leak sensitive transaction data via a potential attack vector. This increases Bob’s transaction costs. “Even that is not great because now Bob has two weird change addresses,” added Ruffing. Lost Privacy Via Combined Change Addresses One final issue pointed out by Ruffing during his talk is that privacy can be broken if Bob spends two outputs from separate change addresses that came from the same original mix together. “If he now, for some reason, has the idea to use these two change addresses together, it actually breaks privacy again,” said Ruffing. “It even breaks the privacy of the past transactions.” What is the Solution? Near the end of his talk, Ruffing explained that the root of all evil in these issues with bitcoin mixing is the fact that the values involved in the transactions are public. If the transaction values were not public, an observer would learn much less from blockchain analysis. A solution to this problem has been proposed in the past, and it’s known as Confidential Transactions. Ruffing uses Confidential Transactions in his and Purdue University’s Pedro Moreno-Sanchez’s solution for better on-chain privacy in Bitcoin, which is known as ValueShuffle (PDF). With this proposal, Confidential Transactions is combined with a P2P mixing protocol to mask the amounts and participants involved in on-chain Bitcoin transactions.

One of the first things people think they learn about Bitcoin is that it is some sort of system for completely anonymous payments on the Internet; however, the reality is that all transactions are logged on a public ledger for the whole world to see. Having said that, researchers have made strides in improving Bitcoin privacy. One of the most widely-known Bitcoin privacy tools is CoinJoin, which is a way of mixing transactions together with other users on the network. But this method of achieving better privacy doesn’t actually work that well. As Saarland University’s Tim Ruffing put it at the recent Scaling Bitcoin workshop at Stanford, “I can tell you why mixing actually sucks.” During one part of his presentation, Ruffing covered the three key reasons as to why current mixing techniques are problematic, in addition to a workable solution to these issues. All Participants Don’t Have the Same Amount of Bitcoin According to Ruffing, the first major problem with bitcoin mixing is that current solutions assume all participants in the mix have the same amount of bitcoins. Ruffing provided an example where one user, Bob, is attempting to mix 1.2 bitcoins with two other users who both have 1 bitcoin each to mix. Since Bob has a different amount of coins than the other two users (Alice and Carol) it’s extremely easy to figure out where his bitcoins ended up by taking a quick glance at the blockchain. His 1.2 bitcoin input is obviously attached to the 1.2 bitcoin output. Ruffing pointed out that change addresses are sometimes used in an attempt to get around this issue. For example, Bob could mix 1 bitcoin and then send 0.2 bitcoins back to himself as change. Unfortunately, this setup also doesn’t really work. “The problem with that is now Bob has 0.2 bitcoins that are not anonymized, and he doesn’t know what to do with it because he can’t spend it because it’s still linked to his identity,” explained Ruffing. “Maybe he could do a new CoinJoin, but then probably he would be left with another change address, so it doesn’t really solve the problem.” Issues with Spending While Mixing According to Ruffing, more problems pop up if Bob attempts to pay someone else and mix his coins in the same transaction. “In the end, you don’t only want to get privacy for your money; you want to spend it,” said Ruffing. Due to the way in which P2P CoinJoins are coordinated, Bob is effectively forced to do two transactions — first a mix and then a send — if he wants to spend his bitcoins in a manner that won’t leak sensitive transaction data via a potential attack vector. This increases Bob’s transaction costs. “Even that is not great because now Bob has two weird change addresses,” added Ruffing. Lost Privacy Via Combined Change Addresses One final issue pointed out by Ruffing during his talk is that privacy can be broken if Bob spends two outputs from separate change addresses that came from the same original mix together. “If he now, for some reason, has the idea to use these two change addresses together, it actually breaks privacy again,” said Ruffing. “It even breaks the privacy of the past transactions.” What is the Solution? Near the end of his talk, Ruffing explained that the root of all evil in these issues with bitcoin mixing is the fact that the values involved in the transactions are public. If the transaction values were not public, an observer would learn much less from blockchain analysis. A solution to this problem has been proposed in the past, and it’s known as Confidential Transactions. Ruffing uses Confidential Transactions in his and Purdue University’s Pedro Moreno-Sanchez’s solution for better on-chain privacy in Bitcoin, which is known as ValueShuffle (PDF). With this proposal, Confidential Transactions is combined with a P2P mixing protocol to mask the amounts and participants involved in on-chain Bitcoin transactions.