re: Official CryptoTalk Thread

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yea, the next hot thing imo will be NFTs and whoever in the defi space markets that most effectively will be in a good position moving forward.

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Check out Secret Network (SCRT). Encrypted mempools, encrypted token contracts. Programmable privacy on transactions. Front runner resistant, and far more scalable that ETH.

A major failing of most every project right now is either building on open ledgers or building coins with open ledgers. If I can't have at least as much privacy as I can with a normal bank, I'm not doing anything meaningful on that chain, and there is no escaping that need.

Very well said. Couldn't agree more.

What are some of the big ETH competitors.

Read the posts just above you.

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Look up Chainlink’s acquisition of Deco and how this will play into those concerns.

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This is an interesting development, but I don't think it's exactly the same thing I am referring to. An oracle system needs to have a way to authenticate the source of data inputs in to the network to protect the quality of data. It seems like this article is mostly focused on Authenticating data sources, rather than protecting transaction privacy.

most crypto chains or tangles have an open ledger that can be scanned and analyzed to learn information about who/what is conducting value or data transactions on the network. This is the single biggest weakness of the blockchain model, because it exposes every person or machine that uses the ledger to the public. It's the most public transaction model ever devised.

Transaction privacy is about obscuring "Who" sent or received "What". This little line in the article:

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Another aspect concerns the challenge of privacy. There’s little need for privacy in DeFi (save for the actual identities of token holders, which blockchain already obfuscates).

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tips off readers about the lack of understanding by the author. Blockchain obfuscates NOTHING about token/coin holder identities. It broadcasts literally everything it knows about every human or machine that uses it. It's not hard at all to analyze a chain and link user identities to wallets and transactions. There are some exceptions to this: Monero and Zcash (using ring signatures and zero knowledge proofs respectively) are the two most well-known projects that have achieved some success at making the system more private. On top of that there IS a BIG reason to obscure DeFi data, because trading bots use the publicly available data in the mempool (proposed transactions pool) to arbitrage trades by manipulating the gas prices of their own transaction. This robs human users of a platform on which to make fair trades. It's a value-stealing mechanism that hurts the smallest traders and rewards malicious actors.

Secret Network has a much more streamlined solution to this problem than the one described in the article, though I have to say the article almost assuredly explains this very poorly, so I would have to read more about what LINK is actually proposing.

Secret network uses a system of low-cost, relatively easy to operate nodes with hardware that encrypts blockchain data inputs in a Trusted Execution Environment (think of it like a sandbox that's relatively safe from malicious software code), making the details of a transaction (inputs) unreadable to outside observers, but the owners of the inputs can choose to make them visible on their own terms. This allows transparency by choice, not by default. Privacy is the default. All an outsider will see is that a user has created a "contract". This system is already in place, and being used right now, though it's primarily focused on protecting DeFi customers by preventing "front running" (malicious bot activity on DeFi networks).

Anyhoo, thanks for pointing this out to me, I will read more into it!

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What are some of the big ETH competitors.

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If by "big" you mean big market caps, then ADA, DOT, EOS, and few others.

If by "big" you mean conceptually large enough to tackle the task that ETH set out to tackle then there are a few more.

Sleeper: Nexus Earth

Mid Tier: IOTA

Most well-known: ADA, DOT, EOS Anything Binance is involved with.
Lots more than these, this is just a "top of the head" list. I recommend really digging deep online, and getting involved on Telegram Messenger groups.


I'm personally most interested in Nexus Earth (NXS) and IOTA. They have taken different approaches to the same issues, but both have the goal of being a true "2.0". A new "internet" if you will.

Nexus Earth (NXS) is a very small project relative to many of the others. It started like Bitcoin, no pre-mine, no ICO, no funded foundation to guide development, but conceptually it is very strong, and the developers have consistently put out really good products. The founder is Colin Cantrell, son of Jim Cantrell who helped Musk found Space-X. There is no tie between Space-X and NXS other than that AFAIK, but Colin has demonstrated really good judgement and a grounded vision for something with such a daunting task ahead of it. NXS is dirt cheap right now, if you are in the speculation game.

IOTA has been written about many times, so I won't go into that.

Can y’all explain this “alt-coin season” and how long it typically lasts?

Has there been any talk about xvg or neo in a while? I've got a bunch that I forgot about until recently.

I don’t know what to do with my hands...

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Can y’all explain this “alt-coin season”

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I think another poster explained it pretty well, but I'll give it a go:

Alt Coin Season is when big players sucker in the squares by pumping the living shite out of projects. Squares see big line go up, and trickle a little money in, then they see big line go up again, and sink their whole paycheck i. Then they see big line go up again, and sink their savings in, liquidate their stock portfolio, and eat ramen for a few weeks so they can get that Bitcoin at "a price we will never see again!".

Alt Season ends right after that, with the squares convinced that if they hold, they will become bitcoin billionaires, because the big line always goes up, and the tech is like, amazing bro!

They then forget they ever invested in crypto, and completely miss when Bitcoin drops down below the price it was when they first heard about it, 20% of the ATH, leaving only the sharps to buy up the supply at that level.

It's amazing.

Bottom Line is this: Spend more time reading about projects that were around before the alt season and survived and thrived in the bear market. When Alt Coin season ends, and it will. You should go right back into Binance and buy the living crap out of the ones you like.