I just want to point something out.
During the first update on progress Evan made about a week or so ago, there was a subtle hint that the number of master nodes being used for mixing would be a minimum of 2.
Yesterday we discovered why. Around 8 will be involved, but realistically any number could be involved. Anonymity is constantly taking place.
Also during the last update Evan pointed out that he has a way to make Darkcoin mainstream. He also noted that there was a reason for forking Darkcoin off the Bitcoin code base.
Lets just think about that for a second.
This is something I have tried to point out since March. Darkcoin is a child of Bitcoin code.
Now, look at the payment processors out there. How many merchants do they connect to?
Now look at the move by Shopify to enable BitPay and Coinbase into its merchant processing tools:
“We host an open-source payments integration platform that allows payment providers like Coinbase to submit their own integrations to get up and running on Shopify, so Coinbase took the initiative there and built that integration.”
“Each company has a certain segment that they are the dominant leaders in. Coinbase is a bit more US-focused, you need US bank accounts to go from bitcoin to fiat, while BitPay is more international.”
http://www.coindesk.com/bitpay-coinbase-shopify/Being related to Bitcoin, Darkcoin has the potential to offer eCash through existing merchant tools. Overcoming branding restrictions will potentially be the main topic of conversation as we look beyond the open source phase of Darkcoin.
That conversation about branding will be framed around the 'mainstream' hint that Mr Evan has made. I take this to mean, Darkcoin will have some hooks into existing mass payment and merchant infrastructure.
eCash for the masses.