Is DarkCoin/ DarkSend completely anonymous? This is a blunt question and I'm not trying to troll. I hear a lot of back and forth with this, with lots of tech talk I don't really understand.
From what I can tell, it seems that even with DarkSend, its simply harder, but not impossible to trace it. I've even hear this from DarkSend supporters, with one saying, vaguely
"yeah, not impossible to trace, esp for small operations like police, banks, hackers, etc. But the NSA could prob trace it if they wanted"
I'm not saying that not good enough. That would be a step in the right direction, but represents merely a head step in the technological arms race. If police departments wanted an easy way to trace any crypto, couldn't a private enterprise specialize in doing just that in a cost competitive way, and offer it as an affordable service?
When eduffield has it finished, it will be very hard to trace. However, as he says, it's all shades of grey, not black and white. The idea behind darksend is to give a person reasonable privacy. It was never intended to be a drug laundering currency though we can't control what people do with it. What it should be when completed, is safe and functional (doesn't lose your money), useful (quick payments) and private (people can't look into your "checkbook" to see where your money comes from or goes to). I would think it is MUCH more private than a bank account. And though senators in congress are talking crap, they're just too stupid to realize the government has no jurisdiction over crypto coins. It can't have jurisdiction, nothing is enforceable by them. They can't practically do anything about it. However, once changed over to fiat, it must be accounted for, and taxes paid. So keep receipts for your trades, you can deduct cost of currency from capital gains. If this is done, nothing illegal has happened.