The question I really want to ask is can a colored coin by ruined by an outsider sending unanticipated coins to its address? And if so is the colored coin concept fatally flawed?
A valid coin is simply an unspent output from a past transaction. Every coin has an associated script, and in order to spend the coin, you must provide the script with an input such that it evaluates to 'true'. The most common example is where the script contains a hash of a public key, i.e. a bitcoin 'address', and the input you must provide is the full public key and a signature from the corresponding private key. Here it is in detail: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Script#Standard_Transaction_to_Bitcoin_address. Different coins can have the same script, or 'address', and the blockchain still sees them as distinct. An "outsider" can send me a coin with the same script as one of my own, but the only way these coins can be combined, from the blockchain's point of view, is if I spend them together in a transaction later on. If my coin is colored, then I obviously wouldn't do this on purpose if it would ruin the coin's coloring. 
Topic: Colored Coin Discussion (Read 678 times)
There's lots of chatter about colored coins as they relate to various proposed new uses for the blockchain(s). However I don't know where to find more information in the form of knowledgeable people who can talk more about the outlook for this system. Is there a coloredcointalk.org yet?
I did find this doc https://docs.google.com/document/d/1AnkP_cVZTCMLIzw4DvsW6M8Q2JC0lIzrTLuoWu2z1BE/edit?pli=1
and the bitcoinx project http://www.bitcoinx.org/about/the-technology/
Clearly with the change Gavin recently made to avoid SD spamming the blockchain with unspendable UTXOs the differing interests of those supporting colored coins and those supporting plain bitcoin should be more visible. Personally I don't like the idea of anything bloating up the blockchain unnecessarily. I think that if you want to do something besides transact bitcoins on a blockchain the resources are there to launch your own cryptocurrency for whatever purpose. Technologies like merged mining and proof of stake will allow you to avoid most of the risks of 51% attack inherent in being a smaller crypto.
The question I really want to ask is can a colored coin by ruined by an outsider sending unanticipated coins to its address? And if so is the colored coin concept fatally flawed?
I did find this doc https://docs.google.com/document/d/1AnkP_cVZTCMLIzw4DvsW6M8Q2JC0lIzrTLuoWu2z1BE/edit?pli=1
and the bitcoinx project http://www.bitcoinx.org/about/the-technology/
Clearly with the change Gavin recently made to avoid SD spamming the blockchain with unspendable UTXOs the differing interests of those supporting colored coins and those supporting plain bitcoin should be more visible. Personally I don't like the idea of anything bloating up the blockchain unnecessarily. I think that if you want to do something besides transact bitcoins on a blockchain the resources are there to launch your own cryptocurrency for whatever purpose. Technologies like merged mining and proof of stake will allow you to avoid most of the risks of 51% attack inherent in being a smaller crypto.
The question I really want to ask is can a colored coin by ruined by an outsider sending unanticipated coins to its address? And if so is the colored coin concept fatally flawed?
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