Bitcoin platform privacy has been discussed for years and several Crypto-Math proposals to implement the desirable feature come from great crypto-world minds, many of them amazing, complex and highly elaborated. Coinjoin technology is one of the most accepted solutions (please see GMaxwell’s original post outlining Coinjoin at
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/coinjoin-bitcoin-privacy-for-the-real-world-279249).
The most common issue to implement the Coinjoin technology (and other privacy and POS solutions) is the open space to introduce additional code to generate logs (and get transaction maps or relevant user information) that could compromise the privacy level. Some alternatives require a block chain fork in order to introduce additional crypto-Math layers, others a complex key management to handle P2P communications, with limited results. IP address location privacy, DOS attacks, operator’s trust and other issues are also present in some proposals.
Back to some of the earliest forms of cryptography, the solution introduced here is a novelty hardware device to simplify and secure the Crypto-Math Coinjoin implementation. In general, the design includes two major blocks: a first block to perform all basic interfaces with the system plus the potential to include additional services to the crypto-network, running on a preferable Linux platform; and a second block, executing the related crypto process inside an isolated and high secure environment. Multi-layer anti-tamper design provides the right balance between the security/privacy level and manufacture cost by exploding physical properties. These properties cannot be cloned or reproduced in real world (at least from the universal public physics knowledge available) to keep the required device’s integrity and security. It could be named Crypto-Physics as a complement of Crypto-Math.
The system provide IP obfuscation (service packet routing without external services like TOR), expansion for additional features, trustworthy and reliable operation by validating device’s integrity and rejecting malicious altered/fake devices on a distributed consensus network (including device delivery) with a simple, innovative and cost-effective open source multiprocessor platform.
The ownership cost of the device will be less than a standard GPU rig, with better ROI (main income operator from transaction fee consolidation. No additional fees for the Coinjoin service).
The main target are Bitcoin and Litecoin users, but not limited to. The device could help accelerate/improve developments like Dark wallet or Sharecoin for Bitcoin, introduce privacy functionality to any coin compatible with the Bitcoin protocol and complement other privacy coins in development. The device can be configured to provide service to more than one coin at the same time.
The current device design introduces 3 variants:
- For miners and small investors (home/office use, paper printer/QR screen display/USB, for personal ATM service)
- For small merchants (NFC, QR scanner, paper printer)
- For pool operators/miner farms, crypto-coin exchange operators, internet merchants and large volume operators (crypto-coin banks/investment pools)
The cost to successfully execute an attack to a single device is way higher than the ownership cost and will not return any additional benefit than an academic exercise (no risk to lose coins in the regular decentralized service). The very limited internal resources in the isolated crypto-processors with the open source API interface kill the risk to generate any hidden logs.
The secure properties of the device have been discussed with several specialists and will not be the main topic to discuss in this pre-release announcement. Crypto-physic properties and anti-tamper technology details will be released with the device launch. (abtus is a development codename for the device; final release device name will be announced with the security details)
As a preliminary announcement, a bounty equivalent to at least 10 times the device value will be awarded to the first group (or individual ) that will describe a reproducible procedure to hack or compromise the device security (and continue its normal operation) without expend more than 20 times the device value.