In this msg it mentions zerocash. casp33r mentioned on the forum that the dev team is no longer considering implementing it and that Boris will be posting an update. I personally think this would be a mistake as it would make vert coin a "total package" coin. There are pros and cons, but in my opinion the pros outweigh the cons. But Im interested in hearing from the team why they decided not to pursue this.
Cheers in advance
Hi Torturo,
We decided against Zerocoin because after weighing up the pros and cons we felt there were substantial risks, both technical and social/political, but mainly the latter (technical hurdles can and will be overcome, I am sure, by other coins that take a different route).
Essentially, it comes down to this: There are very well resourced organizations (eg. governments) that will not stand idly by and permit the widespread adoption of anonymous and untraceable digital payment technology. You might say, you can't put the genie back in the bottle technology wise, but that ignores the obvious issue that if that technology becomes illegal, or the media spins the narrative to associate holding/using those coins with terrorism, paedophilia, fraud, money laundering and various other forms of criminality, there's no way those coins will see widespread adoption.
There will certainly be a choice for people who want anonymity and untraceability, other coins will provide that, but we feel that you can either aim for those features, or you can aim for widespread adoption - you can't have both, it won't be permitted to happen, and we don't have the resources to resist a concerted attack by governments. VTC is aiming for widespread adoption, and that means being acceptable to the mainstream.
Another aspect of that is, the mainstream doesn't really want privacy too much - if they did, they wouldn't sell their personal details to large corporations for a pittance through loyalty card programs etc. They would routinely encrypt their email etc. People don't do those things - the mainstream doesn't care enough. What you or I think personally doesn't really matter here - we're aiming for widespread adoption so we need to give people what they want, not what we think they should want.
So, with that said, what are we going to do? There are big privacy issues with cryptocurrencies as they are now, and we want to address them.
We already have one privacy related project underway (which will be in the first of our regular updates, to be released within the next week or two) and I'm sure others will come along. We intend to strengthen the ability to protect your legitimate desires for financial privacy, whilst maintaining transparency and accountability in the system.
Considering the industry and where its headed, this is a sensible. The regulatory aspect should not be ignored if a currency is to be adopted in the mainstream which we all feel Vertcoin has the potential to do. My concern was the pandora's box that is opened up with wide crypto adoption and as you said "ability to protect your legitimate desires for financial privacy"'; btc transactions have the potential to be shockingly transparent between friends, neighbors, employer etc. Once Btc matures, i predict that will become a major issue. Lets try to solve it here and now. If Vertcoin can technically solve BTC's shortcomings in this regard while complying with any upcoming crypto regulations, we are golden and growth will be assured.
You mentioned you have more developments regarding this, I encourage you to make it one of the top priorities within the dev team in the near future.
Once again, I tip my hat to you and the team for the active updates and professionalism you have shown.
For those that havent seen it, here is Ben Lawsky (NYDFS) ama on reddit regarding regulations and cryptocurrencies:
http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1ygcil/as_requested_im_ben_lawsky_superintendent_of_the/
i also got teamviewer so we can do this 
