The lightning network has superior privacy tech to the main privacy coin (monero) while simultaneously scaling better
Want a real cryptocurrency? It's bitcoin on LN
Discussion
Stop this! If Monero bros could read, they’d be very offended.
In which ways is the privacy superior?
1. In terms of sender privacy, monero leaks the following data:
- at least one of the sender's inputs -- useful for tracing monero via the common input ownership heuristic
- at least one of the sender's ring signatures, including the sender's pubkey -- useful for tracing monero via the decoy elimination attack, the Eve-Alice-Eve attack, and the poisoned output attack
- Lightning does not reveal either of those things
2. In terms of receiver privacy, monero leaks the following data:
- the recipient's monero address -- useful for tracing monero by asking exchanges if any of their users has that address
- the recipient's stealth pubkey -- useful for tracing monero via the decoy elimination attack, the Eve-Alice-Eve attack, and the poisoned output attack
- the amount received by the recipient -- useful for tracing monero via the Eve-Alice-Eve attack, the poisoned output attack, and the timing analysis attack
- Lightning does not reveal any of those things, except sometimes a pubkey used for communication -- though that can also be avoided, either by using a proxy or via blinded routes
3. In terms of amount privacy, monero leaks the following data:
- the fee paid by the sender -- useful for fingerprinting wallets (e.g. custodial wallets tend to set higher fees than do users of self-custodial wallets)
- I already mentioned the following leak under "receiver privacy" but it's also an amount privacy leak so I'll just repeat it: monero leaks the amount received by the recipient -- useful for tracing monero via the Eve-Alice-Eve attack, the poisoned output attack, and the timing analysis attack
- Lightning does not reveal either of those things
For more info on monero leaks, see https://moneroleaks.xyz
nostr:npub1jcympy69pht7ptan39se4nd09e4q66qhey649uu3rczm2zh88c7s0n2890 Are Monero shills, let's get some push back.
I don't have anything against Monero, I'm just surprised that they don't have anything to say
I think they’ve given up going at Super’s points and not getting anywhere
I appreciate your research into this topic and you being so toxic about it. I too thought that monero was superior to BTC in regards to privacy. But I am now much more optimistic on the LN and Bitcoin in general. Thanks for that!
Happy to make a difference!
*If you ignore that third party hops see transaction amounts
**If you ignore the vast majority of the network using custodians and LSPs