Anoncoin, launched back in 2013, is aimed at full anonymity for its users. The attraction of Bitcoin and altcoins is that they allow for quick and secure transactions. However, a dedicated person can manage to track a transaction back to its source, since all of the transactions are stored in a public ledger. It is possible to confuse trackers by coin mixing but it is still possible to trace the transactions for a persistent tracker.
For those who are concerned about privacy for their transactions, Anoncoin is the answer. Anoncoin is currently the only cryptocoin out there that supports the i2p darknet. It is also fully Tor compatible which makes it possible for darknet transactions to be achieved. This can help ensure that the Anoncoins used can be fully scrambled and thus not be traceable back to a particular wallet, no matter how persistent a tracker is.
How Anoincoin does what it does
Anoncoin works because it is based on the Zerocoin protocol. Developed in 2013 for use with Bitcoin, the developers decided to strike it out on their own so that there would be no need for third parties in the blockchain network. The basic idea behind it is for the introduction of a separate Zerocoin cryptocurrency to be stored in the blockchain alongside the base currency.
Transactions then work by having Zerocoins being purchased with the base currency via a Zerocoin. Later, these Zerocoins are then redeemed later back into the base currency with another Zerocoin spend transaction. With the help of cryptographic accumulators and commitment schemes with zero-knowledge proofs, the addresses that were used cannot be linked to the transaction. There is no trace of a connection at all between one transaction and the other.
In essence, Zerocoins act like a money laundering pool. Money goes in and comes out later. The difference is that Zerocoin anonymizes the exchanges to and from the pool using cryptographic principles. This means that the coins are mixed with the entire Zerocoin pool. With potentially millions of Zerocoins, it will take an unreasonably long time to go through them. Anoncoin uses this protocol to deliver a mostly anonymous experience.
Future plans
Anoncoin is also planning to add more features like merged mining using two or more different proof-of work algorithms. This enables a miner to mine more than one coin at the same time for no extra cost. Previous examples of this are when Dogecoin merge-mined with Litecoin and Namecoin merge-mined with Bitcoin. With merge-mining, people can mine their favorite coin along with the Anoncoin cryptocurrency. This creates a much larger user base of miners that will help secure the network.
Anoncoin is still a work in progress, but it is looking to be developing well.
