Bitcoin and many other similar Cryptocurrencies have been in existence for over a decade, prominently focusing on decentralized, pseudo-anonymous ledger-based transactions. Many protocol improvements and changes have resulted in new variants of Cryptocurrencies that are known for their peculiar characteristics. For instance, Storjcoin is a Proof-of-Storage-based Cryptocurrency that incentivizes its peers based on the amount of storage owned by them. Cryptocurrencies like Monero strive for user privacy by using privacy-centric cryptographic algorithms. While Cryptocurrencies strive to maintain peer transparency by making the transactions and the entire ledger public, user privacy is compromised at times. Monero and many other privacy-centric Cryptocurrencies have significantly improved from the original Bitcoin protocol after several problems were found in the protocol. Most of these deficiencies were related to the privacy of users. Even though Bitcoin claims to have pseudo-anonymous user identities, many attacks have managed to successfully de-anonymize users. In this paper, we present some well-known attacks and analysis techniques that have compromised the privacy of Bitcoin and many other similar Cryptocurrencies. We also analyze and study different privacy-preserving algorithms and the problems these algorithms manage to solve. Lastly, we touch upon the ethics, impact, legality, and acceptance of imposing these privacy algorithms.
翻译:Bitcoin 和其他许多类似的Cryptocuries 已经存在十多年了, 重点是分散化的、假冒匿名的分类账交易。 许多协议改进和修改导致新的加密变式, 以其特殊性而闻名。 例如, Storjcoin 是一种基于Storage的加密算法的证明, 激励其同行以其拥有的存储量为基础。 像 Monero 这样的加密算法试图通过使用以隐私为中心的加密算法来保护用户隐私。 虽然加密算法努力通过使交易和整个分类账公开来保持同行透明度,但用户隐私有时会受到损害。 在协议中发现了一些问题之后, Monero 和其他许多以隐私为中心的加密算法大大改进了最初的Bitcoin 协议。 这些缺陷大多与用户的隐私有关。 尽管 Bitecoin声称拥有假匿名用户身份, 许多攻击都成功地消除了用户的匿名算法。 在本文中,我们提出了一些众所周知的保密性攻击和保密性分析方法。