Plausible Deniability and Cryptocurrency Privacy

Presented at A New HOPE (2022), July 22, 2022, 7:30 p.m. (180 minutes)

Hackers around the world use cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and ether every day under the mistaken assumption that these networks are somehow privacy-preserving (often conflating pseudonymity for privacy). This couldn’t be further from the truth, as it is in fact often easier to trace crypto transactions than fiat transactions. Even so-called private networks like Zcash and Monero aren’t failsafe from a privacy perspective. However, with a few tricks and tools, it is possible to preserve privacy on cryptographic networks in a robust way. This workshop will present a brief history of privacy successes and failures in cryptocurrency and blockchain with important case studies. It will also demonstrate tracing and de-anonymization of actual transactions in real time, and will present tools and techniques for guaranteeing strong privacy.


Presenters:

  • Michelle Lai
    **Michelle Lai** grew up in Asia, where she developed a strong desire for people to live freely. She believes privacy is one of the most critical ingredients for free societies. As a technophile, she believes technology is a primary tool with which people can achieve privacy and freedom. She was on the inaugural Zcash grant committee (the "ZOMG"), which receives and distributes the lion's share of non-miner block rewards to projects building on top of Zcash, as well as to projects with a strong privacy purpose (e.g. Tor's Rust implementation). In this capacity she authored the ZOMG's whitepaper, describing their grant strategy and vision (zcashomg.org/whitepaper.html).
  • Arctic Byte
    **Arctic Byte** is a long time cryptography and cryptocurrency enthusiast, with experience operating physical and digital infrastructure during each of the iterations of the Web (1,2,3). Currently working on decentralized infrastructure projects in technical roles, part of his job is to keep up-to-date on the latest iterations in privacy as it relates to the cryptocurrency space, and research the usability and feasibility of various methods and their implementations.
  • Lane Rettig
    **Lane Rettig** (**@lrettig**) is a former Ethereum core developer and does core (layer one) blockchain R&D for Spacemesh (www.spacemesh.io). He has a background in privacy, security, and cryptography.

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