Pirate Chain Newsletter - August 2020 Edition

المقدمة

August was milestone month in 2020 for Pirate Chain. First, Pirate celebrated its 2nd anniversary on August 29th. So much has been accomplished in the last two years and so much has come together in this month. The CryptoVigilante published an unsolicited and unbiased 70 page report on Pirate Chain to their subscribers. We also welcomed many new Pirates into our community. A new website was launched that showcases an important privacy feature of Pirate Chain. On the partnership front, BPSAA has an important update.

Project Update

Pirate Chain 2nd Anniversary

Happy Birthday Pirates! Pirate Chain celebrated its second birthday on August 29th. To celebrate, Captain Draeth sponsored a giveaway via gleam. The event has concluded and prize winners will be announced soon!

Pirate Privacy

For any coin that claims to be a privacy focused, probably a close second to the privacy protocol is the anonymity set. All privacy coins today essentially obfuscate data using anonymity sets. For example, Monero uses RingCT to hide user transaction details amongst up to a maximum of 10 other decoys. With Pirate Chain, once minted, every transaction detail becomes a participant of a continuously growing, forever enlarging anonymity set. As you can see, trying to decipher one transaction out of thousands (and potentially millions) of others is exponentially more difficult that 1 out of 14. Thanks to CHMEX, Pirate Chain now has a website that regularly updates with the latest anonymity set size.

https://anonset.dexstats.info/

(snapshot taken on Friday, September 18, 2020)

Market Making

Firstmate Diablo has been running market making efforts for Pirate. This has improved liquidity for trading ARRR. We recently saw a long overdue boost to the price of $ARRR. With our market making efforts, in the mid term, with increased trading volume, we forecast that Pirate Chain will be more visible on coin data aggregation sites (coinmarketcap, coingecko). In the long term, our goal is to entice larger crypto whales to become traders and hodlers of $ARRR too.

Pirate Pay

The Pirate Pay initiative for a full scale e-commerce solution has been funded! Development for this project will be undertaken by firstmate Ratstang who built CryptoCurrencyCheckout. Pirate Pay will enable easy adoption of ARRR as a merchant payment option.

Pirate OS

How to burn Pirate OS to a USB drive

You can now follow written instructions along with a video guide on how to burn the world’s most private operating system, Pirate OS, onto a USB drive. Pirate OS was custom designed to create a surveillance-free environment for use with Pirate Chain wallets.

https://pirate.black/how-to-burn-pirate-os-to-a-usb-drive/

Weekly Meetings

Catch up on this past month’s weekly meetings and find out what your favorite private digital currency has been up to:

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Wallet Installation Guides and Scripts

Pirate has seen a significant increase in recent days from crypto users of all skill levels. As Pirate is completely unique in the crypto space with complete z-only transactions and addresses, installing a wallet is not as familiar to many crypto users. Firstmate Kaks has written easy one-click scripts for installing Pirate wallets. Checkout the compendium of wallets on pirate.black/wallets.

For installing PirateOcean or SevenSeas on Windows or Linux, follow this blogpost to download the install scripts.

Kaks made a YouTube step-by-step guide video for installing the SevenSeas, PirateOcean or Verus desktop wallets on Windows:

Kaks also made a YouTube step-by-step guide video for installing the SevenSeas, PirateOcean or Verus desktop wallets on Linux:

Conference

Philly Crypto Jawn

Firstmate Saint Lootz was invited to speak on Privacy and Pirate Chain at the Philly Crypto Jawn! This meet up features some of the all stars of crypto including Tone Vays, Colin Cantrell, Kenn Bozak and Tatiana Moroz. Saint Lootz talks about the history of crypto and reminds the audience of the importance of privacy as how crypto was originally intended to be, as a pawthway to freedom for all humankind.

Bounty

As a reminder to all Pirates, there is an ongoing bounty for scheduling podcasters and youtubers to interview with Captain Draeth!

التواصل الاجتماعي

Pirate Discord – Telegram Bridge

As many Pirates have noticed, the chatter on discord and telegram have been a lot more conversational. There is a now a bridge between #Pirate-Chat on discord and the Pirate channel on telegram. Messages on either platform will be automatically posted to the other. We really appreciate the efforts of Captain Draeth and Theekgb for setting this up.

Pirate Chain Review by Blue Alpine

From Blue Alpine:
“Last week I was a bit surprised that PirateChain was voted number 1 Coin to analyze. But I think after the analysis we can easily say that it was worth it. An interesting project, especially if you are interested in privacy!

Today I would like to give you a short summary, make the comparison to Monero and Dash and finally inform you about the Blue Alpine Channel membership.PirateChain Overview.

PirateChain came out of nowhere on my radar, although the project is already a few years old. It’s a fork from Komodo, which in turn is a fork from Zcash, which in turn is a fork from Bitcoin. This is also reflected in the fact that some Komodo developers are also developing for PirateChain. The idea is that PirateChain takes all the advantages of Bitcoin, Zcash and Komodo and adds new features. The main goal of PirateChain is absolute privacy. They argue that classic fiat currencies are also absolutely anonymous and therefore there must be an equivalent in the crypto world. In order to guarantee this absolute privacy, they push the so-called zk-Snark technology with every transaction.

In the example above you can see that ZCash 4 allows transaction forms. But only the fourth, the one on the right, is effectively based on complete privacy, because the sender, receiver and transaction amounts are completely anonymous. These are forced zk snarks.

To ensure that PirateChain also confirms transactions and blocks, a so-called delayed proof-of-work mechanism is used, or dPoW for short. The idea and the effect is actually ingenious: Since PirateChain is an asset chain of Komodo (i.e. it enters the transactions on Komodo), they automatically proifitert from the same security level without having the same size. Komodo, on the other hand, is a Bitcoin asset chain, meaning that they benefit from the security level of Bitcoin. This makes a 51% attack (which happened e.g. at Ethereum Classic last week for the second time in a row) or a Sybil attack that we have discussed over and over again almost impossible or extremely expensive. The Komodo AND the Bitcoin Blockchain have to be attacked and taken over, and that is extremely expensive, so an attack is hardly worth it. Visually it looks like this and these asset chains are solved by notary nodes.

This makes PirateChain a more secure and private crypto currency than most projects out there. But still there were negative points: The team is (understandably) almost completely anonymous There are hardly any partnerships that could make PirateChain known The roadmap is hardly readable for non-involved and non-technical persons This then led to an ultimate rating of 6.35, whereas the technology actually received a 7.75.

Is Monero better?

To answer this statement we need to understand briefly how Monero works. Monero uses RingConfidential Transactions (short RingCT) and Ring Signatures to ensure privacy.The idea is simple and ingenious. For each transaction several accounts/people/wallets are needed to sign or verify the transaction and so it never becomes clear who has effectively initiated the transaction. In the above example, this means that John, James or Bob could have sent the transaction.

The Monero founder himself says that zk snarks are much safer in terms of tracking, but have certain risks and Monero tries to minimize these risks.

What about Dash?

Also Dash is of course often mentioned in privacy circles. Currently of the size between Monero and Zcash, Dash tries to focus on speed and privacy. However, Dash is only private up to a certain level, because ultimately, when using the PrivateSend functionality of Dash, the recipient is identifiable.

This would not fit into the world view of PirateChain and disqualifies Dash as a complete privacy coin in this context.

Summary In summary, it can be said that PirateChain is very interesting in terms of technology and solves certain problems elegantly. The lack of partnerships and the completely anonymous approach (compared to Dash, for example, which organizes community events again and again, etc) can put a stone in the way of projects like PirateChain. For many people, the issue of privacy is not as important as most people think. I believe that privacy is a fundamental right and that that is why our financial markets should work like this, but I am probably in the minority.

Most people happily and without problems give up data to data kraken like Facebook to benefit from social contact. It is almost unimaginable that the topic privacy will be omnipresent in everyday life. But what I suspect is that Bitcoin and larger coins will inherit certain properties from these privacy coins, either via fork or via long-term integration. But this is an extremely complex issue and will most likely continue for years to come. Purely in terms of charts, a short entry could be worthwhile, as the price is far from the original price highs.

However, caution is advised when it comes to volume. With this market capitalization, the price can easily change by a few thousand EUR, so buy gradually in perhaps 400-500 EUR steps and not all at once! …”

Pirate Chain Review by Desert Island Joe

Pirate Partners

Komodo join BPSAA as 6th new member

Komodo joins the BPSAA as its newest member. We are very excited about the numerous ways which Komodo team and technology can enhance interoperability among members of the BPSAA. For starters, potential collaborations include AtomicDex integration, and additional security measures to member blockchains (including notarization services). In addition to interoperability, Komodo will also play a key role as a pillar foundation in the education and awareness of the potential of blockchain to the general public. Checkout the announcement on the BPSAA website.

Crypto Rich covers Komodo joining BPSAA: INCREDIBLE NEWS – THIS TOP 100 ALTCOIN , 5 TOP SMALL CAPS AND 3 EXCHANGES JOIN FORCES

In this video, long established, innovative cryptocurrency project joins forces with 5 other innovative crypto projects, to work together and bring about mass adoption by focusing on cutting edge technology, privacy and security. I interview reps from each 3 projects, including 6 exchanges to find out what they do and why they have joined forces.”

Watch Part 1 of the interview on Bittube here:

Watch Part 2 of the interview on Bittube here:

In the news

CipherTrace develops Monero tracing tool to aid US DHS investigations

Reported in CoinTelegraph, chain analysis company CiperTrace claims to have developed a tool that is already in use by VASPs (Virtual Assets Service Providers) and the US DHS to trace Monero transactions.

“The tools include transaction search, exploration and visualization tools for Monero transaction flows that have been integrated with CipherTrace’s inspector financial investigations product.”

In this YouTube video, CipherTrace CEO Dave Jevans reveals the usage of their Monero funds and address tracking tool.

Arrrmada Merchant Partner of the Month

Berman Cosmetic Surgery

“I am a board certified plastic surgeon in both USA and Canada. I achieved international fame, when I reattached John Bobbitt’s famous missing part in 1993. I have been featured on Dr. Oz, Amazon Prime, Wall Street Journal, 20/20, Vanity Fair etc.

I now focus exclusively on cosmetic procedures and I do notparticipate with insurance companies. I am particularly well known for Smartlipo (laser liposuction) which is done in the office, under local anesthetic with oral sedation and you can return to work the next day. I have performed over 1,100 Smartlipo cases in my office to date. Any area, from the neck to the calves can be treated. I am also well known for breast augmentation, breast reduction, tummy tuck, labiaplasty, and gynecomastia (for men who are self conscious about their breast size). Every patient that I operate upon, I give my cell phone number so that I am very easy to reach.

On the face, I do eyelid lifts, (blepharoplasty), otoplasty, torn earlobe repairs and scar and mole excision, PRP for hair rejuvenation and facelifts.

I employ master estheticians and the incredible Picosure laser for melasma/facial hyperpigmentation, Sculpsure as well as PRP with microneedling. We are located in Northern Virginia, about 20 minutes from Dulles Airport.”

Checkout Berman Cosmetic Surgery on ARRRmada!

Last Words from the Editor

Ahoy Pirates, I want to take this opportunity, on the occasion of Pirate’s second birthday to share some of my sentiments. I’ve been with Pirate since the early days. This is the first project in crypto that I have seen and been involved in from the beginning.

I am proud to be part of the community. What makes Pirate unique is that it does not have a developer’s tax levied on every block reward as many other projects do. Although this lack of a steady source of funds may put Pirate at a disadvantage, I am very honored to say that not only has it not, in fact, it has enhanced the beauty of the Pirate community. Because there is not a large warchest of funds, every Pirate contributes out of love for Pirate and all that it stands for, privacy. This is truly the epitome of what it means to be a community. Included in this fervor for privacy is that ardent conviction that the code underlying $ARRR is confers the strongest privacy in the entire cryptocurrency industry. Extending from that notion, is also the confidence that $ARRR should achieve the same marketcap as the current marketcap leader of the privacy sector Monero. There have been numerous posts about this topic and most recently, an indepth, lengthy, private report for subscribers of the Crypto Vigilante group.

In the past two years, so many community contributors have stepped up. Pirate Chain started out as an experimental idea between JL777, GrewalSatinder and SHossain. Together with the giants of the Komodo ecosytem, these first Pirates wanted to create a privacy coin that is fully shielded by zk-SNARKs. (Checkout Pirate’s early days and milestones on our timeline.) Captain Fishyguts led Pirate Chain in the early days. Mrlynch has been a steady stalwart Captain managing any blockchain issues and created the Pirate paperwallet. Captain Draeth rose through the ranks first starting out with the Physical Crypto Coins store, then volunteering to take on more tasks and quickly becoming our community leader and promoted to Captain. ComputerGenie, a regular of the Komodo ecosystem, created and curates the PirateOcean wallet. Saint Lootz who always has a bounty for social media engagement, built Pirate OS, engages other communities to bring in devs, takes the time to spread the word of Pirate Chain at conferences and online at non-crypto communities, and currently running the Pirate Pay initiative along with the Pirate Mobile wallet. Dreamtim who is a marketing expert irl, volunteering his time and expertise. Seko who built ARRRmada and manages all the merchants on our directory. There are numerous more who have contributed, to name them all would fill a sheet as long as the mast of a galleon. All these brave seafaring souls are but a drop in the ocean of Pirates with hearts on fire.

It is a beautiful sight to see the community of social media influencers who have either found Pirate on their own, or through a Pirate, voluntarily spend time to review Pirate Chain or to interview Captain Draeth. Amongst the many social media specialists, Crypto Rich has been an ardent supporter of Pirate Chain. He has given so much of his time and energy to community and we are proud to call him a fellow Pirate. Also of note is Kenn Bosak, who has given Pirate a platform on his channel and at his live in-person meetups.

Our first exchange was Digitalprice (renamed to Altsbit), followed by TradeOgre and many others. Because of Pirate’s strong privacy measures in its code and outside of it (no public display of data), many exchanges were not adequately prepared to manage the blockchain. Again, without a warchest, we did not buy our way into larger exchanges. We have certainly seen more than our fair share of exchanges that have failed either by poor wallet management or scammed. Pirates have weathered through this and continued to trust in the community. Throughout all this TradeOgre has stayed steady with us (albeit occasional prolonged deposit/withdrawals). A little trivia here, TradeOgre listed Pirate Chain for free. Today, we have Shurli, subAtomicDEX developed by grewalsatinder that is in the testing phase. We are looking forward to ARRRtomicDEX, a true peer-to-peer (wallet-to-wallet) decentralized exchange that harnesses the power of atomic swaps.

Take a look at our roadmap, not only does it show where the armada is going, it also archives where Pirates have been.

Every accomplishment in the past 2 years was done by a Pirate who contributed time and effort voluntarily.

Because Pirate Chain is the sum of all its community, every Pirate that plays a part, no matter how small, or how often, has helped moved the ship foward and steered us to where we are today. So, no, the absence of a developer’s tax has not hindered Pirate Chain, in fact, it has enabled the gathering of a strong community that embodies some of the most beautiful facets of humanity. To quote Nik Patel in his independent research report on Pirate Chain published at Binance.info,

“More impressive is the genuine and palpable excitement the community has for PirateChain; if I’m honest, this community (at least within Discord) seems to be one of the most engaged I have come across. This is critical in the longevity of a project.”

Lastly, I’d like to end with a quote from our hackernoon article,

“While the Pirate moniker might raise an eyebrow or evoke negative sentiments, the pillars of this currency are rooted to the best fundamentals of a pirate life: a fervent desire for freedom, and the right to live a life free from oppression by a broken system.”

Pirate Chain Newsletter – August 2020 Edition