(Picture courtesy of Dreamtim)
Preamble
Ahoy Pirates! As we move into the second half of 2020, we find ourselves adapting to a new state of things. We are living in a world of now with a persistently heightened state of events. Along with many countries, many cities in the United States are seeing a "second wave" of increased infection rates. Although many places of employment are slowly opening back up, many are still jobless. As we see the traditional financial system continuing on this untenable path, many of you may have noticed the uptick of defi products and activity in crypto space. Whichever arena you choose to invest in, please be careful and most certainly dyor.
Read on to find out the exciting developments and updates that our Pirate Chain community and team have brought to the most private cryptocurrency in the month of June.
Project Updates
I2P Fundraiser update
Pirate Chain is bringing an additional form of privacy protection to $ARRR with I2P. We are raising funds to hire developers for this important privacy feature.
What is I2P: I2P (Invisible Internet Project) is an anonymous, pseudonymous and decentralized network without servers. I2P can be thought of as an internet within the internet. Within the I2P network, any user can send emails, browse websites, blog, chat on forums, host websites, take advantage of decentralized file storage, engage in anonymous real-time chat, and much more. Importantly, all this can be performed anonymously.
I2P was designed to protect communication and resist monitoring by third parties such as internet service providers.
Info on I2P: https://geti2p.net/en/comparison/tor
Thanks to a generous donation funding has gotten off the ground and work on I2p has started. We are still looking to raise a total of 0.8 BTC! Please consider donating towards this important project.
BTC: 1NPDRvwb1xrrjsZ54UiUXir1ceTyhUxMov
KMD: RN7RBFrBhmmYqpveYpttrJ9dzw3HpGH7BK
Weekly Meetings
If you've missed out on any of last month's meetings, you can listen to them to catch up on some of the discussions and Q&As.
6/10/20: https://soundcloud.com/piratechain_arrr/pirate-weekly-61020
6/18/20: https://soundcloud.com/piratechain_arrr/pirate-meeting-privacy-crypto-weekly
6/24/20: https://mixlr.com/cryptoradiolive/showreel/pirate-chain-weekly-62420
Wallet Updates
Mobile Wallet version 1.0.5 update
The Pirate Chain mobile wallet, Skull island was released for open beta testing on 5/27/20. It has been updated to version 1.0.5 with bug fixes, security updates and minor UI improvements. Download this latest version from Pirate Chain github:
https://github.com/PirateNetwork/Skull-Island/releases/tag/v1.05
World’s First z-to-z, Private-only mobile wallet coming to iOS soon
Great news Pirates! We have found a dev to port the mobile wallet code from android to iOS! Not only that, there are already plans for improving the UI/UX at the next launch!
The Pirate Chain mobile wallet will be undergoing an independent third party audit. We welcome code audits from any interested developers. Important: Please note that we do not recommend storing a significant amount of funds on this wallet until it is fully audited.
Mobile Wallet giveaway contest results
The winning entries to our public beta mobile wallet launch giveaway can be found here: https://t.co/fz6MBQ4YZU
Congratulations to all the winners, somebody from the Pirate team will be reaching out to all of you this week!
Thanks again for all of your continued support! pic.twitter.com/s4jW573SDr
— Pirate Chain (@PirateChain) June 30, 2020
Thank you to all pirates who have downloaded the public beta mobile wallet. We had 159 pirates participate in the early adopters giveaway. Each participant had to send a screenshot of their downloaded wallet as verification. The contest has ended and 25 pirates were selected at random to win 100 ARRR each! Check out the twitter or gleam.io links below to see if you've won. Congratulations to everyone!
1/2 @StephenYork111 @natemakesitrain@claudiu88833 @BroBrowniz @johnyk21k @yuopu4@EdibleRobot @bittobit @willydogusa @2hostbit @Krypto_Magi @dudezmobi @prodigygalimov@Nekofied3 @ALDIN_ALI @wdanang @Zanzarismo @BorneoChankon @SimCityRecords @cryptotipsfr @UnnaturalDev
— Draeth - Pirate Chain / BPSAA🏴☠️☠ (@TheInfamousKata) July 7, 2020
2/2 @josef_r01 @Walliderama @RajivKu47175402 @Hunt3rs2
Please contact me to claim your 100 ARRR from the @piratechain mobile wallet giveaway (apologies for the delay, lots of irl things came up)
— Draeth - Pirate Chain / BPSAA🏴☠️☠ (@TheInfamousKata) July 7, 2020
https://gleam.io/lk3bg/pirate-chain-mobile-wallet-arrr-giveaway
Private Messaging with the Mobile wallet
The new Mobile Wallet from @PirateChain is dope!
Today i recive from @PirateARRRmada my first transaction of $ARRR and a MEMO on it.
Does your wallet can do that? #privacy#ARRRmada pic.twitter.com/zkGVFkPK6b— AndreWGMI (@AndreWGMI) June 23, 2020
Did you know that Pirate Mobile has a private messaging function? Completely private messages shielded by zk-SNARKs can be sent over Pirate Chain's network in the transaction memo field. Each Pirate Chain transaction only costs 0.0001, which makes messages virtually free to send.
Social Media
Agorist Nexus Founder and co-host DAG interview Captain Draeth
https://www.agoristnexus.com/podcast/episode-20-pirate-chain-dark-tides-rising/
Captain Draeth talks about the latest developments and reveals some of the ongoing, exciting developments between the BPSAA and Pirate Chain! Listen to the podcast and support their channel!
Review by Blockchain Invest (in French): Presentation of the Best Lowcaps 2020/21
https://block-chain-invest.com/presentation-des-meilleurs-lowcap-2019-2020/
In this review written in French, pirate Rowenta summarizes and reviews Pirate Chain. If you read French, take a look at the article!
Pirate Chain at Blockchain Developers, Miners and Investors Forum
Captain Draeth represented Pirate Chain as at the Blockchain Developers, Miners and Investors Forum. Draeth was invited as a panelist to the Privacy and Security on the Blockchain session together with BigPiggy of Raptoreum. They discuss the current issues facing privacy, what we can expect in the near future and the inevitable role of Pirate Chain in this new future. Check out their discussion!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vf0Nkl7GlOg&feature=emb_err_woyt
Crypto Rich Reviews Pirate Chain Mobile Wallet - Skull Island
"BLOCKCHAIN BREAKTHROUGH FOR PRIVACY, FREEDOM + LIBERTY! This project has created a peer to peer fully private payment system that works on a mobile. I test it out in this video." Watch as Crypto Rich walks through the Skull Island mobile wallet and share his experience with using the wallet of the most private cryptocurrency in the world!
https://bittube.tv/post/8ab49bd5-86ab-4be1-83bd-1b235b42776e
Quiz of the Month
As a change from the recent riddles, Diablo and I thought it would be fun to change things up. This month, we're bringing you a a mini Pirate Chain Pop Quiz. Answer the following questions and dm wookie (wookie#7663) on discord. Please send your answers privately in dm, not on the public chat so that others can get have a chance to think about the questions. There is a first prize for first person with the complete correct answer, all other entries will share the prize pool for participation. Ready, set... go!
1) What technology is Pirate Chain using to achieve private transactions?
2) What is the name of the privacy centric operating system built by the Pirate crew?
3) The Pirate Chain halving occurs every how many blocks?
4) What alliance is Pirate Chain a founding member of?
5) On which date was Pirate Chain launched?
6) Which exchange was the first one to list Pirate Chain?
7) What is Pirate Chain's total coin supply?
8) Which anonymity network is Pirate Chain supporting for its network communication?
9) What technology is Pirate Chain using to prevent 51% attacks?
10) What is the name of the online directory listing shops and services that accept Pirate Chain as payment?
Merchant of the Month
Every month we feature either a merchant from The ARRRmada or collaborative partners of Pirate Chain. This month, we are featuring one of our newest merchant to The ARRRmada, Magic Morpheus!
"Magic Morpheus is an online shop from the USA, which specializes in kratom. The store sells isolate mixtures and extracts.
All products are manufactured according to industry best practices and validated by laboratory tests, thus Magic Morpheus offers customers kratom of high quality.
Kratom stimulates opioid receptors, has analgesic and sedative effects, and is said to be anti-inflammatory and antipyretic.
Kratom is a plant native to South East Asia. The leaves of the kratom tree are dried, crushed and/or pulverized for use. They can be chewed or smoked or even drunk as tea.
It is legal and is shipped as a dietary supplement by Magic Morpheus within the USA."
It is not prohibited! For further information please contact the dealer directly. The ARRRmada is pleased to welcome Magic Morpheus as part of the fleet that accepts ARRR as a payment method and uses CryptoCurrencyCheckout as gateway. However, the ARRRmada cannot provide support for the products.
Checkout Magic Morpheus: https://magicmorpheus.com/
Last Words
In this month, we saw ZCash announced that they are a public transparent chain. Chainanalysis released a statement that ZCash and Dash are in compliance with the blockchain tracking company's monitoring. In this article, both ZCash and Dash fully embrace Chainanalysis' support. The more important takeaway from this article is why ZCash fails as a privacy coin. As lauded by Fluffypony of Monero, and implied here by Chainanalysis, zk-SNARKs is the best privacy protocol. Chainanalysis pointed out that the biggest flaw of ZCash's privacy is not because of its protocol, but because privacy was made optional, resulting in less than 0.9% of all transactions and less than 5% of total supply, that are shielded. Here's an excerpt,
"Roughly 14% of Zcash transactions involve one of Zcash’s two shielded pools in some way. But of the transactions that interact with a shielded pool, only 6% are completely shielded, i.e. sender, receiver, and transaction amount are all encrypted. That’s only 0.9% of all Zcash transactions.
So even though the obfuscation on Zcash is stronger due to the zk-SNARK encryption, Chainalysis can still provide the transaction value and at least one address for over 99% of ZEC activity.
When it comes to address balances, only 5% of the total supply of ZEC is currently held within the shielded pools despite the higher total value of ZEC that flows through them every day. This is partly due to a requirement in the protocol that all proceeds from mining must first pass through one of the shielded pools before they can be transferred to transparent addresses. That means that if you trace the origins of any ZEC all the way back, it will always come from a shielded pool. This was deliberate, so that all transparent ZEC activity ultimately traces back to shielded activity.
Zcash’s shielded pools can provide stronger privacy than mixing transactions but shielding is not bulletproof. Research at University College London showed that using simple heuristics based on shielded pool usage patterns reduces the anonymity. They showed that most Zcash users don’t use the privacy functionality at all. Of those who do interact with the shielded pools, the researchers showed that most do it in a straightforwardly identifiable way, such as withdrawing exactly the same amount of ZEC that they deposited very quickly afterwards."
Let's applaud ZCash's public stance as a transparent, non-private blockchain. The Electric Coin Company together with ZCash have made important contributions to privacy. However, the crypto community should no longer be misled by the erroneous concept of ZCash and Dash as privacy coins. I would like to call on every pirate, to reference the Chainanalysis statement whenever you see an article claiming ZCash or Dash as a top privacy coin. Let's work together to correct the multitude of article clones inaccurately ranking ZCash and other optional privacy coins as leaders in our sector.