One of the main selling points of cryptocurrencies is the fact that they offer a superior degree of privacy when compared to traditional fiat currencies. As such, Bitcoin, Ethereum and the like are all semi-anonymous, meaning that users do not have to share any personal data. Regardless, the blockchain network publicly stores information on all past transactions, alongside current address balance. <\/p>\n
Because of this, analysis of
\nblockchain activity can detect patterns, and trace funds back to their owners. This
\nisn\u2019t often the case, but it remains a factor worth keeping in mind if you are extremely
\nconscious about your privacy. Recent reports indicate that
\nJPMorgan Chase is actively working on a solution that would enhance the overall
\nprivacy of Ethereum transactions. According to its blockchain team, the privacy
\nfeature is capable of hiding the amount of coins being sent out, alongside who
\nthe sender is. <\/p>\n
The tool works as an extension to
\nZether, which is a decentralized payment mechanism that aims to increase
\noverall privacy for Ethereum and other smart contract-compatible blockchains. Zether
\nwas developed as a joint effort between the Visa Research department, and the
\nStanford University. It achieves extra privacy by leveraging zero-knowledge
\nproof to verify transactions. <\/p>\n
According to JPMorgan, their It is important to keep in mind It is not yet known whether Based on everything that has been outlined so far, this recent event showcases that banks throughout the world are well-aware of the potential offered by blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies. After all, JPMorgan\u2019s blockchain development team is also working on its very own stable crypto, the JPM Coin. <\/p>\n
\nsolution will be released as an open-source tool that can be trialled directly
\non Quorum, JPM\u2019s permissioned blockchain running on Ethereum. As part of the
\nannouncement, the chief of Quorum, Oli Harris, stated: \u201cIn the basic Zether, the account balances and the transfer accounts are
\nconcealed but the participants\u2019 identities are not. So we have solved that. In
\nour implementation, we provide a proof protocol for the anonymous extension in
\nwhich the sender may hide herself and the transactions recipients in a larger
\ngroup of parties. (\u2026) The performance is quite good; we had done multiple
\niterations to improve it and we are doing the verification in solidity smart
\ncontracts. We\u2019ll be including in our report the performance measurements for
\nproving and verification.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n
\nthat there is a key difference between the payment architecture employed by the
\nZether protocol and Bitcoin, for instance. As such, it relies on an
\naccount-based approach, rather than the unspent transaction output utilized by
\nthe bitcoin blockchain. This means that the tool isn\u2019t targeted to the masses,
\nbut rather it will help enhance privacy for transactions carried out within
\nenterprises on smart contract-enabled blockchains.<\/p>\n
\nJPMorgan plans to release the tool to the public in the future. Regardless,
\nthere are several other work-around strategies meant to improve privacy for
\nbig-name cryptocurrencies. Additionally, the market already has privacy-focused
\naltcoins, such as Zcash, which promise complete anonymity for all transactions
\nbeing carried out. <\/p>\n