Not all privacy-centric coins can deliver 100% privacy, untraceability, security, and fungibility in a 100% decentralized coin with a trustless setup.Here's what these attributes are and why they're important: Here is an analysis of the leading cryptocurriencies which feature anonymity and/or untraceability as their key differentiator.Bitcoin itself is not within the scope of this analysis since it's never claimed to be anonymous.Monero has been 100% open source from its inception, meaning anyone can view the software's source code to verify that no backdoors exist and that the software is secure.Monero also has peer-reviewed research papers which mathematically and systematically verify all of its properties listed above.Private: DASH has a Rich List, so this is not a private coin.The financial details of coin addresses are visible to anyone examining the blockchain.Dash isn't cryptographically private at all...it's snakeoil and I'm just sort of beside myself about it, personally.

- Gregory Maxwell, Bitcoin Core developer and cryptographer, in a presentation to Coinbase (Youtube, time 34:11) Peter Todd, another Bitcoin Core developer and cryptographer, has made a similar statement.Untraceable: Transactions are routed through a series of "masternodes" to make them untraceable.This practice could work if all masternode operators had only pure motives.However, if a government, group of hackers, other entity, or even an individual bought many masternodes (there would be no way to know if this occured), and if the transaction passed through a route where all of the masternodes were owned by that entity, then the transaction could be traced by that entity.Given the relatively low cost of masternodes and the enormous budget of governments and some organizations, the possibility that coins can be traced is real.Secure:Transactions are cryptographically secure.Fungible: Since transactions are not private, the potential exists for an entity to block or blacklist certain coins, making them less valuable than the others.

See the note on the lack of Bitcoin fungibility below since the same principle applies to DASH.Decentralized: Not all DASH nodes are equal.There is a superclass of nodes, called "masternodes" whose owners have more influence over the system than regular node operators.This makes DASH semi-centralized instead of the ideal 100% decentralized system.Private: Zcash transactions are visible on their blockchain.They do enable hidden transations, but less than 10% of transactions are hidden, in part due the long period of time and computational effort needed by the user's computer to produce a hidden transaction.Since hidden transactions are optional and not default (and rarely used), the hidden transactions stand out on their blockchain, drawing attention to themselves.And by the way, I think we can successfully make Zcash too traceable for criminals like WannaCry, but still completely private & fungible.- Zooko Wilcox, Zcash CEO, in a tweet If Zcash can be "too traceable," then it can't be completely private or fungible.

Untraceable: Regular transactions are transparent.Hidden transactions use the zk-SNARKS algorithm which is fairly new, and therefore it hasn't had rigorous academic testing.bitcoin wallet directoryIf the lead developer says that Zcash can be "too traceable," then Zcash can't be untraceable.bitcoin wallet on linuxFungible: Since all transactions are not private, the potential exists for an entity to block or blacklist certain coins, making them less valuable than the others.bitcoin unlimited walletSee the note on the lack of Bitcoin fungibility below since the same principle applies to Zcash.bitcoin podcast plan b

Decentralized: Zcash is a company and currently it takes 20% of all ZEC mined as a founder's reward.bitcoin la stampaZcash required a Trusted Setup.ethereum colombiaThis means that you have to trust that the system was set up honestly.litecoin exchange ratesIf it wasn't set up honestly, unlimited amounts of ZEC could be created without anyone knowing.litecoin exchange rates historyThis would make the hacker rich and devalue ZEC.bitcoin billionaire play storeThere is no way to know if the Trusted Setup was executed honestly.We have to take them at their word.This introduces a human point of failure into the system which is counter to almost every other cryptocurrency.

You should only have to trust math and verifiable source code in cryptocurrecies, not humans.As we've seen with virtually all large software companies, such as Microsoft, Apple, and even governments, they shouldn't be trusted.Peter Todd, a Bitcoin Core developer who participated in the Zcash Trusted Setup, has called it a "backdoor".Zcash is not unconditionally sound, can't be with current tech...requires a trusted setup...will need to redo the procedure [Trusted Setup] to upgrade the crypto over time so it's a vulnerability.- Gregory Maxwell, Bitcoin Core developer and cryptographer, in a presentation to Coinbase (Youtube, time 29:30) In our opinion, Monero is the clear choice if you're looking for a private, secure, untraceable, fungible, decentralized cryptocurrency with no trusted setup required.Anything else puts your privacy and security at risk.But don't just take our opinion.Do your own research and see for yourself.Consider that Monero is endorsed and used by entities which depend on privacy and untraceability, such as: For more information about Monero: