Binance Research Dives Deep Into What Went Wrong with Zerocoin

Binance Research, the market research and analysis arm of Binance, released a new report on the influence of Zerocoin protocol on anonymity efforts in cryptocurrency, as well as the implications of the protocol’s cryptographic flaws.

The new report, titled “An Examination of the Flaws in the Zerocoin Protocol,” offers a detailed look into how the Zerocoin protocol progressed from a proposed anonymity function for Bitcoin to a solution implemented in Zcoin, the protocol’s stand-alone cryptocurrency launched in 2015, as well as multiple privacy coins such as PIVX, SmartCash, Zoin, Veil, and others.

Binance Research also looked into the significant flaws in the protocol that led to massive losses and incidents on these various cryptocurrencies implementing the Zerocoin protocol. The vulnerabilities resulted in the decline of usage for the Zerocoin protocol and the adoption of alternative cryptographic protocols and other privacy solutions, such as RingCT, stealth addresses, Super Sonic, and Sigma. These supplement existing privacy protocols such as zk-SNARKS (e.g., ZCash) and MimbleWimble (e.g., Grin).

Ultimately, Zerocoin protocol provided an early breakthrough contribution to the overall crypto-industry, particularly in the field of anonymity. “It was one of the first solutions offering anonymity features to UTXO-based blockchains and paved the way for the growth of all privacy features on blockchain solutions,” according to Binance Research.

Read the full report here.