Is there any privacy coin which can compete with Monero in terms of privacy?

[dkbit98]

Litecoin with new Mimblewimble addresses starting with mweb sounds like interesting privacy alternative for Monero.
However, there are few problems with this since it's still early days, not many wallets support mweb address format (I think only Litecoin core wallet), and not many people are using them yet.
I would love to see this mimblewimble getting implemented in Bitcoin.

Litecoin mweb explorer:
https://www.mwebexplorer.com/

[ABCbits]

It depends on which implementation you use. JoinMarket somewhat decentralized, but not easy to use. Meanwhile, decentralized aspect on Whirpool (available on Sparrow and Samourai Wallet) is very new feature.

I nerver tested those wallets.

Are those coinjoin more expensive than using a mixer?

TLDR: Usually it's cheaper.

For JoinMarket, it depends on fee set by maker.

One group of participants (called market makers) will always be available to take part in CoinJoins at any time. Other participants (called market takers) can create a CoinJoin at any time. The takers pay a fee which incentivizes the makers. A form of smart contract is created, meaning the private keys will never be broadcasted outside of your computer, resulting in virtually zero risk of loss (aside from malware or bugs). As a result of free-market forces the fees will eventually be next to nothing.

For Whirlpool, this documentation page state the fee depends on which pool you use, https://docs.samourai.io/whirlpool/basic-concepts. But it's probably written before decentralized Whirlpool exist where i haven't tried that feature.

[MrSpasybo]

Litecoin with new Mimblewimble addresses starting with mweb sounds like interesting privacy alternative for Monero.
However, there are few problems with this since it's still early days, not many wallets support mweb address format (I think only Litecoin core wallet), and not many people are using them yet.
I would love to see this mimblewimble getting implemented in Bitcoin.

Litecoin mweb explorer:
https://www.mwebexplorer.com/

The integration of MimbleWimble could be a success in ensuring anonymity for Litecoin but could be a weakness related to the future of LTC on exchanges when facing government concerns. For me, MimbleWimble does not help Litecoin really stand out in the market, I have heard about MimbleWimble in 2021 and 2022 but did not see any impact on the Litecoin ecosystem or LTC price chart. For anonymity purposes, users still tend to choose XMR over LTC.

I don't think MimbleWimble will be deployed for Bitcoin because the current community's goal is to try to achieve widespread adoption for BTC, transparency is prioritized over anonymity on the Bitcoin blockchain. 2 years ago, a few people talked about this but now we don't hear about it anymore.

[ABCbits]

Litecoin with new Mimblewimble addresses starting with mweb sounds like interesting privacy alternative for Monero.
However, there are few problems with this since it's still early days, not many wallets support mweb address format (I think only Litecoin core wallet), and not many people are using them yet.
I would love to see this mimblewimble getting implemented in Bitcoin.

Litecoin mweb explorer:
https://www.mwebexplorer.com/

The integration of MimbleWimble could be a success in ensuring anonymity for Litecoin but could be a weakness related to the future of LTC on exchanges when facing government concerns. For me, MimbleWimble does not help Litecoin really stand out in the market, I have heard about MimbleWimble in 2021 and 2022 but did not see any impact on the Litecoin ecosystem or LTC price chart. For anonymity purposes, users still tend to choose XMR over LTC.

That's good point, optional (not mandatory) privacy feature on certain coin always looks awkward. People who take privacy very serious would use coin which force it's privacy feature. Government these days discourage business from accepting such coin, even when business doesn't use the optional privacy feature.

I don't think MimbleWimble will be deployed for Bitcoin because the current community's goal is to try to achieve widespread adoption for BTC, transparency is prioritized over anonymity on the Bitcoin blockchain. 2 years ago, a few people talked about this but now we don't hear about it anymore.

I also don't expect such thing will happen either.

[dkbit98]

That's good point, optional (not mandatory) privacy feature on certain coin always looks awkward. People who take privacy very serious would use coin which force it's privacy feature. Government these days discourage business from accepting such coin, even when business doesn't use the optional privacy feature.

It wouldn't be awkward at all if we had optional privacy feature on bitcoin, and I am sure many people would use it including me.
They can't ban bitcoin if it has optional privacy addresses, so this is a good compromise for most people.
Right now people are using mixers, or they are exchanging bitcoin for monero when they want that, and monero is back up again after they removed it from some big centralized exchanges.

[NotATether]

It depends on which implementation you use. JoinMarket somewhat decentralized, but not easy to use. Meanwhile, decentralized aspect on Whirpool (available on Sparrow and Samourai Wallet) is very new feature.

I nerver tested those wallets.

Are those coinjoin more expensive than using a mixer?

Good privacy is always going to be expensive. It's just a fact of life.

Mixers do charge 3mBTC, 7mBTC, like that for a single mix, and we don't know exactly how they perform their analysis.

Meanwhile, CoinJoin wallets are open-source and we know exactly how they perform their mixing, but the fee will usually depend on the maker/taker or whatever central server is processing the mixes.

[bitmover]

Good privacy is always going to be expensive. It's just a fact of life.

Sure, we are basically paying for a service. Sometimes that service pays off.

I have spend probably more than a thousand dollars already in privacy focused SWAPs (like exch.cx and DEFIs), mixers, etc...

[dkbit98]

Mixers do charge 3mBTC, 7mBTC, like that for a single mix, and we don't know exactly how they perform their analysis.

And some of them can be operated by shady people, scammers or even government.

Meanwhile, CoinJoin wallets are open-source and we know exactly how they perform their mixing, but the fee will usually depend on the maker/taker or whatever central server is processing the mixes.

Ironically, I think that situation with coinjoins is much better now than before they banned Samourai and arrested developers.
There are much more coordinators for coinjoin and most of them don't have any censorship.
People adapt to any changes.

[MrSpasybo]

That's good point, optional (not mandatory) privacy feature on certain coin always looks awkward. People who take privacy very serious would use coin which force it's privacy feature. Government these days discourage business from accepting such coin, even when business doesn't use the optional privacy feature.

I think MimbleWimble is just an experiment that Litecoin conducted to explore user needs and attract investor attention with events related to network upgrades. However, the results are not as positive as LTC investors had expected. Investors are often interested in profits and tend to avoid legal risks. MimbleWimble could become a weakness of Litecoin in the future if governments want to ban all crypto with anonymity capabilities.

Clearly, LTC cannot become a worthy opponent of XRM even though MimbleWimble has been successfully deployed. XMR continues to be able to become the leader in the privacy coin sector while LTC seems unable to find a suitable position in this market.