10

How would a Bitcoin implementation of a TumbleBit payment hub compare with Monero?

What are the important differences between the two in the areas of privacy and security?

Improve this question
2
  • A legitimate question but I think something like this should be asked on r/monero. Idk why your getting down voted. I'd like to know the answer to.
    – Marcus Lumbert
    Oct 30, 2016 at 8:21
  • I believe that question about more general comparison would also be great.
    – urza.cc
    Nov 28, 2016 at 22:44

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
10

Update 2018.02.04 In light of recent of environment changes, this answer needs update, since blockchain scalability cannot be ignored anymore. TumbleBit's mixing technique became completely uneconomical, due to high fees. Although Monero has a similar fee problem, not as bad as TumbleBit has. That being said, TumbleBit has a Payment Hub mode, which is just as unusable, because it's unidirectional, however if someone figures out how to make it bi-directional, then things can change. As far as I know, nobody works on its payment hub mode.

Original post:

You are specifically asking for privacy and security, so I will omit the practicality, where Monero would win by far if we wouldn't count that it needs to have its own token to work.

From a privacy point of view TumbleBit's payment hub might be slightly superior, since it's borrowing the anonymity set from Bitcoin users and if there are more Bitcoin users than Monero users that'd result in better privacy.
TumbeBit uses a central server, called the Tumbler.The only disadvantage having a central server is if the server goes offline no payment will happen, but this does not affect privacy.

From a security point of view there is not much to talk about. None of them has the risk of losing money. Both protocol is theoretically secure. How they are/ will be implemented is an other question.
I would also like to mention cryptographers might also make the argument that TumbleBit solely relies on text-book RSA cryptography.

Improve this answer
2
  • With Monero, in a given transaction, you neither know which input was actually spent nor do you know to which address was it sent. Only that something was moved somewhere. Don't know enough about TumbleBit, though, to give a comparison.
    – JollyMort
    Nov 28, 2016 at 11:46
  • Yes, the thing is with TumbleBit (if used as a payment hub, not in a classic tumbler mode, what will come first) you have no idea what moved when. The only thing the Bitcoin network notices when some balances are changed. Balances in a sense if we think about TumbleBit's payment channel opening and closing escrow transactions balances. It is not clear if a bi-directional payment hub successfully will be implemented the users would even want to close their channels. (Of course they have to before their escrow expires.)
    – nopara73
    Nov 28, 2016 at 13:20

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.