Open ghost opened 3 years ago
i also believe we should use non-technical language on the landing page and/or introduction to aeon. and it would be awesome if we also had a more comprehensive technical summary too (maybe @stoffu could help with this in the future).
Referencing https://github.com/aeonix/aeonix.github.io/pull/85 https://github.com/aeonix/aeonix.github.io/commit/b56d53ab5dae89fd7db49a04870ffe9afdaa020d
I am only worried that this will not make any sense to most people or persuade anyone that Aeon is a good protocol. They will mostly be intimidated or confused. I know stoffu is a clever cryptographer but I think most who visit this website will have a troubled time understand some of these parts.
I believe we should use this chance to give a more detailed soft "introduction" to aeon. We still haven't detailed what will make AEON shine in the sky above all other cryptocurrencies are jumping right into how it compares to monero. If people want more technical information, I am sure they will seek it out themselves. Or it is possible to ask stoffu to write a detailed technical exposition about the cryptography involved in Aeon for cryptographic minds to learn about the techinical differences, leaving it as a separate part of the website or external link.
Current status:
How is AEON different from Monero?
Mobile friendliness, the top priority of AEON, led to the following critical differences from Monero:
ASIC-friendly proof-of-work
We believe ASIC resistance is ultimately futile while imposing various forms of undesirable cost. Our ASIC-friendly PoW (KangarooTwelve) allows for faster verification of the blockchain. This also helps stabilize the protocol as the need for PoW-change hard forks is eliminated.
No use of RingCT
Monero's RingCT for encrypting transaction amounts comes with a theoretical risk of catastrophic collapse of the monetary system due to hidden inflation if the discrete log of the second generator is discovered. Favoring supply soundness over privacy, we choose not to use RingCT until cryptographers invent an efficient commitment scheme with unconditional soundness. We believe practical level of privacy can still be achieved without RingCT. Not using RingCT also contributes to faster syncing.
Increased block time
AEON's block time is 4 minutes. This halves the number of blocks produced each day compared to Monero, further reducing the cost of running a node.
Smaller ring size
AEON's ring size is fixed to 3 which is the bare minimum needed to prevent chain reactions (link). Monero's higher ring size means more degree of obfuscation for each transaction, but it also comes at the cost of increased blockchain size and longer verification time. We choose to stick with ring size 3 until a convincing evidence against it is found.
These differences combined result in much lower cost of running a node, smaller blockchain size, and shorter sync time compared to Monero even if the difference in adoption level is factored out. While still drawing from the technical advantages of Monero and CryptoNote, AEON has distinct development goals and an independent community that enable it to thrive as its own currency.
How is AEON unique?
There are thousands of cryptocurrencies.. If you came to learn about Aeon is it is pretty likely they know Bitcoin, they know Dogecoin, maybe a handful of other popular coins. We should make a general comparison. because that is what people are wondering about also.I will write up a draft some time to see what anybody thinks. Comments and discussion are welcome for this critique.