Hardfork Suggestion: Anonymous Steem Account Creation On-Chain
One
of the things some are bemoaning about HF17 is the end of mining. Mining can be used to create a new account, you can rent a server, or even just borrow a neighbour's wifi, run a mining node, and after a week or so maybe you can control a new account. It's not really anonmous, per se, but very few traces can be found. Someone may be able to figure out the IP address of the miner node, etc...
Long story short, it's DIY anonymous steem accounts. More or less. No mining means no on-chain way to do this.
So I have a suggestion. We have a special account called @null, who burns SBD (and steem maybe?) it is paid, by a special setting in the network consensus code. What about a special account that when you send a payment for the amount of the account creation (any excess is just powered up), with a memo specifying the desired username and the 4 public keys for the account?
It could also even automatically return insufficient payments by adding a return address (you could then use blocktrades to have that pipe into a new bitcoin wallet address).
You could then use services like blocktrades and others that enable the setting of a memo of the payment in an exchange (through tor, of course), pay in bitcoin or monero or whatever, out comes a steem payment with the correct memo, it goes to this account creator account, and creates the account with the money paid in, and the holder of the secret keys then has control of an account that has no trail back to themselves.
In HF17 there is also a nice change that allows users to create accounts by irrevocably delegating Steem Power. Anyone can now use this to create a new account, it becomes anonymous if they make no record of who has the key. But with my proposal for a special account creation account, you don't have to ask anyone to do it
We can't code here! This is Whale country!
Vote #1 l0k1
Go to steemit.com/~witnesses to cast your vote by typing l0k1 into the text entry at the bottom of the leaderboard.
(note, my username is spelled El Zero Kay One or Lima Zero Kilo One, all lower case)
Have you heard of Anonsteem? https://steemit.com/steemit/@someguy123/anonsteem-create-anonymous-steem-accounts-without-social-media
That's basically what you're suggesting I think but it's a third party project. It would be nice to have that built in the network by default though.
Yes, I know someguy123, I chat with him a bit at #witness in the chat. I was planning to build a competing service but I'm not sure when I'll get to doing it...
@null is like the trashcan for the steem-file-system. What I am proposing would be like 'new folder' function (where steem tokens can live). It could be called @new. Anonymous users would have to remember to create a refund-path in case they miscalculate, otherwise the steem would be lost, so the function would have username, the 4 public keys matching the private key, and a refund/change account and memo.
This could be used to push it through an exchanger like blocktrades, if you didn't send enough, or sent too much, it could refund it via using a memo to indicate to blocktrades how to convert it and direct it (presumably to another crispy fresh bitcoin address).
I think it is a nice idea that makes account creation much simpler and acts as a gateway in from people with other cryptos.
If this would work, it would be lovely =)
Why do you mention wifi piggy-backing? Isn't it possible to submit proof of work from mining over Tor, and consequently acquire a Tor-level of anonymity?
Or is there a risk that a Tor exit node hi-jack proof of work packets?
I know it's a moot question when the mining option is lost, ultimately hindering advanced users from having free speech.. just wanting to know if using Tor for a mining operation is a bad idea.
For mining on steem even a wifi connection might be too laggy... Even an adequate ADSL connection might hold up packets long enough for you to miss a block. Tor? no, really, it can't be done. You just never know exactly when you will get the job. It might coincide with all kinds of things on less than optimal connections.
My scheme would allow anonymous account creation via tor connections to an exchanger and payments initiated via tor. @someguy123's anonsteem site you can more or less do the same thing as well. But on-chain means nobody has to do it and thus also nobody will charge a premium.
Thank you for posting Loki.
Appreciate the explanation. This sounds interesting and is likely something more and more Steemians will want to be informed of.
Wishing you all the best. Cheers.
Useful information, thank you.