How Zcoin’s Privacy Technology Compares to the Competition
Unlike the previous anonymity schemes which involve obscuring the real transactions with other inputs or transactions, the Zerocoin protocol completely breaks the transaction links between coins through the use of zero-knowledge proofs.
This anonymity scheme is not without some drawbacks. In return for the huge anonymity set and breaking of transaction links, Zerocoin requires a one time trusted setup to generate initial parameters. In Zerocoin these are two very large prime numbers that need to be destroyed. Knowledge of these two large prime numbers would allow someone to forge Zerocoin spends and create coins out of thin air.
