Bitcoin Private is private, decentralized, fast, and an open-source community-led cryptocurrency. Similar to Bitcoin, Bitcoin Private supports direct peer-to-peer transactions without intermediaries. All transaction payments will be cryptographically verified by various network nodes and recorded in the public ledger. Bitcoin Private will use the same privacy technology as ZClassic (zk-snarks). This means that transaction payments will be published on the public blockchain, but the payer, payee, and other payment details will remain confidential and unidentifiable. Rhett Creighton is the projects lead developer.

Project Outlook

Enhancing privacy comprehensively is a crucial part of the Bitcoin Private project. Currently, zkSNARKs require significant memory and CPU resources for transaction signing and take several minutes. One of the first improvements to be implemented post-fork is the adoption of "Jubjub," a new "sapling" being developed by the Zcash core development team. This new "sapling" will significantly increase the speed and usability of confidential transactions in cryptocurrencies using zk-SNARKs. Another way to improve Bitcoin Privates privacy is through the ongoing "Dandelion" privacy project.
This technology involves "stem" (transaction) and "fluff" (obfuscation). While any obfuscation program is inherently less secure than zk-SNARKs, Dandelion obfuscation can be added to both transparent and confidential transactions in Bitcoin Private, enhancing privacy across the board. Allowing blockchain improvements is vital for the Bitcoin Private project, and to this end, BIP9 has been incorporated into the Bitcoin Private blockchain to allow future soft forks and improvements. When the code for improvements is completed, miners will be required to signal their acceptance of the blockchain code changes. When 95% of miners accept this change, it becomes "locked in," completing the soft fork. However, if miners do not signal readiness within a specified time frame, the soft fork fails, and no code changes occur. The support and development of the Bitcoin Private project will rely on funding from sources outside of mining pools. However, the Bitcoin Private contribution team strongly opposes any form of taxation levied on its community without democratic consent.
Therefore, one of the early changes proposed through BIP9 will involve the terms of foundation fundraising. In this way, miners can collectively choose an appropriate amount to donate, ensuring the projects future success. As mentioned in Part 2, the lower number of mineable Bitcoin Privates remaining after the fork may pose some issues, including extremely low network hash rates. An alternative solution is to destroy unclaimed coins in certain parts of the network through BIP9. If chosen through BIP9 implementation, approximately 0.14% of unclaimed Bitcoin Private would be destroyed daily over the next two years. In this scenario, BitcoinPrivate would be evenly destroyed across all relevant wallets, meaning: each unclaimed Bitcoin Private wallet would lose about 0.14% of its total Bitcoin Private daily, for two years. This method would release substantial amounts of Bitcoin Private for miners to mine while giving users ample time to claim their forked Bitcoin Private.
Furthermore, the daily low destruction rate avoids impacting the market cap. As a backup measure, Bitcoin Private implements a "difficulty bomb" similar to Ethereums for significant future changes. When used, the difficulty bomb will apply to the old blockchain code to prompt miners to adopt new code for ongoing improvements. This method is a last resort to be used only in extreme cases. For example, this difficulty bomb could be implemented to introduce a new governance system, such as, but not limited to, the system unique to Decred. This would allow the Bitcoin Private blockchain to become further democratized and decentralized. Currently, the difficulty bomb date is set for March 2, 2019, but this date can be indefinitely delayed through BIP9.

Business Applications of the Project

Payment processing remains one of the most widely adopted applications of Bitcoin today. In 2017, merchants processed likely more than $1 billion worth of Bitcoin using Bitcoin payment processing companies like BitPay. These Bitcoin payment companies wallet users store over $1 billion worth of Bitcoin assets every month and generate $1.5 billion in Bitcoin transfers between wallets monthly. Just as the internet brought a revolutionary new way to pay, so have cryptocurrencies.
Consumers expect a degree of convenience when exchanging value for goods and services, which is why online payments have become commonplace. Along with the expectation of convenience, consumers also assume a degree of privacy protection in these transactions. Unfortunately, some entities have profited over the past two decades by tracking online credit card transactions to create consumer "profiles" online. This is highly invasive, which is why consumers want to transact online with cryptocurrency. However, in the technical design of the currently most popular cryptocurrencies, consumers should not expect this level of privacy on these blockchains. But Bitcoin Private can meet consumers privacy needs through zk-SNARKs transactions.
Bitcoin Private will play a significant role in digital asset P2P and commercial payments. It offers merchants a tested, secure, and widely adopted cryptocurrency technology with provable anonymity and confidentiality. Bitcoin Private has the potential to be applied to hundreds or thousands of business use cases. Although other cryptocurrencies utilizing z protocol may serve this function, none have been selected by users or achieved success. This may be due to the high CPU and memory requirements for confidential transactions; however, the release of Jubjub sapling will allow for mobile confidential transactions. The Bitcoin Private contribution team is keen on making cryptocurrency mainstream and widely used. Therefore, a more merchant-friendly confidential transaction service will be released shortly after the new sapling application.
Aside from general online business scenarios, the Bitcoin Private mobile wallet platform can be applied in physical commerce to store and pay Bitcoin Private through transparent and confidential transactions. Moreover, this platform can be used by any user, not just merchants. To date, various suppliers and merchants have approached Bitcoin Private as a payment option for their goods. A portion of these commercial transactions could be charged to inject funds into the Bitcoin Private Foundation, freeing the foundation from raising funds through mining.