The World’s Most Private Way to Shop Online

Zcoin has been added to Particl’s decentralized marketplace and desktop application as of this 6th of July 2020 at 3:00 PM UTC. This allows you to easily top up your Particl account using Zcoin to privately buy anything on the Particl Marketplace. Zcoin is the first cryptocurrency, after Bitcoin, to be added to Particl as an alternative account funding option.

Table of Content

Zcoin Added to Particl

Zcoin has been added to Particl Desktop and the Particl Marketplace. This comes ahead of Particl V3.0, the biggest update to Particl’s marketplace ever, and will give Zcoin fans an exclusive taste of things to come. To learn how Particl V3.0 is going to completely change the game, read this blog post about it.

Stepping Things Up Again With Particl Desktop 3.0
A New Breakthrough for Privacy and eCommerce 🔥particl.news

This integration provides the Zcoin community with a safe way to spend their Zcoin without any intermediary and without leaving any digital footprint behind. No transaction data, no personal information or communications collected, no metadata, no nothing. To learn more about how the Particl Marketplace protects your online privacy, read this in-depth blog post about it.

For Particl, it extends the marketplace’s accessibility by enabling one more payment option. It also lets you make even more private transactions when shopping online by combining the benefits of Zcoin’s privacy protocol with Particl’s.

Note: All purchases made on the marketplace are ultimately settled in PART. That’s because payments need to be secured by Particl’s two-party escrow smart-contract. This gives you protection against online scams and keeps your personal information safe from any third-party. Learn more about Particl’s two-party escrow system here.

Particl Onboarding Talk: Zcoin — with Reuben Yap

To discuss the integration, Zcoin’s Project Steward Reuben Yap and Particl ambassador Dr. Kap met last week for an onboarding talk that has just been published on Particl’s Youtube channel.

Check it out as they discuss Zcoin, Particl, eCommerce, privacy, the economy, and much, much more!

How to Use Zcoin on Particl

There are two ways to use Zcoin on Particl — by swapping Zcoin for PART as part of the checkout process or by simply using the in-app swap engine.

Both ways actually require the in-app swap engine to be manually enabled.

Enable the StealthEx Swap Bot

  • Make sure that you are running the latest Particl version — Particl Desktop 2.3.4.
  • Open Particl Desktop and wait for the blockchain and SMSG network to sync up. The process of syncing SMSG usually takes longer than syncing the blockchain.
  • Click on the Bot Management button from the left sidebar.
  • Locate the StealthEx Swap Engine and click the Enable button.

Swap Zcoin for PART Using the In-App Swap Engine

  • Make sure the StealthEx Swap Bot is enabled.
  • Click on the Exchange button from the left sidebar.
  • Click on Start New Exchange.
  • Enter the amount of PART you want to get and choose Zcoin within the list of available currencies. Click Next.
  • Confirm the parameters of the swap and click Next.
  • Send the correct amount of Zcoin to the provided address. This can take several minutes depending block times and StealthEx’s exchange process.
  • Check the Overview page to know when you receive your PART.

Use Zcoin to Fund Your Account as Part of the Checkout Process

  • Install Particl Desktop and enable the marketplace.
  • Make sure the StealthEx Swap Bot is enabled.
  • Browse the marketplace and add the item you want to purchase in your cart.
  • Click on the cart icon at the top of the Particl Desktop client and review your order. Click Nextif everything is good.
  • Complete the check out process by entering your shipping details and confirming your order.
  • A pop up will appear telling you that you don’t have enough PART to place the order. Click on the Exchange BTC/alts button.
  • This will take you to the in-app swap engine with the number of Zcoin required to complete the order pre-filled.
  • Swap Zcoin for PART using the in-app swap engine.
  • You will need to convert your balance to a private balance to use the marketplace.
  • Once you receive your PART, click on the Send/Convert button from the left sidebar.
  • Click on the Convert Public <-> Private tab at the top of the page.
  • In the Pay From section, select the source of funds you would like to convert.
  • In the Convert To section, select the destination of funds you would like to receive.
  • Type in the number of coins you’ve just received click on the Make Payment button.
  • Review the transaction details and click on the Confirm & Send button to confirm the transaction.
  • Wait for twelve (12) confirmations (approximately 24 minutes) before the funds in the anon balance can be used.
  • You can track the status of this transaction nn the Overview page under Recent Transactions.
  • Click the shopping cart icon at the top of your Particl Desktop client and complete the process to place your order!
To track the progress of your swap, click on the Exchange button in the left sidebar and look for the ongoing exchange in the list that appears. Click on its tile to expand its details.

Get Your Exclusive Swag Now!

To celebrate the listing of Zcoin on Particl, a few exclusive Zcoin goodies have been added to the marketplace for everyone to get. This includes shirts, caps, hoodies, and some very special mugs.

For the occasion, there are some pretty sweet but time-limited deals going on! First come, first serve, so make sure to hurry up!

  • First 20 shirts are 1 PART, the next 80 shirts will only be $5
  • First 10 hoodies are 1 PART, the next 20 hoodies will only be $5
  • First 20 mugs are 1 PART, the next 40 mugs will only be $5
Get them while the deal lasts!

A Perfect Match for Privacy Nuts

The most interesting aspect of topping up your Particl account using Zcoin is the compounding effect gained from combining different privacy protocols together. Whether you’re primarily a Zcoin or a Particl user, you can significantly raise your level of privacy and security when shopping online with this simple trick.

Different Approaches to Privacy

Zcoin and Particl adopt fundamentally different approaches to privacy and anonymize cryptocurrency transactions in different ways.

Zcoin uses what is known as SIGMA and will soon move to its evolved version — Lelantus. It is a zero-knowledge protocol that basically burns coins and redeems them at some later point without any trail of how it got there being visible. It also allows direct anonymous payments by giving the “right to redeem coins” to someone else. This privacy protocol completely breaks the traceability of transactions.

Particl, on the other hand, doesn’t destroy and redeem coins. It instead uses RingCT to mix coins with others and uses “decoys” to obfuscate the payment trail even more. Because RingCT transactions are mandatory for all marketplace transactions, it protects users not only with strong cryptographic privacy but also credible plausible deniability.

Both of these approaches (burning/redeeming vs mixing) have their pros and cons. For example, Zcoin may break the traceability of transactions more definitively but Particl allows for a lot of flexibility which is a must since its marketplace relies on privacy-oriented smart-contracts. As always with this kind of technology, there is never a clear winner and neither should there be. So why not mix both protocols and get the best of both worlds?

Better Together

With just a few extra steps, you can combine the benefits of both privacy protocols and get a much better level of online privacy when shopping online.

All you need to do is to first make a private transaction on the Zcoin network, redeem your coins, and use them to top up your Particl account with Particl Desktop’s in-app swap engine. This same process can also be done when checking out your cart on the Particl Marketplace.

Simply follow these steps:

  • On Zcoin, execute a private XZC transaction.
  • Redeem the coins into a public address (ideally in a fresh wallet for added privacy)
  • Open up Particl Desktop and initiate an XZC to PART swap
  • Send the PART you’ve received from the swap to an anon balance
  • Shop online in total privacy (SIGMA + RingCT)

Following this simple trick will significantly improve your privacy when shopping online. Tracing back the payment back to you would not only require the Particl network to be deanonymized but the Zcoin network as well.

Since both protocols are so fundamentally different, RingCT and SIGMA zero-day exploits are less likely to affect both protocols at the same time. If one protocol ever fails, you know the other’s protecting you as a backup!

Note: Protecting your transaction information when shopping online is just one step of the giant puzzle. Particl also natively protects your online identity, secure your communications, doesn’t collect or even generate any metadata about you, and lets you hide your network identity (IP address). To see all the ways that Particl protects your online privacy, read this in-depth blog post about it.

What Coin Would You Like to See on Particl?

Adding Zcoin is only a beginning. As Particl is a marketplace for everyone, many more cryptocurrencies will be making their way onto Particl in the coming future.

What coins would you like to see next? Are you a fan of a particular crypto community and would love to use your favorite coin on Particl? Then let the team know by filling the listing application form located on Particl’s website.

About Zcoin

Zcoin (XZC) is an open-source, decentralized privacy coin that focuses on achieving privacy and anonymity for its users while transacting on the blockchain. It is the first to develop and implement the Sigma Protocol, which allows users to have complete privacy over their transactions via zero-knowledge cryptographic proofs without the need for trusted setup. Its research labs also created the Lelantus privacy protocol which has gained academic acclaim and set to go live on Zcoin in 2020.

In 2018, Zcoin made history by having the Thai Democrat Party’s elections held on its blockchain with over 127,000 votes cast nationwide.

About Particl

Particl is a privacy-first and worldwide censorship-resistant eCommerce platform built on blockchain and peer-to-peer technology. It restores the balance of power towards the individual, not corporations or authorities, by decentralizing core aspects of today’s internet and economy.

The Particl Marketplace is a decentralized and reliable multi-vendor marketplace that lets anyone in the world buy and sell anything, without leaving a trace. It eliminates the problems of trust, personal data abuse, and enrichment of large corporations. It preserves privacy at any time and enables a trading scope for unbeatable product pricing. Free of any third-party interference, it creates a fair level playing field.

The Particl coin (PART) is the native currency of the Particl Marketplace. It is a privacy coin that offers strong but flexible data protection and privacy capabilities using a combination of the Confidential Transactions (CT) and RingCT (with Bulletproofs) privacy protocols. It is the first coin built on the Bitcoin codebase to ever make these protocols available.

Learn More About Particl