Could anyone better versed in cryptocoinage tell me how this differs from darkcoin[1]? DRK is another cryptocurrency created for anonymous transactions.
It's certantly not the first time that I've posted about something technical where some altcoin then popped up with it as a sales feature on its whitepaper without even bothering to implement it. :-/
The funny thing is that CoinJoin's primary advantage is the network support for it is already part of Bitcoin since day one. Maybe it's not /completely/ pointless to launch a new cryptocurrency around CoinJoin simply because a commitment from a lot of users to use it might increase the anonymity set... but as far as I can it's nearly completely pointless (esp since in Bitcoin some ordinary transactions look like CJs).
If you're going to do something incompatible at the protocol much better can be done— as shown in practice by Bytecoin, or in theory in ZeroCash and ZeroCoin. ... even there isn't not a requirement to start up a whole new currency for it, but at least not pointless. CoinJoin isn't the be all end all of transaction privacy, but at least you don't have to switch currencies or convince people to deploy improvements to Bitcoin in order to make use of it. :)
One of them is an academic paper and the other has a website that mostly consists of "coming soon" pages. But seriously, DarkCoin appears to use CoinJoin[1] which has a smaller anonymity set than SNARKy systems.
Darkcoin has actually implemented a lot of new code. They have an advanced form of decentralized coinjoin called darksend mixed with a system of masternodes which share the block reward as a sort of proof of service. The masternodes require 1000 DRK ($6600+ as of right now) to limit network chatter and make it increasingly expensive for people to take control of a lot of masternodes. Additionally coins in masternodes are removed from circulation, allowing a sort of positive feedback loop as far as price goes.
Darkcoin V2 is also adding ring signatures mixed in with the masaternode system so I'll see how that works when it gets released.
http://www.darkcoin.io/