Trust Without Transparency: An Empirical Analysis of Anonymity and Verifiability in Iron Fish Cryptocurrency

Le résumé fourni par la source

Cryptocurrencies are designed to provide privacy and decentralization, yet many remain under scrutiny for their technical implementations. Iron Fish is a privacy-oriented cryptocurrency that applies zk-SNARKs to ensure transaction confidentiality. Nonetheless, concerns persist regarding its reliance on a trusted setup, which may undermine user anonymity. This paper offers an empirical evaluation of Iron Fish's privacy guarantees by validating key blockchain components, including hash integrity, cryptographic commitments, and zk-SNARK proofs, using a dataset of 1,521 blocks. The results indicate that hash validation fails due to the proprietary and undisclosed Fish-Hash algorithm. In contrast, other components, such as blockchain structure, Merkle commitments, and zk-SNARKs, successfully pass all tests and operate as intended. These findings demonstrate both the strengths and the limitations of Iron Fish's privacy model, emphasizing the importance of greater transparency in hashing mechanisms. This paper contributes to ongoing discussions on verifiable privacy in blockchain systems and reinforces the role of empirical scrutiny in assessing emerging cryptocurrencies.

Ce résumé expose les affirmations des auteurs. BNTIC ne l’interprète pas comme une validation indépendante des résultats.