CashShuffle’s Josh Ellithorpe announced the highly anticipated fungibility application is entering its home stretch. He’s enlisted a security audit through Kudelski Security to check the project over before offering a formal release. Greater privacy in transacting is considered among the killer apps for peer-to-peer cash, and Ellithorpe and CashShuffle are that much closer to making it a reality.

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CashShuffle is Now in its Security Audit Phase

“Getting ready for the CashShuffle security audit from Kudelski Security,” developer Josh Ellithorpe posted to BitBacker. “Can’t wait to finally release a mature privacy solution for BCH!”

Ask anyone within the Bitcoin Cash ecosystem, and you’ll hear continually about how BCH is in a real transition period. Building and innovation is going on everywhere, from address aliasing schemes like CashAccounts to physically settled futures exchanges such as CoinFLEX, and countless other projects.

In that spirit, CashShuffle is a concept many in the space see as something of a move ahead in the battle to make crypto more cash-like. CoinSpice grabbed lead developer Josh Ellithorpe to discuss where the project is now, and why this latest phase could be a real turning point.

CashShuffle is Code Complete

CoinSpice: Where is CashShuffle in terms of development?

Josh Ellithorpe: Right now CashShuffle is code complete. It will be in the next major release of Electron Cash as a default option. Shuffling will happen in the background and the user doesn’t have to do anything except click a checkbox.

Getting ready for the CashShuffle security audit from Kudelski Security, I read. Why is that important?

Because it’s good to get a security audit when your wallet is touching UTXOs in the background, and having a reputable security firm check the code also shows we are doing this in good faith and that a third party has audited our work.

We want to make sure that people have confidence the solution works, and that it was developed with high quality. We wanted this to be done before the code was ported for more wallets: that way they know what they are porting is good to go, ready for them to get involved.

We also wanted to make sure the community knew our work was really done, and that the porting efforts could start. This will take time, but our hopes are that Bitcoin.com and other wallets will build integrations once it is final and ready. Also Kudelski was one of the companies recommended by Tim Ruffing (the author of the CoinShuffle paper) that we based our work on.

How long has the CashShuffle project been in the works? Have you been involved from the start?

I have been involved since the start and have worked on it for about a year. I built the CashShuffle server. Yura, Jonald, Calin, Mark, checksum, imaginary username, and many others worked on the Electron Cash integration.

Actually a bit longer than a year. but we had some delays, and there were periods where development wasn’t going super fast. Things sped up when the plugin was stable and we decided to incorporate it directly into Electron Cash. Many other people stepped up to help us get it over the finish line. I also designed the background shuffling feature, and figured out a way to make it much easier for people to use

It seems giant. Why are so many in the space excited about it?

Well, finally we have a privacy solution we know works. Fungibility is absolutely needed for p2p cash. Without fungibility then censorship can happen. And if you build privacy into the main chain, then you have problems with regulations, and you have less liquidity on exchanges.

By making it on TOP of BCH, it allows exchanges to still easily list BCH, and for end users to get privacy benefits. Plus, the way it is integrated now, it is merely a checkbox. The user doesn’t have to do anything special. It just works. We also have a roadmap for more features, but we feel what we have now is enough to do our first major release, and to start getting more wallets onboard.

How long do you expect the audit to take?

Kudelski said it would take 3 weeks or so. The process is starting now and I am covering all the initial costs. Hopefully the community will find it valuable and contribute, but I want this to happen and didn’t want to wait any longer before getting it out there.

Depending on the results, we want to make sure any issues they find are fixed and resolved before release. So, most likely a month or so before it hits.

Is the end goal an app? Wallet?

Right now the server is an app that will be run by community members. It can’t steal funds or do anything malicious (you don’t need to trust the server like a regular mixer). The CashShuffle features will be released in the next major version of Electron Cash (desktop wallet). We are also looking at incorporating it into the mobile versions of Electron Cash shortly after release.

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