I'd just like to point out to the trolls that Darksend Mixing is a passive process. To be fair, it is necessary to press the "Start Darksend Mixing" button and to enter your password if you have one, but after that it isn't necessary to participate actively in the mixing process - you can get straight back to trolling while the mixing takes place, if you think that is a productive way to spend your time.
depends of how you define passive...
You still need to have others on the network who are willing to mix with you (hence the liquidity providers).
This mixing can't be done offline for example. You need to have an active wallet connected to the network.
edit: what if I told you there are coins out there that have a feature you could define with the buzz word "InstantMixSend" :
You instantly mix when you broadcast the transaction. No need for a "dark liquidity pool" in your wallet.
To the individual who is in no hurry, mixing is passive. If there were not enough parties for the mixing to take place, it might be possible to take a more hands-on approach using 2 clients from separate IP addresses in order to speed up the process and practically guarantee that the mixing cannot be deanonymized, due to the fact that for many (or even all) of the rounds of Darksend mixing the user made up for 2 of the 3 clients being used in the mixing process.
I know that Dash hasn't reached the definitive solution in terms of anonymizing funds but I think that for most people it's more than adequate at this stage. I couldn't give two hoots about buzzwords or marketingspeak, I don't even particularly like the name "Darksend". Regardless, I don't think a privacy-oriented cryptocurrency with on-chain anonymization is the best answer either, it doesn't seem future proof to me at all. Even if I did think it were the best solution, I wouldn't know which CryptoNote coin to go for. The original, Bytecoin, is out of the equation for the massive hidden premine, and then there are the clones. It would take a hell of a lot of convincing to get me to buy any Monero again (I have held some at times in the past) due to the relentless smear campaign in this thread by what would appear to be an organized group or groups. I'm sure there are also posts from individuals with criticisms who not affiliated with any group, but there is no doubt in my mind that there is an organized campaign against Dash from an unscrupulous group of individuals somehow related to Monero. If I ever change my mind about on-chain anonymization, I will be sure to have a good look at the other Bytecoin clones first.
Dash for me is not just about privacy - although it did start off that way - but also about the solutions that it has brought to some of the problems Bitcoin faces. Fungibility, incentivised nodes, instant transactions and decentralized voting to me are all improvements to what is available in Bitcoin right now, whether their implementation in Dash is the best possible implementation or not. I see a lot of potential in the 2 tier system and I'm excited what Dash Evolution could offer in the future but I also think in terms of what is offered right now in the altcoin world, Dash is tough to beat.
