MIT researcher argues Zcash offers advantages over Monero and Bitcoin.

crypthub

about 17 hours ago

Privacy-Coin Debate Intensifies

Madars Virza, a researcher at MIT and Zcash co-founder, initiated a renewed discussion surrounding privacy-focused cryptocurrencies. He argues that Zcash’s shielded pool offers enhanced anonymity compared to Monero’s ring signature model. Virza suggests a shift in strategy: allocating a portion of holdings to encrypting Bitcoin transactions, reflecting evolving security concerns. This commentary sparked a technical examination of various privacy systems and their vulnerabilities.

Zcash's Technical Advantages

Virza claims that Monero’s fixed-size decoy sets create a small, attackable anonymity set. He noted that biases in random distribution can further reduce its effective protection. Zcash, conversely, employs a system where shielded transfers leverage an anonymity set comprising all previous Zcash outputs—a significantly larger and more private pool. Furthermore, Zcash’s design promotes practical DeFi integrations through atomic swaps.

Quantum Security and Future-Proofing

Virza also addressed long-term security against quantum computing threats. He asserts that Zcash, when utilizing unique shielded addresses, is comparatively quantum-secure. A quantum computer could potentially unravel Monero’s transaction graph by breaking discrete logarithms. This highlights the importance of designs that minimize on-chain metadata.