Crypto Without Privacy Isn't Crypto

Scale and privateness aren’t contradictory goals. ZCash developers person created a backstage integer outgo web that scales to billions of users, says Helius CEO Mert Mumtaz.

Jun 4, 2025, 4:00 p.m.

Privacy is the psyche of crypto, and without it, thing other we’re doing truly matters.

If you attraction astir fiscal sovereignty, you request privacy. If you attraction astir coordinating with others to effect societal change, oregon reasoning freely, oregon gathering a much prosperous society, you request the escaped speech of value. Freedom begins with privacy.

As engineers and scientists moving connected Zcash, we person spent years processing backstage fiscal tools that volition beryllium embedded into the aboriginal of civilization. It is nary exaggeration to accidental that our descendants volition either unrecorded successful a satellite that rests upon the foundations that we are gathering today, oregon other unrecorded successful a satellite that we neglected.

Zcash was the archetypal cryptocurrency to vessel real, beardown privateness with zero-knowledge proofs. Solving the privateness occupation with cryptography was lone the archetypal step: we needed to rapidly iterate and amended our cryptography truthful that it was applicable to tally connected phones, and put heavy into probe that would marque it imaginable to scale. Today, our innovations beryllium astatine the bosom of galore decentralized protocols.

But portion the way guardant for scaling the backstage on-chain payments is present straightforward, nary task has addressed the cardinal situation of scaling backstage wallets astatine the aforesaid time.

Most users of cryptocurrencies volition usage wallet bundle that relies connected a distant server to alteration sending and receiving payments. This helps code scaling problems by pushing bandwidth and computational burdens distant from users’ devices, but comes astatine the outgo of requiring the idiosyncratic to relinquish their privateness to distant services.

To marque our privacy-preserving monetary task a world we request a idiosyncratic acquisition that is conscionable arsenic convenient arsenic 1 that has nary privateness astatine all.

The simplest solution is to usage exotic cryptography to alteration distant servers to assistance our section wallet bundle without revealing immoderate backstage information. We’ve known that this is theoretically possible, but until precocious it seemed to beryllium impractical astatine standard — astatine slightest a decennary of caller subject away, oregon truthful we thought.

Enter Project Tachyon. With existing cryptography and immoderate clever protocol adjustments, it is wholly applicable for Zcash’s wallet bundle to synchronize with a highly progressive blockchain afloat of transactions by outsourcing the costly parts to untrusted 3rd enactment servers. The servers don’t larn thing astir your wallet and cannot adjacent archer which on-chain transactions correspond with their users.

To beryllium sure, the cryptography needed to marque this imaginable and scalable is inactive not simple. Fortunately, Zcash has a agelong way grounds of gathering and shipping this nonstop benignant of precocious cryptography. We’ve already acceptable the signifier for it successful immoderate of our caller upgrades, and with Project Tachyon we program to marque accelerated advancement deploying the remaining changes implicit the adjacent year.

I’m excited that we person specified beardown enthusiasm and alignment successful the Zcash assemblage to marque it a reality. But I’m besides relieved that we tin conscionable the infinitesimal and really physique highly scalable, unstoppable integer money. We don’t person clip to hold for immoderate much probe oregon technological advances. Fortunately, with Tachyon, we tin physique and present today.

Mert Mumtaz