JPaq on Nostr: ZEC 👎 Here's 10 reasons why. 1. Privacy is not inherent to every transaction. ...

ZEC 👎

Here's 10 reasons why.

1. Privacy is not inherent to every transaction.

Zcash supports transparent and shielded transactions. That flexibility helps exchange compatibility, but it also fragments the anonymity set and means simply "using Zcash" doesn't necessarily mean you're private. As recently as 2026, ZODL noted that less than 11% of supply was shielded at that point.


2. The Orchard vulnerability was a serious black eye.

In 2026, researchers disclosed a critical flaw involving the Orchard shielded pool. The disturbing part is that because of Orchard's privacy properties, researchers cannot currently cryptographically prove that the vulnerability wasn't exploited before it was fixed. Work is underway on mechanisms to verify supply integrity. For a monetary asset, uncertainty around counterfeitability is a big deal.


3. Zcash's cryptography is much more complex than Bitcoin's.

ZK proofs are extremely powerful, but complexity creates additional implementation and cryptographic risk. Bitcoin's monetary verification model is comparatively simple. Zcash's history, including the Orchard issue, demonstrates that sophisticated cryptography expands the attack surface.


4. Historical trusted setups still matter.

Orchard transactions do NOT require a trusted setup. NU5 introduced Halo specifically to eliminate that requirement.

However, older Sprout/Sapling pools used Groth16 trusted setups, where compromise of the secret setup material could theoretically permit counterfeit proofs. So saying "Zcash requires a trusted setup" today is outdated, but trusted-setup legacy risk hasn't vanished entirely.


5. The development-funding model weakens the "neutral money" narrative.

Bitcoin sends all newly issued BTC to miners. Zcash has historically diverted part of block issuance toward development. Under the post-NU6 structure, 20% of block rewards are still allocated through development-funding mechanisms rather than miners.

You can argue that's good for development, but from a hard-money perspective it's much harder to defend than Bitcoin's model.


6. Governance has been messy.

Zcash has had substantial arguments over funding, governance, ECC, Bootstrap, the Zcash Foundation, and who should control development resources. The 2025–26 period included particularly serious disputes and organizational restructuring.

Bitcoin's lack of a formal governing organization is frustrating sometimes, but it's also one of its strongest properties.


7. Zcash has a relatively small user and transaction base.

Privacy systems become more useful as more people use them. Zcash has significantly less adoption and transaction activity than Bitcoin, while Monero has established a stronger position specifically for private payments.


8. Monero has a cleaner privacy proposition.

Monero basically says: transactions are private. Period.

Zcash says: you can transact transparently or privately.

Zcash arguably has more advanced selective-disclosure capabilities, but Monero's mandatory privacy creates a simpler user model and forces everyone into the privacy set.

If your sole criterion is censorship-resistant private money, that's a meaningful advantage for XMR.


9. ZEC has weaker network effects than BTC and weaker privacy-coin mindshare than XMR.

Bitcoin dominates hard money/store-of-value. Monero dominates the "private digital cash" narrative.

That leaves Zcash fighting for an awkward middle position: Bitcoin-like monetary policy plus advanced privacy technology.

Technically interesting doesn't automatically translate into network effects.


10. It still hasn't proven that superior privacy technology creates durable monetary demand.

Zcash launched in 2016. That's plenty of time for the market to understand the technology. Yet BTC overwhelmingly dominates as digital hard money, and XMR has historically captured much of the privacy-money use case.

Zcash therefore still has to demonstrate that its cryptographic advantages translate into lasting adoption rather than simply impressive technology.