Are shielded transactions really exposed on @Zcash? @Arkham recently announced on-chain monitoring for Zcash. This was highlighted to contain both shielded and transparent on-chain transactions. 𝘐𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘦, 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘢𝘤𝘺 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦? —------------------------------------ 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐓𝐨 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐍𝐞𝐰𝐬 Overall sentiment is questioning the privacy narrative, but there is a strong counter-narrative emphasizing that shielded transactions remain private. Privacy researchers have viewed Arkham’s announcement as misleading. 𝘔𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘦, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘡𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘩 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘺, @𝘡𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘰 𝘩𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘭 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘦𝘭𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘥. ➢ Zcash has been built to offer privacy, and its shielded transactions are really the core of the ecosystem. When someone sends $ZEC from one shielded address to another, the system uses zk-SNARK cryptography to hide the sender, the receiver, and the amount being transferred. ➢ It’s like putting a transaction in a locked box that nobody can open, so outsiders shouldn’t be able to tell who sent what to whom. This makes fully shielded transactions very different from the regular transparent ones, where everyone can see the details on the blockchain. ➢ So even though Arkham says it is seeing a lot of activity, the key question is whether it can really track shielded transactions. 𝘡𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘩’𝘴 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘯 𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘯𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘺 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦, 𝘴𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘢𝘤𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘦𝘭𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘤𝘵. —------------------------------ 𝐀𝐫𝐤𝐡𝐚𝐦’𝐬 𝐕𝐢𝐞𝐰 𝐨𝐧 𝐙𝐂𝐚𝐬𝐡 Arkham’s data shows that 53% of all ZEC transactions have been tagged, 48% of inputs and outputs have been linked to known entities, and 37% of all balances, around $2.5 billion, have been labeled. Thus, Arkham claimed to have labeled > ½ of Zcash’s shielded and unshielded transactions. Many chads like @WisdomMatic and @0xMert_ have claimed this refers to transparent tracking instead of shielded transactions. So many questions revolve around this news. The truth still stands that privacy is freedom and optional. ...