Bitcoin could soon get Zcash-style ‘shielded’ privacy without changing its rules
Researchers have mapped out private bitcoin-denominated transfers that run alongside Bitcoin, but the system still lacks a finished way to lock up real BTC and release it again.
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Summary
- Researchers proposed Shielded Bitcoin, a system modeled on Zcash that could conceal payment amounts, senders and recipients without changing Bitcoin’s network rules.
- The proposal would store encrypted transfers on Bitcoin but rely on separate software to verify them, meaning a Bitcoin transaction could be confirmed even if the private payment failed its own checks.
- The research remains preliminary, with no launch date or mechanism for depositing and withdrawing bitcoin, while critics also cite visible fees, higher transaction costs and reliance on a trusted cryptographic setup.
