Freedom money must be encrypted money. Without financial privacy, individuals cannot be truly free to create without the burden of constant surveillance by higher powers. Nor can they build great things securely, since bad actors would always have access to their information.
Freedom precedes progress, and money is always the first lever tyrants try to seize. A free future of infinite frontiers requires private money.
Bitcoin has been a powerful innovation for freedom, but it falls short of being true freedom money. Instead of self-custody, many wealthy individuals are buying Bitcoin ETFs—ironically, because they offer more privacy than holding coins directly on a transparent ledger. Bitcoin-related kidnappings already occur almost daily, and the rise of AI will only accelerate this trend as data correlation becomes seamless.
The world of crypto has forgotten its roots. As Jameson Lopp put it:
“They were so focused on Number Go Up they did not notice the Freedom Go Down.”
Nakamoto’s vision isn’t complete without encrypted money. Seen wealth is seizable wealth. Privacy is the last 1000x in crypto.
Zcash is the only cryptographically private currency in existence. It shares Bitcoin’s core design principles:
But Zcash improves on Bitcoin in two critical ways:
Zcash has quietly rebuilt, with a pipeline of upgrades that resolve past weaknesses and expand its capabilities.
Shielded Pool Going Parabolic: Zashi
As of September 7, 2025, over 23% of supply is stored in shielded addresses. Growth is driven by wallet UX improvements: Zashi, the flagship wallet, offers a cleaner experience than Phantom or MetaMask. It supports Keystone for long-term cold storage and will soon integrate with Ledger Live under the direct oversight of Ledger’s CTO. Shielded delegation via Crosslink will add further demand.
Token Holder Voting
Years of governance disputes are over. ECC, the Zcash Foundation, Shielded Labs, and the community are aligned on the mission of unstoppable private money. Token-holder voting is imminent, enabling direct control over foundation treasury allocations.
Crosslink: PoW + PoS Hybrid
Zcash will upgrade to a hybrid consensus adding PoS for finality. Stakers will earn yield while miners secure the base layer. This hybrid model increases throughput, strengthens finality, and makes Zcash harder to attack. Here is the roadmap.
Project Tachyon: Scaling Encrypted Money
Sean Bowe’s Project Tachyon is a zero-to-one event. Historically, private ZK systems suffered from state contention and the requirement for all wallets to download all notes. Tachyon solves this with a new architecture that eliminates nullifier contention, enabling planetary scale private payments and creating a blueprint for an entirely new class of blockchains.
DEX Integrations (NEAR Intents & Maya)
NEAR Intents already lets users bridge into ZEC from any chain. Recently, Zashi added decentralized off-ramps for shielded ZEC using NEAR Intents in their app. Here is a demo.
Soon, Zashi will add the ability to swap to ZEC from any chain in a decentralized manner—making it effortless to get started with Zcash.
Maya Protocol (a Thorchain fork) has also added cross-chain swaps with major coins. Together, they make Zcash unstoppably liquid, permissionless, and chain-agnostic.
Emissions Curve
Bitcoin couldn’t sustain a price above $1,000 until after its second halving—then it went parabolic. Zcash has the same fair, front-loaded emissions curve and has just crossed its second halving. The setup is identical and Zcash will soon enter price discovery.
If you came into crypto for the ideals of Austrian economics, Zcash is for you.
If you came into crypto for Nakamoto’s forgotten vision, Zcash is for you.
If you want the sci-fi future we were promised, Zcash is for you.
If your soul demands freedom, Zcash is for you.
If you’ve noticed the decay of political institutions meant to preserve rights, Zcash is for you.
If you need to store wealth that cannot be seen or seized—for yourself and those you love—Zcash is for you.
If you dream of a grander world with the stars as our destination, Zcash is for you.
Life is too short to not bet on grand things. Zcash could be the last 1000x—and still only be the beginning. The end state is unstoppable private money at cosmic scale, giving builders the upper hand against bureaucrats. If and when this works out, Zcash could be responsible for solving aging, getting us off this planet and among the stars, and other grander things. If you want those things and not settling for mediocrity, Zcash is for you.