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The foundation of Zcash's identity is privacy. Zcash introduced shielded transactions, which completely hide the sender, recipient, and transaction amount, in contrast to Bitcoin, where every wallet movement is permanently visible on-chain.
Zcash has been researched deeply
However, new information from Arkham indicates that the situation is more nuanced than most users realize. More than half of all Zcash activity can already be identified and linked to recognized organizations, people, and entities, according to Arkham's findings.
Despite Zcash being promoted as one of the most sophisticated privacy-focused cryptocurrencies available, the platform says it has attributed about $420 billion worth of $ZEC transaction volume.
The explanation is found in the way Zcash operates. The architecture of Zcash is still largely similar to that of Bitcoin. It relies on Proof-of-Work mining, has a 21 million supply cap, and employs the same UTXO transaction model.
The primary distinction stems from zk-SNARK technology, a zero-knowledge proof system that enables transaction verification without disclosing the underlying data to the public. But that privacy is not required.
Nature of Zcash's shielded transactions
Two address types are supported by Zcash: shielded z-addresses and transparent addresses, also referred to as t-addresses. Similar to Bitcoin, transactions between transparent addresses are still fully visible on-chain. Full cryptographic privacy is only attained by z-to-z transfers, in which the sender, recipient, and transaction amounts are hidden from the public.
In reality, the shielded pool is never reached by the majority of Zcash activity. For regulatory and compliance reasons, transparent addresses are strongly preferred by exchanges, custodians, and institutional players. This makes entry and exit points visible throughout the network, which is exactly the data that blockchain intelligence companies take advantage of.
According to Arkham, shielded addresses are still opaque and only show up as SHIELDED, but the surrounding flows frequently reveal enough metadata to track user behavior in any case.
The report even focuses on U.S. governance. Zcash allegedly found in one tracked wallet was taken from Alexandre Cazes, 26 year-old Canadian who's believed to be the person behind dark web marketplace AlphaWeb, following his 2017 arrest. Additionally, Arkham identified a specific trader who allegedly transferred money to Gemini weeks later, turning a $4.49 million $ZEC purchase into a $6.6 million profit.
This does not imply that Zcash privacy is compromised. Pure shielded transactions continue to be cryptographically concealed. However, Arkham's analysis reminds us of a simple rule: privacy is more dependent on how users actually use the protocol than it is on the protocol itself.