Dash (DASH) Announces Major Update: Will Incorporate Zcash’s (ZEC) Privacy Features

Dash ($DASH) announced it will integrate a new shielded transaction infrastructure into its Evolution Chain network to enhance transaction privacy. The project aims to provide the highest level of privacy and fast finality for user transactions by utilizing Orchard technology developed by Zcash (ZEC).

The Dash Evolution team forked Zcash’s latest privacy architecture, Orchard, and adapted it to their own network. The open-source development repository, written in Rust, demonstrates Dash’s plans for a significant technical leap in privacy.

As is known, Orchard offers a more advanced architecture compared to Zcash’s previous Sapling architecture. Eliminating some of Sapling’s criticized trust assumptions, Orchard provides a more secure and flexible system thanks to Halo2-based cryptographic improvements. According to experts, Dash could be one of the rare Zcash forks actively using the Orchard architecture; since most other projects still use the Sapling pool.

According to the development plan, Dash will initially implement a “protected credit pool” structure. In this system, users will be able to lock their $DASH assets on the Dash Core chain and mint “Credits” tokens pegged to $DASH on the Evolution Chain.

These tokens can be transferred completely anonymously (shielded) thanks to Orchard technology. When users burn tokens on Evolution, the $DASH assets locked on the Core chain will be released back to a transparent address. This mechanism offers a structure similar to the shield/unshield model in Zcash.

Dash also plans to create a separate security pool for shielded token upgrades and token transfers. While this approach is similar to Zcash’s “Shielded Assets” concept, Dash states that token functionality will be designed with a more comprehensive and independent pool architecture. The introduction of shielded transfer functionality, followed by a dedicated shielded pool for token transfers, is expected in the near future.

This step could also indirectly contribute to some ongoing development discussions within the Zcash ecosystem. Shielded Labs, led by Zcash founder Zooko Wilcox-O’Hearn, is working on new concepts such as CrossLink, NSM, and ZSA (Zcash Shielded Assets).

On the Dash side, the existing ChainLocks mechanism, tokenomic elements similar to the NSM proposal, and Orchard-backed shielded token plans create technical parallels between the two ecosystems. However, a more conservative segment within the Zcash community is cautious about experimental changes at the protocol level and advocates for a more protective roadmap.

*This is not investment advice.