I’ve been skeptical of ZSAs. My position has been: without trustless bridges, they’re a solution looking for a problem.
But I just connected some dots that changed my thinking.
If we have trustless bridges to transparent chains (JAM EVM service, Ethereum, whatever), then “transparent ZEC” can exist outside Zcash. tZEC lives on chains that are already transparent. Users bridge there when they need transparency. Exchanges, DeFi, compliance, whatever.
This means Zcash L1 could become 100% shielded. No more t-addrs. No more transparent pool. Pure privacy.
Think about what that achieves:
- Simpler protocol, smaller attack surface
- Cleaner narrative: “Zcash is private. Period.”
- Transparency isn’t removed, it’s externalized
- Exchanges interact with tZEC on chains they already support
We’ve been debating whether to bring assets into Zcash. Maybe the bigger opportunity is pushing our own transparent functionality out.
ZSAs become interesting not because we need stablecoins on Zcash. They become interesting because the bridge infrastructure (JAM, Hyperbridge) that enables ZSAs also enables this externalization.
Has anyone explored this angle? Could trustless bridges be the path to finally deprecating transparent addresses entirely?