Zcash + NEAR: Permissionless Cross-Chain Swaps

General
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Unstoppable private money meets unstoppable cross-chain liquidity.

Zcash has been fully integrated into NEAR Protocol’s Intents stack, introducing a new type of transaction that enables cross-chain decentralized token trading, multichain abstraction, and novel AI-powered payment rails for ZEC. Starting today, users can seamlessly trade ZEC with BTC, XRP, ETH, NEAR, SOL, and more—all currently with zero fees.

NEAR Intents is a decentralized, KYC-free alternative to centralized exchanges. It offers a similar user experience while enabling individuals (and AI agents) to swap native assets almost instantly.

The NEAR ecosystem has designed Intents to improve interoperability, reduce bridge risks, and support agent-driven payment systems. Integrating Zcash with NEAR’s Intents infrastructure and Chain Signatures technology expands ZEC’s utility, enables new possibilities for proxy smart contract development, and could pave the way for shielded Orchard swaps with ZSAs.

New Opportunities For ZEC Holders

NEAR Intents provide a seamless and private way to exchange shielded ZEC for other assets. This integration allows ZEC users to transfer shielded ZEC from the Orchard pool to a T-address controlled by NEAR smart contracts, which preserves user privacy while enabling efficient cross-chain swaps. Zcash holders now have an easy and private way to swap ZEC for other popular cryptocurrencies, such as BTC, ETH, SOL, and NEAR. With Zcash’s zero-knowledge proofs, users can engage in DeFi while keeping their transaction history and financial data private.

How NEAR Users Benefit

The integration of Zcash into NEAR Intents offers users a simple and permissionless way to obtain ZEC and engage with the Zcash ecosystem. Once swapped, users can shield their ZEC with a Zcash wallet, such as YWallet, Zashi, and Zingo!, and quickly experience the power of self-custodying unstoppable private money. Optimal privacy is maintained when funds remain at rest, as they become part of a larger anonymity set over time.

Zcash functions like digital cash, enabling fast and low-cost private peer-to-peer payments. It’s also integrated with payment networks like Flexa, which allows users to spend from their shielded balance at various retailers without exposing their transaction history or prior economic activity.

Holding ZEC aligns with Zcash’s broader value proposition, driven by its scarcity—limited to a 21 million supply cap—and its unique role in enhancing financial privacy. By holding shielded ZEC, users not only protect their assets, but also help support the Zcash ecosystem and its mission to safeguard human freedom and data sovereignty.

Check It Out For Yourself

NEAR Intents Asset Swaps:

Read more about NEAR Intents:

Check out this awesome tutorial from ZecHub:

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Have used this successfully with both ETH and SOL. Please share your experiences! Also want to thank the NEAR team! :raised_hands: :hearts:

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To be honest, I had feelings of happiness and goosebumps when I read that. I hope everyone realizes what that means. No more confiscated or frozen assets from centralized swaps or exchanges. Exobritant fees should also be a thing of the past. Incidentally, such solutions make zcash independent and, above all, free it from the shackles of centralized exchanges and their highly corrupt business operations.That is exactly the way.

Thanks to everyone who made this possible. Great work !!! :raised_hands:

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And that’s finally liquid!

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I’m not able to connect my brave wallet to near. I try to push the “Connect Wallet” button, that gives me a drop-down with a list of wallets, but when I select brave nothing happens…

brave_wallet
brave_wallet724×384 19.1 KB

brave_unselectable
brave_unselectable736×493 37.5 KB

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Make sure you add an ETH or SOL wallet first!

Screenshot_2025-02-08_11-32-30

In Brave wallet:

Screenshot_2025-02-08_11-34-33
Screenshot_2025-02-08_11-34-33671×365 29.6 KB

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Maybe some functions are disabled in brave browser due to its privacy settings
but that’s just a guess.

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How many minutes does it take to withdraw? I’m waiting to receive ZEC in my T wallet. I have the hash confirmed, but I haven’t received it for a while.

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When I tested, within 10 minutes. This could be getting slammed rn, not sure.

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Captura de Tela 2025-02-08 às 4.36.50 PM

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I ask me, if I log in with an eth account on https://app.near-intents.org
who is the owner of the deposit address of zcash for example?

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Here is some documentation available from NEAR:

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Thanks, but I think I need to check it with any dev or their support channel about that.

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Decentralized non custodial swaps are a game changer. The less reliant crypto is on centralized exchanges, the more it will thrive.

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That is :100: correct !

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I had never used brave-wallet (or at least not recently), and I had never even heard of NEAR before.

Today I swapped ZEC on the NEAR DEX.

I deposited and withdrew (small amounts) across the swap.

In contrast, my CEX experiences have forced me through immoral and frightening KYC…

  • copying and distributing my government IDs
  • requiring me to explain to compliance folks who I am etc

and frequently took work-days to complete (and often just failed).

This experience was just flat better.

The fees were in the few transactions I checked around 2%.

That having been said, it was not a frictionless process and there were plenty of hiccoughs… UI fails, etc. along the way.

Thanks so much to @dismad for walking me through pain-points. On balance this was much… much… more pleasant than any CEX experience I have ever had!

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Me neither, this swap or dex must be relatively new, at least I didn’t know it either and I’m very happy about it. CEX Swaps: By the way, yes, I didn’t like this too, it was like gambling every time, you hoped that the transaction would go through.

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Could you point to the documentation / source code specific to zcash?

It would like to understand how they manage the user deposits and withdrawals to make sure that it is decentralized.

Thanks

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I’ll reach out to the NEAR team and see if they can point us to the Zcash-specific documentation and source code. In the meantime, here are a couple links that might be helpful:

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thanks… There are more than 250 repositories in there and no obvious mention of zcash.
It’d be easier with a direct ref.

Thanks

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