Zcash makes privacy optional and proof-based: a payment can be public (transparent) or hidden (shielded, using zk-SNARKs). Monero makes privacy mandatory for every payment, using ring signatures, stealth addresses and RingCT. They also differ in supply (Zcash is capped at 21 million, Monero has tail emission) and in how they let you prove a payment to someone else.
Status as of October 12, 2026
Technical statements come from Monero's own glossary (getmonero.org), its release notes, the RandomX README, Zcash's documentation and the Halo 2 post by Electric Coin Company, all read on October 12, 2026. Where only secondary news was available we say so. This is a comparison of designs, not a ranking, and nothing here is financial advice.
The core difference: optional vs. mandatory privacy
Zcash makes privacy a choice. Every payment can use a transparent address (public, like Bitcoin) or a shielded address (private, via zk-SNARKs). Zcash's documentation describes the two address types and says transactions between two transparent addresses "work just like Bitcoin." You can see the transparent side yourself in the Zcash Block Explorer; shielded activity never appears there. Our breakdown: Shielded vs. Transparent Zcash Transactions Explained.
Monero makes privacy the default and the only option. There is no public mode: every transaction uses the same set of techniques described next.
How each coin hides a payment
Monero combines three techniques, each explained in its own glossary:
- Ring signatures hide the sender. The signature is formed from your account keys plus other outputs taken from the blockchain, and the glossary says there is no way for an outside observer to tell which of the possible signers belongs to your account. The consensus ring size was increased to 16 in release 0.18.0.0, the network upgrade of August 13, 2022.
- Stealth addresses hide the receiver. The sender creates a random one-time address for every transaction on behalf of the recipient, so only sender and receiver can determine where a payment went.
- RingCT hides the amount. The same 0.18.0.0 release added Bulletproofs+ to reduce transaction size and verification time, and view tags to reduce wallet scanning time.
Zcash uses a different idea. A shielded transaction carries a zero-knowledge proof that it is valid, so the network checks the rules (the sender had the funds, nothing was created from nothing, nothing was spent twice) without seeing sender, receiver or amount. Shielded funds live in a shielded pool; the newest pool, Ironwood, has been active on mainnet since the NU6.3 upgrade at block 3,428,143 on July 28, 2026, and Orchard is exit-only (see Ironwood status). Electric Coin Company's 2020 post on Halo 2 says it "eliminates the need for a trusted setup"; that post concerns the proof system behind Orchard, and we did not verify which proof system each Zcash pool uses today.
Side by side
| Aspect | Zcash | Monero |
|---|---|---|
| Privacy | Optional, per transaction | Mandatory, every transaction |
| Sender, receiver, amount | Hidden inside a shielded transaction | Ring signature, stealth address, RingCT |
| Core technique | Zero-knowledge proofs (zk-SNARKs) | Ring signatures (ring size 16) |
| Disclosing to a third party | Viewing key: read access, no spend authority | View key: shows incoming transactions |
| Proof of work | Equihash | RandomX |
| Supply | Capped at 21 million ZEC | No cap; tail emission of 0.6 XMR or less per block |
| Public mode | Yes (transparent addresses) | No |
Anonymity set: where the difference really shows
A privacy system is only as strong as the crowd a payment hides in. On Monero the crowd for a payment is its ring, and every transaction takes part in the same scheme. On Zcash the crowd is the anonymity set of the shielded pool, which grows with how many people actually shield their funds. Zcash's documentation notes that most wallets and exchanges exclusively support transparent addresses, which is one reason the share of ZEC held in shielded pools is worth tracking. We publish that figure on the shielded supply page rather than quoting a number here that would age.
Neither design is a guarantee. Any system can leak through user behaviour, for example by moving funds between a public and a private address or by revealing an amount off-chain, and we have not evaluated the research literature on attacks against either coin. If you want to compare the mechanisms themselves, start with the primary pages listed below.
Supply and issuance
Zcash has a hard cap of 21 million ZEC, with issuance slowing through periodic halvings (see how the halving works).
Monero has no maximum supply. Its glossary says block rewards gradually dropped until tail emission commenced at the end of May 2022, and that rewards now stay fixed at 0.6 XMR or less per block (less because of block size penalties). The stated reason is that miners need an incentive to mine as fees decline. We did not find a total supply figure on that page, so we give none.
Selective disclosure and auditing
Both coins let you share some view of your activity, with different limits.
- Zcash viewing keys grant "read access but not spend authority," in the words of Zcash's documentation, which describes this as selective disclosure that supports audit, tax and compliance needs. See Zcash viewing keys explained.
- Monero view keys let someone see incoming transactions to an address. Monero's glossary adds that outgoing transactions could not be reliably viewed "as of June 2017," and that a balance shown through a view key should not be relied upon. That date is old, and we did not check whether newer tooling has changed the picture, so treat this row as open.
Mining
Zcash uses Equihash proof of work (see how Zcash is mined). Monero uses RandomX, which its README describes as "a proof-of-work algorithm that is optimized for general-purpose CPUs," activated on Monero on November 30, 2019.
What is changing next
On Zcash, recent history is the Ironwood upgrade (live), with NU7 and the Tachyon scaling proposal still ahead: see NU7 and Project Tachyon, both labelled as proposals or plans there.
On Monero, the latest release in the GitHub releases list we read is 0.18.5.3 (October 6), a bug-fix release. Neither that list nor its five most recent releases mention FCMP++, a proposed way to enlarge the crowd each payment hides in. Secondary news sites report test-network work on it; we did not find a primary announcement with a mainnet date and do not state one.
Exchange and regulatory treatment
Both coins have faced delistings from some exchanges in certain jurisdictions over the years, tied to regulatory approaches to privacy-preserving assets generally. This affects availability more than the underlying technology and varies by country and by exchange. Always check what is available and compliant where you live. For buying routes see how to buy Zcash.
What we could not verify
- Which coin is "more private." No primary source we read ranks them, and we do not.
- Monero's ring size history before 0.18.0.0 and the research that motivated the change: the release notes we read state the new size, not the reasons.
- Zcash proof systems per pool today and any trusted-setup status beyond the Halo 2 post.
- Monero total supply and FCMP++ timing: no primary figure or date found.
- Attack research against either design: not reviewed.
Sources
Monero glossary pages on ring signatures, stealth addresses, RingCT, view keys and tail emission; Monero 0.18.0.0 release notes; Monero releases; RandomX; Zcash documentation; Explaining Halo 2.
Learn more
- What Is Zcash? A Beginner's Guide
- How Zcash Works: The Technology Behind Shielded Transactions
- Zcash vs. Bitcoin: A Privacy Comparison
Nothing in this article is financial advice.