The cryptocurrency community on X has seen prominent figures advocating for the adoption of Zcash, particularly as privacy becomes increasingly threatened by governments and regulators. While figures like the Winklevoss twins, Naval Ravikant, and Balaji Srinivasan express strong conviction for Zcash (ZEC) adoption, its success could potentially inspire the Bitcoin ecosystem to enhance its privacy features. This could be achieved by revisiting the reactivation of OP_CAT, according to Eli Ben-Sasson, founder of StarkWare and a renowned mathematician who helped pioneer zero-knowledge proofs.
Zcash's Origins and Inspiration from Bitcoin
In 2014, Ben-Sasson and his co-authors published "Zerocash: Decentralized Anonymous Payments from Bitcoin." This white paper was the culmination of six years of theoretical work. Beginning in 2008, Ben-Sasson and his collaborators had been working on general-purpose zero-knowledge proof technology. Although they did not initially have a specific use case, they recognized the immense power of this technology.
Zcash has been trending on Crypto Twitter for months.
— Gareth Jenkinson (@gazza_jenks) November 10, 2025
Not many know the backstory behind the biggest cryptocurrency in the privacy space.
We're chatting to @EliBenSasson about the history of @Zcash and the ZK tech behind it.
Join me and @rkbaggs live!https://t.co/ZRh96OzBD7
"We knew zero-knowledge proofs solve two problems: scalability and privacy. They offer integrity. They basically can convince you that the right thing has been done, even when you’re not watching and even when you don’t actually see all the details," Ben-Sasson stated during a Cointelegraph Chain Reaction liveshow on X.
Everything changed in 2013 when Ben-Sasson delivered a presentation on ZK technology at an early Bitcoin conference. He recalled, "I got off the podium and a bunch of very influential Bitcoin OGs, like Greg Maxwell and Mike Hearn, came up and said, ‘Okay, where’s the tech? When can we use the code?’ And I asked them, ‘Why do you need it?’"
These early Bitcoin (BTC) developers and advocates identified several ways Bitcoin could benefit from this new methodology. Suddenly, ZK-proofs found their critical use case. Ben-Sasson explained, "So we worked very diligently on publishing something that displays how this technology can solve one of the most important problems of blockchains, which is the fact that when you’re doing a Bitcoin transaction, everyone can see the amount, can pretty much figure out who paid whom and how much."
This inherent transparency in Bitcoin, while by design, means that there is an inescapable element of visibility when conducting transactions. ZK-proofs offer a potential solution, but Bitcoin's current codebase does not permit their inclusion due to a decision made by Satoshi Nakamoto years ago.
OP_CAT: The Key to Enhancing Privacy on Bitcoin
Ben-Sasson believes that Bitcoin can still achieve native privacy and infinite scalability if developers can reach an agreement to reinstate OP_CAT. OP_CAT is an OP_Code from the Satoshi era that Bitcoin's creator disabled in 2010.
He also suggested that Zcash's resurgence in 2025 could potentially serve as a catalyst for Bitcoin's own push for greater privacy.
There have been whispers of Bitcoin hodlers swapping BTC for Zcash 🤔🔏
— Gareth Jenkinson (@gazza_jenks) November 12, 2025
Why? Because some Bitcoiners want to be able to transact with more privacy.
BUT Bitcoin can still have NATIVE privacy and scale. @EliBenSasson explains how ZK-proofs and OP_CAT hold the key 🗝️👇
We caught… pic.twitter.com/UTwb6U2hbg
"I hope that one consequence of this would be that the Bitcoin community becomes more open to things like OP_CAT and OP_STARK so that it can have post-quantum security, privacy, scale and programmability for this beautiful hard asset that is Bitcoin," Ben-Sasson expressed.
He further elaborated, "The technology is ready. All you need is a soft fork that adds nine lines of code, which Satoshi actually introduced. It’s called OP_CAT. It’s very, very easy. If there’s a will, there’s a way. In this case, it’s a very simple way to give all of that goodness to Bitcoin itself."
Despite these potential advancements, prominent Bitcoin figures on social media have largely remained silent on the Zcash narrative, and there has been little substantive discussion about improving privacy for Bitcoin payments.
Cointelegraph also spoke exclusively with Gemini co-founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss at Bitcoin Amsterdam. They shared their perspective on Zcash's potential to complement Bitcoin. The twins recently made headlines by announcing the launch of Cypherpunk Technologies, a ZEC-based Treasury Company, following their acquisition and rebranding of Nasdaq-listed Leap Therapeutics in November.