Bitcoin advocate Saifedean Ammous has ignited a lively debate between Bitcoiners and privacy advocates by questioning the perceived importance of privacy as a key characteristic of money. In an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph, Ammous posed the question: "How much demand is there for money that does not get debased versus how much demand is there for money that allows you to maintain your privacy?"
Ammous, the author of The Bitcoin Standard, described Zcash as a "shitcoin" and raised concerns about the project's initial launch. He pointed to the trusted setup ceremony in 2016, which was used to generate the cryptographic parameters for its privacy features.
"The whole thing is built on a trusted setup, where you have to trust a bunch of people who started the whole thing. I’m not in any mood to get into these kind of stupid games," Ammous stated.
While admitting he lacked in-depth knowledge of Zcash's protocol, Ammous also questioned whether its privacy features would limit the ability of people to trust the total supply of ZEC tokens. He remarked,
“As I understand, the anonymity benefits come at the expense of the auditability benefits.”
Zcash offers the ability to use both shielded and unshielded ZEC for transactions. Shielded ZEC transactions are encrypted and private, hiding the sender, receiver, and amount from the public blockchain. This privacy is achieved through zero-knowledge proofs, which allow the network to verify transactions without revealing sensitive details. Despite Ammous’s concerns, both shielded and unshielded Zcash pools are publicly verifiable on several blockchain explorers.
Privacy vs. Hard Money Debate
Several key figures from the cryptocurrency industry shared their views on an X post featuring Ammous’ comments about Zcash and the role of privacy in money.
So, what do hardcore Bitcoiners actually think about Zcash? 🤔
— Gareth Jenkinson (@gazza_jenks) November 27, 2025
To quote @saifedean - "Zcash is a shitcoin."
Honestly, I expected that answer. But what he said about privacy and money was even more interesting 👇
"This is the question. How much demand is there for money that… pic.twitter.com/4rDQWzcTcj
Mert Mumtaz, co-founder of Helius, described Ammous’s question about monetary debasement versus privacy as a “false dichotomy.” He stated,
“You should have money that is not debased and is private. That’s zcash. Further, you just can’t have money that’s free from the state unless it’s private. If it can be seen, it can be seized.”
Barry Silbert, founder and CEO of Digital Currency Group, commented that privacy remains a core concern for Bitcoin supporters. He said,
“I’m old enough to remember when all hardcore Bitcoiners cared about privacy. Fortunately, many still do.”
Zcash co-founder Zooko Wilcox also joined the discussion, highlighting an instance where the Canadian government tracked down Bitcoin addresses linked to striking truckers due to the transparent nature of Bitcoin’s blockchain.
X users continued to debate the merits of privacy in money and the fundamental differences between Zcash and Bitcoin.
Evolving Privacy and the Future of Money
Ammous conceded that privacy in blockchains is an evolving phenomenon. Regarding Bitcoin, he believes that some of the privacy features BTC users desire can be implemented through layer-2 protocols and platforms.
“On the issue of privacy, it’s interesting how it’ll evolve. One unpopular opinion I have is that onchain privacy is very difficult and continues to get more difficult. That’s not necessarily a bad thing because people can get the privacy they want on second layers and I don’t think it compromises it.”
Ultimately, Ammous's academic background is rooted in the belief that hard money is essential for prosperity and economic growth. He stated,
“I think people would rather have hard money that is not private, over easy money that is private. The narrative that people want privacy in their money, I think is massively overblown in order to produce marketing for shitcoins.”
Ammous added that money, by its nature, is an anti-private technology, especially in a digital world where exchanges typically leave breadcrumbs of information.
“So it’s very difficult to make money into something that is private and onchain, it’s always going to be difficult. But what people really want is resistance to debasement. That’s the thing that actually has a $300 trillion total addressable market.”
Zcash has experienced a resurgence in interest as 2025 draws to a close. The privacy-enabling cryptocurrency reached the top of Coinbase's search rankings in November, and the price of ZEC saw a significant surge in recent months, briefly surpassing $10 billion in total market capitalization.