We were given an assignment: "write about, evangelize, and accelerate the encryption of money, the Manhattan project for privacy (Zcash), and the tech that makes it work."
Others DM'd him, so I decided to go rogue and just do my thing.
This is probably just an excuse to write an article, hehe.
Don't worry, I'll explain in the simplest of ways why yes, you should give a damn (GAF) about ZCash.
I know articles and threads on privacy can be a drag, and even I find it hard to read them until the end, but this article will probably suck less than the others.
If you get to read this, I love you; please don't block me. (Source: trust me bro). And by coincidence, @mert.
I didn't send a DM because my recent piece of work is my best. I don't necessarily believe in clinging on to my past writings, as I always learn and improve from each content I drop.
What is Zcash?
A little introduction for anyone hearing about Zcash ($ZEC) for the first time.
Zcash is a digital currency specialized in providing "privacy." It's the future Satoshi Nakamoto dreamt about for Bitcoin/cryptocurrency but likely forgot the "privacy aspects for users."
If you've gotten this far, your chances of getting screwed by the feds are near zero.
Zcash was founded in 2016 by the Electric Coin Company (ECC), led by Zooko Wilcox and a team of world-class cryptographers (giga nerds) who adapted the Bitcoin codebase to include zk-SNARKs, the first large-scale application of zero-knowledge proofs for financial privacy.
Following a decade of technical milestones and improvements, including the Halo 2 upgrade which removed the need for a "trusted setup," Zcash entered a historic turning point just this January. Here's where it gets interesting.
I'm pretty sure many of you heard or saw retardio influencers tweet "Zcash Devs rugged," "Zcash Devs left the project," "Zcash ran away with our thinking faculties and we're looking for ways to fud" 🤡🤡.
Yes, I'm very sure you all saw the tweets a few days ago, but it's not true, and you should discard that information. This is what really happened.
Amidst a governance dispute with its parent non-profit (Bootstrap), the entire core development team resigned from the ECC to form cashZ, a new independent startup dedicated to accelerating the protocol's development and scaling private transactions for billions of users. In other words, W's in the chat for the future of privacy and cashZ.
Back to the main discourse.
In the history of technology, certain breakthroughs are so significant they are named after the monumental efforts that preceded them.
Let me give you a beautiful reference: The Manhattan Project. From 1942 to 1946, the United States led a secret program to build the first atomic bomb. Over 130,000 people worked across Los Alamos, Oak Ridge, and Hanford. The cost exceeded $2 billion at the time, about $30 billion today. The project name became shorthand for extreme coordination, speed, and scientific risk. Since then, large technological pushes have been compared to it for scale and intensity.
Zcash is often called the "Manhattan Project for Privacy" because it assembled the world's leading cryptographers from MIT, Johns Hopkins, and Tel Aviv University to solve a problem once thought impossible: how to prove a transaction is valid without revealing a single detail about it.
As we move deeper into 2026, the encryption of money is no longer a niche cryptographic experiment; it is becoming the fundamental requirement for a free society.
1. The Encryption of Money
This is the transition from transparent ledgers (where every transaction is a public broadcast) to private protocols (where money is a confidential conversation).
In the early days of the internet, we had HTTP, where everything you typed was visible to anyone on the network.
So sorry for the goons back then; imagine searching up Mia Khalifa and everyone could see it 💀.
This issue was fixed with HTTPS (encryption), which enabled global e-commerce. Now, money is currently undergoing its own "HTTPS moment." Without encryption, your entire financial history is a data point (like taking candy from a baby, this time not only babies but also uncles and aunts) for hackers, corporations, and surveillance states. Encrypted money ensures that your balance, your salary, and your spending habits remain your business.
2. The Manhattan Project: Why Zcash?
Zcash was the first to successfully implement Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs) at scale. It didn't just iterate on Bitcoin; it also reinvented the math of trust.
These are lists of recent interesting inflection points: [2025-2026]
- •Halo 2 & The End of Trust: Older ZK technology required a "trusted setup" (a secret ceremony). Zcash's Halo 2 removed this entirely, allowing for a trustless, recursive proof system that is faster and more secure.
- •Ztarknet & Programmable Privacy: In late 2025, the ecosystem began moving toward Layer-2 solutions that allow for private "smart contracts." This means you can soon participate in DeFi (lending, borrowing, trading) without exposing your entire wallet to the world.
cashZ Transition: A few days ago, the Zcash ecosystem is decentralizing its development further through new entities like cashZ, focusing on mobile-first privacy and making shielded transactions as easy as sending a text.
3. The Tech Behind How It Works (ZK-SNARKs)
The magic behind Zcash is the zk-SNARK (Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Argument of Knowledge).
Imagine you were invited to a party to chill with some cool people and need to prove to a club bouncer that you are over 21 without showing your ID, your name, or your birthdate.
A Zero-Knowledge Proof is like a magical black box. Basically, you put your ID in, and it spits out a "Yes" or "No" card. The bouncer knows you are 21, but they know nothing else about you.
In relation to Zcash, this math allows the network to verify that:
- •The sender actually had the money.
- •The money wasn't already spent.
- •The total amount sent equals the total amount received.
All of this happens while the sender, receiver, and amount are completely encrypted.
If you read till the end, man, I love you more than your wife. Thanks.