The crypto neighborhood on X has actually been controlled by popular figures promoting for the adoption of Zcash as personal privacy ends up being progressively threatened by federal governments and regulators.
While the Winklevoss twins, Naval Ravikant, and Balaji Srinivasan reveal strong conviction for the adoption of Zcash (ZEC), its success might stimulate the Bitcoin environment to promote more personal privacy functions by reviewing the reactivation of OP_CAT, according to Eli Ben-Sasson, creator of StarkWare and a popular mathematician who assisted leader zero-knowledge evidence.
Zcash was motivated by Bitcoin
In 2014, Ben-Sasson and his co-authors released “Zerocash: Decentralized Anonymous Payments from Bitcoin.”
The white paper was the conclusion of 6 years of theoretical work. From 2008, Ben-Sasson and his partners had actually been dealing with general-purpose zero-knowledge evidence innovation. While they didn’t have an usage case, they understood the innovation was extremely effective.
Zcash has actually been trending on Crypto Twitter for months.
Few understand the backstory behind the greatest cryptocurrency in the personal privacy area.
We’re talking to @EliBenSasson about the history of @Zcash and the ZK tech behind it.
Join me and @rkbaggs live!https:// t.co/ ZRh96OzBD7
— Gareth Jenkinson (@gazza_jenks) November 10, 2025
” We understood zero-knowledge evidence fix 2 issues: scalability and personal privacy. They provide stability. They essentially can encourage you that the best thing has actually been done, even when you’re not viewing and even when you do not in fact see all the information,” Ben-Sasson informed Cointelegraph’s Domino effect liveshow on X.
Whatever altered in 2013 when Ben-Sasson lectured on ZK at one of the earliest editions of the Bitcoin conference.
” I left the podium and a lot of really prominent Bitcoin OGs, like Greg Maxwell and Mike Hearn, turned up and stated, ‘Okay, where’s the tech? When can we utilize the code?’ And I inquired, ‘Why do you require it?'”
Related: Reality behind resurgence of privacy-focused procedure Zcash in 2025
These early Bitcoin (BTC) designers and supporters described numerous manner ins which Bitcoin might take advantage of the brand-new approach. Unexpectedly, ZK-proofs had actually discovered their killer usage case.
” So we worked really vigilantly on publishing something that shows how this innovation can fix among the most essential issues of blockchains, which is the truth that when you’re doing a Bitcoin deal, everybody can see the quantity, can practically determine who paid whom and just how much.”
This openness, while by style, suggests that there is an inevitable component of openness when utilizing Bitcoin. ZK-proofs provide an option, however Bitcoin’s code does not permit their addition due to a choice made by Satoshi Nakamoto several years earlier.
Why OP_CAT holds the secret for personal privacy on Bitcoin
Ben-Sasson stated that Bitcoin can still have native personal privacy and limitless scalability if designers can accept renew OP_CAT, a Satoshi-era OP_Code that Bitcoin’s developer handicapped in 2010.
He likewise kept in mind that Zcash’s renewal in 2025 might act as a prospective driver for Bitcoin’s push for personal privacy.
There have been whispers of Bitcoin hodlers switching BTC for Zcash
Why? Due to the fact that some Bitcoiners wish to have the ability to negotiate with more personal privacy.
BUT Bitcoin can still have local personal privacy and scale. @EliBenSasson describes how ZK-proofs and OP_CAT hold the secret
We captured … pic.twitter.com/UTwb6U2hbg
— Gareth Jenkinson (@gazza_jenks) November 12, 2025
” I hope that a person effect of this would be that the Bitcoin neighborhood ends up being more available to things like OP_CAT and OP_STARK so that it can have post-quantum security, personal privacy, scale and programmability for this stunning difficult possession that is Bitcoin,” Ben-Sasson stated.
” The innovation is all set. All you require is a soft fork that includes 9 lines of code, which Satoshi in fact presented. It’s called OP_CAT. It’s really, really simple. If there’s a will, there’s a method. In this case, it’s an extremely easy method to offer all of that goodness to Bitcoin itself.”
Related: Leap Therapies rises 170% after $50M Zcash purchase with Winklevoss support
Popular Bitcoiners on social networks have actually mostly remained clear of the Zcash story, and there has yet to be any genuine discussion about methods to enhance personal privacy when utilizing Bitcoin for payments.
Cointelegraph likewise spoke specifically to Gemini co-founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss at Bitcoin Amsterdam, who discussed their belief in Zcash’s possible to match Bitcoin.
The twins made headings after revealing the launch of Cypherpunk Technologies, a ZEC-based Treasury Business, following their acquisition and rebranding of Nasdaq-listed Leap Therapies in November.
Publication: 2026 is the year of practical personal privacy in crypto: Canton, Zcash and more