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Zcash

33 pieces · Jan 2022 to Oct 2026 · 11 flagship

Sectors

Privacy31 ZK20 L1/L29 AI3 Solana3 Market structure2

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Coverage per year

32022

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92026

Price and coverage

Zcash $ZEC

Calls: None yet
Since first piece: +928%
vs BTC: +412%
Now: $1,230

bullish thesis bearish thesis coverage, no call map, list or mentionWeekly closes in USD, log scale, as of 23 Oct 2026. Call figures turn cyan when the price moved the way the call pointed. Each marker links to its piece.

Start here · the strongest pieces on Zcash

Explainer06 Jan 2023SNARKs vs STARKs: Zcash, Mina, Dusk, Manta, Starknet and zkSyncLong explainer on SNARKs and STARKs: Zcash pioneered SNARKs, Mina uses them for a 22kb chain, Dusk and Manta apply them for privacy, zkSync for scaling. STARKs, used by Starknet, avoid trusted setup but carry compute overhead.Breakdown21 Apr 2023Manta Network deep dive: ZK privacy L1, Plonkup, MantaPay and tokenomicsResearch thread on Manta: why Zcash and Monero's mono-asset design is limiting, Manta's Polkadot parachain architecture, Plonkup proof system, MantaPay, zkNFTs, smart contracts, wallet, tokenomics, governance and team.Thesis21 Jan 2022The bull case for privacy: ZK proofs, TEEs and the projects behind themMega thread arguing privacy will become central to crypto. Explains zkSNARKs and trusted execution environments, then maps projects to each approach: Zcash, Manta, Dusk and Mina on ZK, Phala and Secret on TEEs, and Haven for private assets.

Timeline · every piece, newest first

2026 9

23 Oct 2026CYPH vs ZEC: 0.78x NAV on paper, 1.68x once the $0.001 warrants countTrackers show the Winklevoss-backed ZEC treasury CYPH at 0.78x NAV, but counting ~124M shares from $0.001 warrants puts it at 1.68x, so 1,000 CYPH equals 1.43 ZEC, not 3.08. It now trades as a miner with a treasury attached; watch ZEC per share into NU7.ThesisPrivacyMarket structure

18 Oct 2026Rektober outlook: quantum, privacy, AI, robotics, DeFi, RWA and HyperliquidDespite a weak market, he sees renewed opportunity in PQ and privacy infra, AI and robotics exposure, maturing DeFi (perps, onchain options, propAMMs), RWAs and a widening Hyperliquid ecosystem. Links his recent write-ups on each theme.Market takePrivacyAIHyperliquid

16 Oct 2026Privacy ecosystem map v2: private money, payments and programmable chainsPrivacy token map with mcap/FDV, 7d and 30d moves and distance from ATH across private money, payments and programmable chains. Notes 4.96M ZEC shielded (29.2% of supply, an ATH), Monero's FCMP++ stressnet and STRK up 193% in 30 days.MapPrivacyZKL1/L2

11 Oct 2026Privacy ecosystem map v1: private money to confidential computePrivacy asset map with mcap/FDV, 7d and 30d moves and ATH distance. Notes STRK up 99% in 7d on the quantum trade and Arcium's ARX trading 370x below ZEC and 19x below VVV on mcap.MapPrivacyZKL1/L2

23 Sep 2026Why ARX: MPC as the one privacy stack across money, compute and AIArgues Arcium's MPC covers what Zcash (no programs), Zama (FHE speed, 13-node committee) and Venice (TEE trust) each miss. ARX at $45M mcap sits 570x below ZEC and 32x below VVV, with C-SPL and Blackthorn not yet live.ThesisPrivacyAISolana

15 Sep 2026Why he added ARX: C-SPL and Blackthorn as catalystsArcium's MPC network has run since Feb with 2.5M+ computations; C-SPL and Blackthorn would tie it to private money and private AI. ARX at $33M mcap is 33x below Venice with no unlocks until June 2027; risks are C-SPL delays and fees paid in SOL.ThesisPrivacyAISolana

23 Jan 2026Recursive proofs explained: proof aggregation, Halo and Nova-style foldingA recursive proof verifies another proof inside it, compressing many verifications into one. Covers classic verify-a-proof-in-a-proof recursion and IVC or folding schemes like Nova.ExplainerZKPrivacy

01 Jan 2026The four primitives behind programmable privacy: TEE, FHE, MPC and ZKCompares TEE, FHE, MPC and ZK by trust model and cost, and argues the future is hybrid. The real unlock is institutional DeFi without MEV, private AI inference and verifiable agents, not private payments.ExplainerPrivacyZK

01 Jan 2026Programmable privacy as a leading 2026 narrativeCalls 2025 the breakout year for privacy led by Zcash and expects programmable privacy to lead 2026, pointing to ZK (Aztec), MPC (Arcium), FHE (Zama) and TEE (Phala) as the stack to study.ThesisPrivacyZK

2025 6

26 Oct 2025Five reasons to watch Arcium: MPC privacy network on SolanaLists why Arcium matters: privacy narrative gaining traction, leading MPC network, acquisition of its largest Web2 competitor, confidential compute demand across AI, healthcare and DeFi, and a Solana-first but chain-agnostic design.ThesisPrivacySolana

24 Jun 2025Namada: the multi-asset shielded pool and its valuation gap to ZEC and XMRExplains Namada's MASP built on Zcash's Sapling circuit, unified anonymity set, conversion circuit, IBC support and viewing keys, with a how-to for shielding. Argues NAM at about 3% of ZEC and under 0.5% of XMR valuation is mispriced.ThesisPrivacyL1/L2

19 Jun 2025NAM listing: Namada as Zcash on steroids at a fraction of ZEC valuationFrames Namada as a way to bring privacy to any chain and asset, valued at only 7% of ZEC and under 1% of XMR at listing.Market takePrivacy

18 Jun 2025The Ultimate ZK Infrastructure Landscape: 64 projects across 8 verticalsMaps 64 ZK projects across zkVMs, universal proving, verification and aggregation, zkEVMs, app-specific rollups, hardware acceleration, ZK privacy and zkTLS.MapZKL1/L2Privacy

13 Jun 2025Namada mainnet phase 5: shielded pool, MASP and selective disclosureLists why Namada matters as NAM becomes transferable: a single shielded pool for all assets, a unified anonymity set, MASP based on Zcash's Sapling circuit, a conversion circuit, IBC DeFi and viewing keys for compliance.ExplainerPrivacy

09 Jun 2025Why onchain financial privacy needs a multichain layer: Namada's MASPArgues privacy is a fragmented-UX problem across transparent chains and explains how Namada's MASP, unified anonymity set, shielded actions over IBC and viewing keys address it. Notes privacy guarantees scale with shielded set size.ExplainerPrivacyDeFi

2024 3

26 Jul 2024Penumbra deep dive: shielded cross-chain PoS network and private DEXExplains Penumbra as an IBC-connected shielded pool with private delegation, private governance and ZSwap sealed-bid batch auctions that reveal only net flow. Raised a $4.75M seed led by Dragonfly and is in stage 0 of mainnet.ExplainerPrivacyDeFi

05 Jun 2024StarkWare, OP_CAT and STARKs as the path to Bitcoin L2sExplains why StarkWare funds OP_CAT research: it is the one covenant opcode that enables Merkle tree verification needed for STARK-based validity rollups on Bitcoin. Adds that STARKs are transparent and post-quantum secure, and could bring privacy to Bitcoin L2s.ThesisBitcoinZK

05 Jun 2024The Ultimate ZK Landscape 2.0: zkVMs, zkEVMs, proving, aggregation and privacyLandscape of the ZK stack by category: zkVMs, zkEVMs, universal proving and verification layers, proof aggregation, hardware acceleration and privacy projects. Asks the audience what is missing.MapZKPrivacy

2023 12

17 Nov 2023The NAM economy: token utility, inflation streams and governanceExplains NAM utility (validators, shielded pool incentives, governance, public goods funding), its three inflation uses, genesis commitment of at least 20% to retroactive PGF, and the proposed Namada and Zcash alliance with a NAM airdrop to ZEC holders.BreakdownPrivacyMarket structure

14 Nov 2023Namada's mission: financial privacy as a public good and unified anonymity setFrames financial privacy as a public good and traces shielded transfers from Zerocash and Zcash to multi-asset pools. Argues Namada's unified anonymity set improves privacy over per-asset pools, especially for low-volume assets.ThesisPrivacy

13 Nov 2023Namada tech ELI5: MASP and Convert Circuit mechanicsTechnical explainer of Namada's Multi Asset Shielded Pool, derived from Zcash Sapling, covering shielding, shielded transfers and unshielding, and the Convert Circuit, which pays a shielded-set subsidy through epoch-based conversions.ExplainerPrivacyZK

02 Nov 2023Namada introduction: asset-agnostic shielded pool, Cubic PoS and the NAM roadmapIntroduces Namada, a Cosmos SDK L1 with a single multi-asset shielded pool derived from Zcash's Sapling circuit. Covers the vision, Cubic PoS slashing, MASP privacy mechanics, interoperability and governance.BreakdownPrivacyZK

11 Jul 2023Privacy stack reading map: ZK, HE and TEE primers plus leading privacy projectsArgues privacy will be a major narrative and indexes his primers on ZK proofs, homomorphic encryption and TEEs together with deep dives on eleven privacy projects, flagging DarkFi as the next one to cover.MapPrivacyZK

11 Jul 2023Plonky2 deep dive: the proof system behind Polygon zkEVMPrimer on SNARKs and STARKs, then how plonky2 combines PLONK with FRI to remove the trusted setup, support recursion, prove on CPUs and keep Ethereum verification cheap by wrapping the final proof in a pairing-based proof.ExplainerZKL1/L2

24 Apr 2023Top 5 privacy projects: Manta, Aztec, Secret, Aleo and ZcashPersonal top-five privacy list with a one-line positioning for each: Manta as a programmable privacy L1 on Substrate, Aztec as a private zk-rollup, Secret as a TEE-based Cosmos L1, Aleo as a Zcash and Ethereum hybrid, and Zcash as the zkSNARK pioneer.OtherPrivacyZK

21 Apr 2023Manta Network deep dive: ZK privacy L1, Plonkup, MantaPay and tokenomicsResearch thread on Manta: why Zcash and Monero's mono-asset design is limiting, Manta's Polkadot parachain architecture, Plonkup proof system, MantaPay, zkNFTs, smart contracts, wallet, tokenomics, governance and team.BreakdownPrivacyZKL1/L2

13 Jan 2023Privacy project map: ZK-based chains vs TEE-based networksGroups privacy projects by technique: ZK-powered ones (Aleo, Manta, Mina, Aztec, Dusk, Zcash, Railgun) versus TEE-based ones (Secret Network, Oasis Cipher ParaTime), linking prior deep dives for each.MapPrivacyZK

10 Jan 2023Aleo deep dive: a private and programmable zk L1, ZEC and ETH hybridMega-thread on Aleo as a natively private and programmable L1. Covers ZEXE offline execution with on-chain proofs, the zkCloud, a private DEX example, the Leo language, Aleo Studio, package manager and snarkOS.BreakdownPrivacyZKL1/L2

07 Jan 2023Trusted setups are fading: Halo on Zcash and Kimchi on MinaCorrects an earlier thread: Zcash's Halo proof system removes the trusted setup and supports recursion. Mina's Kimchi, a PLONK variant with bulletproof-style commitments, is also trustless and enables the fixed 22KB chain.ExplainerZKPrivacy

06 Jan 2023SNARKs vs STARKs: Zcash, Mina, Dusk, Manta, Starknet and zkSyncLong explainer on SNARKs and STARKs: Zcash pioneered SNARKs, Mina uses them for a 22kb chain, Dusk and Manta apply them for privacy, zkSync for scaling. STARKs, used by Starknet, avoid trusted setup but carry compute overhead.ExplainerZKPrivacyL1/L2

2022 3

31 Dec 2022Messari 2023 thesis on private L1s: Zcash, ETH hybrid and AleoQuotes the Messari 2023 thesis that Ethereum may not solve base layer end-to-end privacy for years, leaving room for a pure-play private L1 like Zcash or a ZEC-ETH hybrid, and points to Aleo as a candidate.Market takePrivacyL1/L2

26 Jan 2022Zero-knowledge proofs explained: SNARKs, STARKs and Manta's private DeFiCovers ZK proof properties, SNARK versus STARK trade-offs (trusted setup, post-quantum risk, scalability), then Manta's DAP and DAX private payments and AMM, and closes with a map of ZK rollups on Ethereum.ExplainerZKPrivacy

21 Jan 2022The bull case for privacy: ZK proofs, TEEs and the projects behind themMega thread arguing privacy will become central to crypto. Explains zkSNARKs and trusted execution environments, then maps projects to each approach: Zcash, Manta, Dusk and Mina on ZK, Phala and Secret on TEEs, and Haven for private assets.ThesisPrivacyZK

Often covered with

Aztec28 Namada16 Manta Network45 Arcium26 Aleo14 Dusk8 zkSync41 Monero8

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