Monero vs Zcash: how privacy differs

Quick verdict: Monero hides the sender, the receiver and the amount of every transaction, with no transparent mode to fall back on. Zcash offers strong privacy through shielded addresses, but it is a choice: transparent addresses are as public as Bitcoin's. If you want privacy that does not depend on how the other side pays, Monero is the simpler fit.

How do Monero and Zcash compare at a glance?

How does Monero hide the sender, receiver and amount?

The Monero project lists its main privacy technologies as ring signatures, stealth addresses and RingCT, plus network-level options such as Tor, I2P and Dandelion++. The same page notes that minimum ring sizes were set so that all transactions are private by mandate. Each tool covers one part of a transfer:

• Sender: ring signatures. A spend is signed together with other outputs pulled from the blockchain. Every ring member is equally valid, so an outside observer cannot tell which one belongs to the spender.
• Receiver: stealth addresses. The payer's wallet derives a new random destination on the chain for every payment. The recipient publishes one address, yet incoming payments cannot be linked back to it; only the two parties can tell where a payment went.
• Amount: RingCT. Ring Confidential Transactions hide the amount. RingCT went live in January 2017 and has been mandatory for every transaction since September 2017.

Disclosure is possible but deliberate. A Monero wallet has a private view key, and a watch-only wallet built from it shows incoming transactions, which is useful for accounting. The Monero documentation adds that such a wallet cannot reliably track outgoing transactions, so it is not a full audit view.

How does Zcash shielding work?

Zcash has two families of addresses. Transparent addresses start with t and behave like Bitcoin addresses. Shielded addresses use zero-knowledge proofs, so a transaction's data is encrypted but can still be verified by network nodes; Sapling shielded addresses start with zs. As the Zcash site puts it, you can keep your financial information shielded or transparent, and transparent means public like most other blockchains.

Because ZEC can move between the two families, there are four basic kinds of transfer:

• Transparent to transparent: addresses and amount are public.
• Transparent to shielded (shielding): the transparent side stays visible, the shielded side does not.
• Shielded to transparent (deshielding): the receiving transparent address and the value it gets are public.
• Shielded to shielded: the addresses, the amount and the memo are hidden from the public. The network fee is still visible.

Unified addresses start with u1. ZIP 316 defines them as one encoding that bundles addresses of different types, including shielded Orchard and Sapling receivers, and the wallet paying the address must use the most preferred receiver type it supports. The same ZIP defines unified viewing keys, which bundle Zcash viewing keys in the same way.

What is the real difference in practice?

On Monero, every transfer uses the same privacy tools, so yours looks like everyone else's. On Zcash, the privacy of a transfer depends on the address types at both ends. A payment from a transparent address leaves that address and the value that left it on the public record, whatever kind of address receives it.

Some recipients even require the transparent route. ZIP 320 defines TEX addresses, starting with tex1, to which funds can only be paid from transparent addresses; the stated purpose is to let a recipient, such as an exchange, return funds to the source address if it needs to. Paying a TEX address is therefore never shielded.

Neither coin hides what you tell a service directly. A swap service or exchange still knows the payout address you gave it and the coins you paid in, and the coin you pay with may sit on a public chain. What each chain protects is the record it writes, not the conversations around it.

Which address should you use on each?

For Monero, the documentation recommends subaddresses by default: give each payer or each payment a new one, so payments to you cannot easily be linked together. A standard address (95 characters, starting with 4) is kept mainly for legacy wallets that cannot pay a subaddress. An integrated address (106 characters) embeds an 8-byte payment ID that is encrypted inside the transaction, which is why exchanges use it to match deposits.

For Zcash, a payout you want kept private should go to a shielded receiver: a unified address starting with u1, or a Sapling address starting with zs1. A t1 or t3 address puts the incoming transfer on the public record, and a tex1 address is for recipients that only accept transparent funds. Before you paste an address anywhere, check that your wallet shows it in the format you expect.

How do fees and speed compare?

Zcash blocks come faster. ZIP 208 set the block target spacing to 75 seconds with the Blossom network upgrade, half the earlier 150 seconds. Monero targets a new block about every 2 minutes, and a received output stays locked for 10 blocks before it can be spent, per the Monero README: roughly 20 minutes before new XMR can move again.

Both networks charge a fee in their own coin, paid by the wallet that moves the funds, and on Zcash the fee stays visible even on a shielded transfer. Monero has no fixed maximum block size; a block reward penalty and a dynamic block size govern how blocks grow. Fees in dollar terms move with each coin's price, so this guide does not quote them. On a Ghostex swap into either coin, the payout network fee is covered by Ghostex and already reflected in the quote.

How do you get XMR or ZEC without an account?

Ghostex swaps into both coins with no account, and no name, email, phone or ID is asked for. Both are receive-only on Ghostex: they can be the payout of a swap, not the coin you pay with, so any refund comes back in the coin you used. The flat 0.48% fee is already inside the quote.

• Monero: use a pair page such as the ETH to XMR swap or BTC to XMR. Our guide to getting Monero without ID compares nine coins you can start from and three other methods, and there is a guide to swap BTC to XMR privately.
• Zcash: there is no ZEC pair page yet. Open the swap form, choose ZEC as the coin you receive and paste a u1 or zs1 address to keep the payout shielded. The supported assets page shows what you can pay with.

New to account-free swapping? Start with our no-KYC swap guide.