Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has shared a detailed and balanced take on Zcash, acknowledging its legacy while pointing out the challenges it faces today.
Speaking in a recent discussion highlighted by The Rollup, Hoskinson described Zcash as one of the “OGs of OGs” in crypto, crediting it for pioneering privacy-focused cryptography that is now being used in newer systems like Midnight. He also noted the strong principles behind the project, calling its team “cypherpunks at their core” and emphasizing mutual respect between builders in the space.
“The biggest issue right now, Zcash is not programmable, and so it’s a fixed-function ledger. And so they do have a path to it. They created a framework called ZEXE for that, and they’ve been doing amazing things, but we’re the first to market right now with programmable Zcash, you know?”
However, he pointed out a valid limitation—Zcash is still largely a fixed-function ledger, meaning it lacks programmability compared to modern blockchain platforms. While frameworks like ZEXE aim to address this, newer projects are already moving faster in that direction.
Liquidity Problem & The Dual-Token Fix
The bigger concern? Liquidity.
“The big thing that Zcash has to contend with is liquidity, because if you look at where regulation is going, protocol-level privacy, where the asset is shielded by default, that is having a harder and harder time getting listed on exchanges, you know?”
As regulations tighten globally, privacy coins with shielded-by-default features are finding it harder to get listed on exchanges. This has led to declining liquidity rather than growth, making long-term adoption more difficult.
Hoskinson explained that this is not about the quality of the technology, but rather how regulation is shaping market access. Each cycle, the pressure increases, and fully private assets face more resistance.
Here’s how it works in simple terms:
- A public token behaves like Bitcoin or ADA, making it easy to list and trade
- A private token is used for computation and privacy
To work around this, he pointed to the dual-token model as a practical solution. In this approach, one public token behaves like Bitcoin or Cardano for exchange listings, while a separate private token handles confidential transactions and computation.
According to him, this structure offers a middle ground, preserving privacy while staying compliant enough for broader adoption.