Crypto's next phase could make privacy and post-quantum security increasingly important, according to Zcash cofounder Eli Ben-Sasson.
In a recent X post, Ben-Sasson identified two features he believes could eventually become baseline requirements across the crypto industry: privacy and post-quantum security.
Privacy has become an increasingly important topic as blockchain adoption grows, and researchers and developers are exploring post-quantum cryptography as a way to prepare digital systems for a future in which sufficiently powerful quantum computers could threaten some cryptographic schemes currently in use.
The Zcash cofounder believes that for these two features to gain traction, “Both will have to be easy to use and at a low cost.”
Ben-Sasson's discussions in recent times, as seen in his X posts, have focused on these two features—privacy and post-quantum security—following recent advancements in the crypto space.
In August, the first quantum-safe Bitcoin transaction was mined, thanks to StarkWare, a startup of which Ben-Sasson is a cofounder. The quantum-safe transaction was mined on the Bitcoin mainnet and was demonstrated to hold up against an adversary running a working quantum computer.
In a separate X post, Ben-Sasson highlighted privacy as being important for DeFi. Preparing for the quantum era remains important: according to the Zcash cofounder, the race to quantum-readiness needs to focus on two things: first, can a chain's cryptography withstand a quantum computer？ And second, what will users have to do when a chain migrates to full post-quantum security？
Zcash developments
In recent developments, shielded Zcash activity just hit a four-year high: 62,379 transactions were sent in the past week, the highest weekly total since 2022.
Zcash developers are targeting Nov. 5 to switch on NU7, the network's next major upgrade. The biggest improvement is set to be block time: the gap between each confirmed batch of transactions drops from 75 seconds to 25. The testnet activation for the upgrade is scheduled for October 6.
The main features included in the NU7 upgrade will be 25-second block spacing (ZIP-218), disabling v4 transactions, and NSM integration (ZIP-234 (alt), ZIP-235), following the poll results: preserving halvings, with reintroduction starting February 2031.
At the time of writing, Zcash was trading up 5.76% in the last 24 hours to $15.96 and up 27% weekly.