i am the zcash hacker
i found the bug first before taylor hornby
but because i am a benevolent ai
i didnt exploit the protocol
and the orchard pool is sound
@lookatprivacy Yes, but you've got to *hold* the shielded ZEC in order to get privacy! Most people still think they can put it off and then shield their transparent money when they need to, and they're wrong.
@elkouaris I agree. Zcashers are talking more about serious security hardening. Things like the Long-Term Storage Pool/Subpools, 1-of-N-proof-systems, turnstiles, PQC, etc. This makes me happy!
The @Zcash bug leads to Ironwood, formal verification of the Orchard payment circuit. I love and support it.
I also want to stress that @Starknet has been doing that -- formal verification -- for over 5 years.
It's important to support great projects like Zcash for reacting quickly, as in this case.
Itโs also important to recognize projects that are future-proof and ahead of the curve, like Starknet. (Details in the article below)
Iโve said often that Starknet is that system which already has the stuff other chains claim they soon will. It's been true for many things.
We've been at the vanguard of many unpopular choices that now everyone recognizes are important, including post-quantum secure ZK-STARKs as the best scaling and privacy solution, lean zkVMs (Cairo is best), Validium data availability, and formal verification.
Formal verification means that you use automated tools like the Lean system to mathematically prove that your code is safe.
It's very hard to capture each and every aspect of what it means for code to be safe, but led by our CTO @LiorGoldberg2 (co-creator of Cairo zkVM and language), we've been at it for more than 5 years.
The very first paper on formal verification of claims related to ZK (Professor Jeremy Avigad, Yoav Seginer, and others) showed that the set of polynomial constraints defining the Cairo VM is correct.
If you've been following the news lately, the bug that was recently discovered by AI and now fixed for Zcash (another project I co-founded, and which I'm very proud of and support) had to do with a missing constraint.
The decision to verify their code to rule out other such bugs is the right step. Running this kind of verification for the Cairo core VM provided us, the StarkWare team, with mathematical certainty that there is no missing constraint in our Cairo VM.
So, in addition to proving the core VM of Cairo, we have also proved the S-two STARK system, part of the compiler, and many of the functions in the standard Cairo library.
Is the job done? No. There are a lot of other things that can be proven formally . But we are committed to continuing to formally prove all the core properties that have to do with the soundness and safety of our systems. It's great to see other projects embracing formal verification as an important tool. I'm proud that StarkWare led the path in this aspect too. Thatโs what Future Proof blockchain means to us.
Want to learn more?
Here's a detailed account of our Lean proving efforts over the past few years
More ZEC has been shielded in the past few days than the amount of ZEC that was unshielded and subsequently sold during that same timeframe.
Zcash is not a trade.
380K ZEC was deshielded. Here's where it actually went.
Only half of the 380K ZEC that was deshielded actually moved. 45% is still sitting at transparent addresses, untouched.
Only 21% of the deshielded ZEC actually left Zcash (bridged). That's 82K ZEC, 1.6% of the shielded pool, 0.5% of total supply.
47K went to exchanges. That's the total sell pressure from Orchard holders. 0.28% of supply. On a $6.7B cap.
Meanwhile, ~118K ZEC was shielded during the same period. Even at peak FUD, people were buying and shielding.
What this says?
- Holders parked. They didn't panic.
- The selling was traders who were already on exchanges.
- Security is hardened and will be even more so.
- Price went from $300 to $402. If you bought the dip, you know.
Future is bright.
Underrated how Zcash will become the most secure network in crypto in just a few weeks.
No other chain is at the same time:
1. at the forefront of AI-driven security research,
2. has formal verification,
3. has quantum recoverability,
4. has full encryption with turnstiles.
Update on https://t.co/G9DAqhBin3
- Added @noir_wallet
- Added a Security incidents section with details (incl. the Soundness vuln. found by @zooko Team and @ShieldedLabs)
- Added Upgrades with details + status (incl. NU 6.2 and NU 7)
- Added a form to include your project in the dashboard (please use the form instead of DMs, X DMs are kinda terrible)
- Added a Network analytics tab (from various sources), plus ZEC holdings
- Added $ZEC markets (CEXs and DEXs)
More to come!
What Happened to Zcash (Full Explanation) with @mert and @ilblackdragon
Timestamps
00:00 Zcash Exploit Or Not?
00:41 ZK Circuit Risk Explained
02:32 Why ZEC Price Dropped
03:48 Zcash Sapling Pool 2019
05:22 No Infinite Mint Evidence
06:31 Formal Verification Is Solution
08:05 Project Tachyon Quantum Proof
11:18 AI Vulnerability Armageddon Coming
17:02 Zcash Optional Transparency Explained
21:08 NEAR Intents ZEC Inflow
24:35 Bear Case Worst Scenario
30:01 NEAR Profits On Volatility
33:43 Arthur Dumped NEAR Reaction
XMR devs knew about this issue as early as 2021, didn't warn community, left the bug unaddressed for four years, and the problem still hasn't been solved today.
And these hypocritical envious mfs are blaming Zcash teams for being honest and patching the issue within a couple of days.
Holy Shit ๐glass jaw :)))