What ZEC's Privacy Means for Onchain Finance

For years, Zcash (ZEC) has been where privacy believers put their money. If you valued privacy in crypto, you held ZEC. If you wanted to use DeFi, you had to sell that ZEC for something else just to participate. zenZEC changes that. Now you can hold your ZEC, keep that belief intact, and still be productive in Solana DeFi.

In episode 9 of ZR Talks, hosted by Josh Siegler of 50T Funds, Zenrock's co-founders Adi Dave and Jack Krevitt reflected on how far decentralized custody has come and what privacy means for the next generation of onchain finance.

Why Privacy is Necessary for Everyday Finance

"It's really important to be able to have some level of privacy onchain. You don't want everyone in the world knowing where you shop or how much you're spending. That's just not how finance works."

— Jack Krevitt

With zenZEC, you no longer have to choose between your beliefs and participation in DeFi. You can keep holding your ZEC because you believe in privacy, and now you can also use it productively within Solana's fast and composable ecosystem.

"Access. You should be able to buy Zcash in your Phantom wallet for a penny and trade in and out instantly. That's what we're building for."

— Adi Dave

From zenBTC to zenZEC: Expanding the Decentralized Custody Standard

Zenrock's first product, zenBTC, proved that decentralized custody could compete with centralized wrapped assets. In just three months, zenBTC reached 74 BTC in decentralized custody, over 1,200 unique holders, and $21 million in cumulative volume.

"We view Solana as the rails and Bitcoin as the asset to be traded on. Over the next 18 months, we'll have five plus assets custody-secured as DCTs, all tradable on Solana."

— Jack Krevitt

What's Next for Zenrock?

That decentralized custody model now extends to Zcash through zenZEC, the second official Decentralized Custody Token (DCT). Built with the same dMPC infrastructure, zenZEC allows users to mint ZEC into Solana DeFi, deposit it into liquidity pools, and earn yield while maintaining decentralized, non-custodial ownership.

Custody Without Custodians

Zenrock's distributed multi-party computation (dMPC) custody network powers both zenBTC and zenZEC. Instead of relying on a centralized custodian, custody is spread across 60 validators in 22 countries, securing over 15,000 transactions on ZR Chain so far.

"The Zenrock protocol allows you to put your assets under secure decentralized self-custody. When you mint zenBTC or zenZEC, you're sending coins from one wallet you control to another wallet you control. It's not a sale or a trade, it's still your asset."

— Adi Dave

This design ensures there is no single point of failure and no central party capable of halting or seizing funds. It is an evolution of the wrapped asset model that aligns with Zcash's core philosophy of user control and financial sovereignty.

The Bigger Vision: Private, Productive, and Decentralized

Zenrock's long-term goal is to make Decentralized Custody Tokens (DCTs) the new standard for onchain assets. Each new DCT, from zenBTC to zenZEC and beyond, adds more utility, liquidity, and yield to the Zenrock ecosystem.

"Every time a new DCT launches, it adds more value to zenBTC holders. More assets, more volume, more value flowing through $ROCK."

— Adi Dave

For Zcash holders, that means a future where privacy isn't a trade-off against usability — it's a foundation for it.