ZEC Down 11% as Developers Target January for Quantum Upgrade
Zcash developers are aiming to add a new signature verification method to the network in January to protect ZEC, which has fallen about 11% in a week, against quantum attacks.
According to CoinDesk, developer Roman Akhtariev said in an engineering post about the Zakura software, which is used to run the Zcash network and verify transactions, that the team is targeting January for post-quantum signature instructions. The exact date the update will be activated on the network has not yet been announced.
The plan aims to prevent an attacker from taking coins by using a wallet’s public key to forge spending authorization. To do this, the network is expected to be able to verify hash-based signatures, a method that uses a different mathematical structure designed to withstand quantum attacks when proving authorization to spend.
First step focuses on the side holding about 70% of the supply
Zcash has two different types of payments. With transparent payments, addresses and amounts are visible on the blockchain, while shielded payments keep the sender, recipient, and amount private.
The January target focuses on the network’s transparent payment side. According to a calculation based on ZecStats data from Thursday, 11.96 million of the 16.98 million ZEC in circulation, or about 70%, was in the transparent pool.
Separate work is needed for shielded payments. Zcash’s quantum recovery design also addresses the risk that encrypted payment information recorded today could be deciphered through a future mathematical breakthrough.
ZEC falls as quantum debate continues
The development plan emerged after Ethereum researcher Justin Drake warned that, in a worst-case scenario, AI could break the mathematics protecting Bitcoin and Ethereum wallets in months rather than years. No feasible attack targeting the keys to these wallets has been demonstrated yet.
ZEC closed Thursday at about $1,185, with losses of around 11% over the preceding week. Ethereum, meanwhile, is targeting December 2029 for its more comprehensive transition to quantum-resistant cryptography.
Privacy step for wallet balance queries as well
Zakura is also working on a tool that makes it harder for a server to determine that different addresses belong to the same user when checking their balances. The private information retrieval method lets the server respond without learning which record is being requested.
An experimental version of the tool is available in the “Private queries” setting in the Vizor wallet. The tool keeps balance queries private, while transparent payments remain visible on the blockchain.