What are Shielded Addresses?
Shielded addresses is a privacy feature added to your traditional wallet addresses, allowing you to keep your on-chain activity more confidential. When you use shielded addresses, details like your transaction history, wallet balance and who you’re interacting with are hidden from the general public.
What are Shielded Transactions?
Shielded transactions are any transactions that go to a shielded address, regardless of the origin address. The details of these transactions, such as addresses and transfer amount, are encrypted and stored on the blockchain. To see which transactions are shielded, please have a look at the table below.
From Address | To Address | Type of Transaction |
Transparent Address | Transparent Address | Transparent |
Transparent Address | Shielded Address | Shielded |
Shielded Address | Transparent Address | Transparent |
Shielded Address | Shielded Address | Shielded |
How do Shielded Transactions work?
Shielded transactions protect your data through advanced encryption and cryptographic protocols like zk-SNARKs (Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Arguments of Knowledge), or zero-knowledge proofs in simpler terms. These proofs allow someone to verify that a transaction is valid without revealing private details like who sent it, who received it, or how much was sent. In transparent crypto transactions, all that information is publicly visible on the blockchain. With shielded transactions, those details stay hidden while the network can still confirm everything is legitimate. You get the same security and the trust of blockchain, with your privacy fully protected. For more information about how shielded transactions and the zk-SNARKs protocol, please consult the articles below.
What is Sapling?
Sapling was introduced by the Zcash team, and it is what powers the shielded addresses and transactions. Sapling is using two keys for each address. The first is your normal “spending key”, which you might know as your private key. Using this key you can send tokens into and out of your wallet. The second key here is the “viewing key”. This key is used to decrypt the transaction details of the transaction coming into or going out from the wallet. For more information about Sapling, please refer to the site below.
Why Use Shielded Transactions?
Shielded transactions are great when you want to:
Keep your financial activity private.
Separate personal and public on-chain activity.
Interact securely with dApps or protocols that support privacy features.
ZCash on Infinex
You can easily deposit ZEC from your native Zcash address directly into your Infinex account. On Infinex, you can also buy, sell, or trade ZEC through Swidge for a smooth trading experience. Additionally, you can send ZEC to native transparent addresses on the Zcash network.
⚠️ Support for shielded sends is currently in development and will be available to all users soon.