Last month, blockchain surveillance company Arkham announced that they’re able to trace 53% of ZCash transactions. As expected, the claim was framed for maximum impact. And just as quickly, the community pushed back and called it out for what it really was: marketing spin bordering on misinformation. So why is this claim fundamentally misleading? Understanding ZCash’s Pools ZCash supports four value pools: one transparent pool and three shielded pools. The transparent pool behaves much like Bitcoin: balances and transfers are publicly visible, and surveillance is trivial. The three shielded pools (Sprout, Sapling, and Orchard) are where ZCash’s privacy guarantees actually live. ...