Monero and Zcash are the two best-known privacy coins, but they take opposite approaches to one question: should privacy be automatic or a choice? Monero makes privacy mandatory on every transaction, so everyone is private by default. Zcash makes it optional, letting you send either a private or a public transaction.
That single design decision drives almost every other difference between them. This guide explains how each one hides your activity, why "mandatory" versus "optional" matters for privacy and fungibility, and which model fits which need. It stays neutral, because neither is simply better.
Monero vs Zcash: the core difference
The single biggest difference is when privacy applies. On Monero, every transaction is private, with no way to turn it off, so all users share the same protection. On Zcash, privacy is optional: you can send a shielded, private transaction or a transparent, public one. The Monero project itself describes Zcash as selectively transparent (source: Monero project, what is Monero).
A simple way to picture it is the post. Monero is like a system where everyone must send sealed envelopes, so no message is ever exposed and no envelope stands out. Zcash is like a post office that offers both sealed envelopes and open postcards, and you decide which to use each time. Both can protect a message very well, but the rule about when protection applies is different, and that rule shapes everything else. If you are also weighing Monero against the largest transparent coin, Monero versus Bitcoin covers that comparison.
How Monero hides your activity
Monero builds privacy into every payment automatically. It hides the sender with ring signatures, hides the receiver with stealth addresses, and hides the amount with a feature called RingCT. You never switch anything on, because the network makes all transactions private by mandate (source: Monero project, about). There is only one kind of Monero transaction, and it is always private.
Each piece does a specific job. A ring signature mixes your signature with others so an observer cannot tell which person actually sent the funds. A stealth address is a fresh one-time address for each payment, so the receiver's real address never appears on the chain. RingCT hides the amount while still letting the network confirm the math adds up. Because these apply to every transaction without exception, there is no such thing as a public Monero payment. For a plain-language starting point on the coin itself, see what Monero is.
How Zcash hides your activity
Zcash takes a different route to privacy. It describes itself as the first cryptocurrency to develop zero-knowledge encryption for private payments, a method that lets the network verify a payment without seeing its details (source: Zcash, z.cash). Zcash calls these protected payments shielded. It also supports transparent payments that are public like Bitcoin, and the sender chooses which type to use.
In practice, Zcash has more than one kind of address, and a shielded transaction encrypts the addresses and the amount, while a transparent one leaves them visible (source: Zcash, learn). Because privacy is a choice, the project actively recommends using wallets that are shielded by default, and only a portion of all Zcash is held in shielded form. Zcash launched in 2016, is open-source, and is developed by the Electric Coin Company and the Zcash Foundation (source: Wikipedia, Zcash). It is a serious, well-built project; the difference from Monero is the model, not the quality of the cryptography.
Why mandatory versus optional privacy matters
This choice has real consequences, and the first is the size of the crowd you hide in. When privacy is mandatory, every Monero user blends into the same large group, and because coins carry no visible on-chain history, none stands out as suspicious. That keeps Monero fully fungible: every coin equal to every other.
When privacy is optional, fewer transactions are actually shielded, so the private crowd is smaller and easier to reason about, and coins that moved transparently carry a visible trail. That can weaken fungibility in practice, a point explored in Monero's fungibility. It is not all downside for Zcash, though. Optional transparency means you can choose to disclose a payment when you want to, which is genuinely useful for an audit or a tax record, and it can sit more comfortably with the compliance rules covered in Monero and regulation. The trade is real: Monero maximizes default privacy, while Zcash offers flexibility and selective disclosure.
Where the other privacy coins fit
Monero and Zcash are not the only privacy coins, but they anchor the two main approaches, so understanding them explains most of the field. Many other privacy-focused coins follow the optional model, adding privacy as a feature you switch on rather than a default that always applies. Some rely on mixing techniques instead of encryption, with generally weaker guarantees.
That makes Monero the leading example of privacy that is always on, and Zcash the leading example of strong privacy that you choose. When you read about a newer privacy coin, the fastest way to place it is to ask a single question: is privacy the default for every transaction, or an option the user has to select? The answer usually tells you which of these two camps it belongs to, and roughly how private a typical transaction on that network really is.
Which model fits which need
Neither model is simply better; they suit different priorities. If you want privacy and fungibility protecting everyone by default, with nothing to remember and no way to leak by accident, Monero fits. If you value the ability to choose transparency and disclose details when needed, Zcash fits, at the cost of a smaller default privacy set.
A helpful way to decide is to think about the failure you most want to avoid. If your worry is that you or the people you pay might forget to turn privacy on, or that a partly transparent history could mark some coins as different, Monero removes that risk by design. If your worry is instead that you might one day need to prove a payment to an auditor or a bank, Zcash's ability to disclose selectively is an advantage. This is a design trade-off, not a ranking, and nothing here is advice to buy, sell, or hold either asset.
Frequently asked questions
What is the main difference between Monero and Zcash?
The main difference is when privacy applies. Monero makes privacy mandatory: every transaction hides the sender, receiver, and amount automatically, and there is no public option. Zcash makes privacy optional: it offers shielded transactions that are private and transparent transactions that are public like Bitcoin, and the sender chooses which to use each time. Almost every other difference between the two, including how fungible each coin is, flows from this single design decision about whether privacy is the default or a choice.
Is Zcash as private as Monero?
A shielded Zcash transaction is strongly private, using zero-knowledge encryption to hide the details. The catch is that Zcash privacy is optional, so many transactions are transparent, and only a portion of all Zcash is held in shielded form. That makes the everyday privacy of the network weaker than Monero's, where every transaction is private by default and everyone shares one large anonymity set. So Zcash can be very private when used carefully in shielded mode, but Monero is private automatically, without the user having to make the right choice.
What are shielded and transparent Zcash addresses?
Zcash supports more than one type of address. A shielded address uses zero-knowledge encryption so that the addresses and the amount of a transaction are hidden. A transparent address works like a Bitcoin address, where the details are public on the blockchain. Because Zcash lets you use either, a payment can be fully private, fully public, or move between the two. This flexibility is the core of Zcash's optional-privacy design, and it is why the project recommends wallets that default to shielded addresses.
Is Monero more fungible than Zcash?
In practice, yes. Fungibility means every coin is interchangeable with every other, and it depends on coins not carrying a visible, judgeable history. Because Monero makes every transaction private, no Monero coin carries a visible on-chain history, so none can be treated as tainted or refused. On Zcash, coins that have moved through transparent addresses have a visible history, which can lead to some coins being treated differently from others. Mandatory privacy is what gives Monero its stronger fungibility.
Which is better, Monero or Zcash?
Neither is simply better; they make different trade-offs. Monero prioritizes privacy and fungibility for everyone by default, which is ideal if you want protection without having to manage it. Zcash prioritizes flexibility, letting you choose privacy or transparency and disclose details when you need to, which can help with audits and compliance. The right choice depends on whether you value automatic, universal privacy or the option to be selectively transparent. This is a genuine design trade-off rather than a case of one project being superior.
What cryptography does each one use?
They use different privacy technologies. Monero combines ring signatures to hide the sender, stealth addresses to hide the receiver, and a feature called RingCT to hide the amount, and it applies all of them to every transaction. Zcash uses zero-knowledge encryption, often called zk technology, which lets a shielded transaction be verified without revealing its details. Both are respected, well-studied approaches. The practical difference is not that one is unbreakable and the other weak, but that Monero applies its privacy to everything while Zcash applies its to the transactions you choose to shield.
Does BloFin list Monero or Zcash?
This article is educational and does not track every listing. What can be confirmed is that BloFin offers an XMRUSDT perpetual futures contract for trading; to get started, you would create a BloFin account, fund it with cryptocurrency, and open the XMRUSDT perpetual contract trading page. That is a way to trade the price of Monero, which is different from holding either coin in your own wallet. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold Monero, Zcash, or any other asset.
Researched and written by the BloFin Academy editorial team with AI-assisted drafting. Updated July 2026. Sources: the official Monero project documentation at getmonero.org, the official Zcash site at z.cash, and the Wikipedia entry on Zcash. All facts were independently verified against these primary sources current as of July 2026.
This article is educational and general in nature, not financial advice. It is a neutral comparison of two privacy technologies and not an endorsement of either project. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any asset. BloFin offers the XMRUSDT perpetual contract for trading; to get started, create a BloFin account, fund it with cryptocurrency, and open the XMRUSDT perpetual contract trading page.