Taylor Hornby plans to audit Monero(XMR) after finding a critical flaw in Zcash(ZEC)’s privacy system. Key Points: Hornby said Monero has been added to his audit queue after questions from th
Taylor Hornby plans to audit Monero(XMR) after finding a critical flaw in Zcash(ZEC)’s privacy system.
- Hornby said Monero has been added to his audit queue after questions from the privacy-coin community.
- The move follows a Zcash Orchard flaw that could have allowed undetected counterfeit ZEC.
- The planned review does not show Monero has a known vulnerability.
Hornby, a security engineer at Shielded Labs, confirmed on X that Monero was now on his audit list, days after his work on Zcash drew wide attention.
The Zcash flaw affected the Orchard privacy pool and could have allowed attackers to create counterfeit ZEC without detection if it had remained unpatched. According to Shielded Labs and Zooko Wilcox, the bug had existed since the Orchard upgrade launched in 2022.
The flaw was found during a security review assisted by Anthropic’s Opus AI model. It was patched before any known exploitation, but the disclosure still hit market confidence, with Zcash falling by more than 50%.
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Monero remains one of the largest privacy-focused cryptocurrencies, and its default privacy model makes it a natural target for deeper review.
Unlike Zcash, which uses optional privacy, Monero hides transaction details by default through ring signatures, stealth addresses and confidential transactions. Hornby’s planned audit should not be read as proof that Monero has a flaw.
The development matters because privacy coins rely on advanced cryptography that is difficult to inspect fully, even for mature networks. A clean audit could support confidence, while any new findings could push developers to strengthen core infrastructure.
Zcash’s recent turmoil showed how quickly security concerns can affect privacy assets. The Orchard bug did not lead to known exploitation, but its disclosure still triggered a sharp sell-off and revived questions about long-term audit standards.
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