Privacy-focused cryptocurrency It has recently risen in price, prompting multiple blockchains to integrate the token into their ecosystems.
On October 16, Solana, the world’s second-largest smart contract platform, launched wrapped ZEC via the Zolana bridge. However, these packaged tokens function as standard Solana Program Library (SPL) tokens and do not offer the privacy protections inherent to native Zcash. They are backed 1:1 by native ZEC, but do not hide balances or transaction data.
Encifher addresses this limitation by repackaging tokens into encrypted assets like eZEC, enabling private encrypted exchanges on Solana using state-of-the-art fully homomorphic encryption (FHE). This technology ensures that sensitive transaction information remains hidden, restoring ZEC’s native privacy to the fast Solana network.
“For ZEC to be truly private on Solana, it must be re-wrapped into encrypted assets like eZEC, where balances and transfers are hidden, but can be composed with Solana DeFi. This is how the original vision of ZEC, asset-level privacy, can truly live on Solana,” Encrypto.trade, Encifher’s social media manager, said in a post on X.
Encifher uses powerful encryption to hide user balances and transfer details on-chain. Transactions are protected and validated using zero-knowledge proofs, while sensitive data remains accessible only to authorized parties using threshold decryption protocols.
This approach encrypts customer balances with ElGamal threshold encryption and stores the encrypted data off-chain in a secure data availability layer, while the Solana blockchain handles cryptographic pointers to these balances without exposing the actual values.
Think of EIGama encryption as a treasure chest that opens only when a certain number of trusted friends come together with their own special keys. This means that no friend can access the chest alone, ensuring greater security.
The setup allows users to hold and transfer encrypted ZEC tokens confidentially, effectively transforming Solana’s public blockchain into a privacy-preserving environment that remains fully compatible with decentralized finance applications. The system prevents transaction linking and address reuse by employing ephemeral accounts that exist only for one transaction lifecycle, making analysis by third parties effectively impossible.
So with Encifher, Solana users get a means to recapture ZEC’s original promise of asset-level privacy on a blockchain known for its speed and low cost, bringing together the best of both worlds.
Encifher’s privacy-preserving features have been implemented on top of Jupiter, Solana’s main decentralized exchange, allowing users to exchange encrypted tokens while preserving their privacy.
ZEC price has risen 380% to $375 this month, CoinDesk data shows. According to some observers, the strong rally has been catalyzed by the impending ZEC halving, the debut of Grayscale ZEC Trust and the listing of Hyperliquid.
