Horizen (ZEN) to no longer be a privacy coin

• Horizen is removing privacy from mainchain shielded pools
• ZEN will no longer be a privacy coin when the deprecation is activated.
• The upcoming deprecation of the Horizen mainchain shielded pools comes after the adoption of ZenIP 42204

Horizen is going ahead with plans to remove support for shielded transactions on the mainchain, a move that will see the native ZEN token no longer considered a privacy coin.

The blockchain platform announced on Wednesday that an upcoming deprecation of the mainchain shielded pools will proceed after the community approved ZenIP 42204. The change is expected to activate via a hard fork and will see shielded transactions with transparent inputs prevented at the consensus level.

The deprecation of #Horizen mainchain shielded pools means privacy features will be removed from the Horizen main blockchain at the consensus level. This means $ZEN will no longer be a privacy coin after this change. Learn more about this upcoming change: https://t.co/HSno4RJaqO pic.twitter.com/GbMMrX9T48

— Horizen (@horizenglobal) June 27, 2023

“After the deprecation of mainchain shielded pools, all privacy features will be removed from Horizen main blockchain at the consensus level. This also means ZEN will no longer be a privacy coin after this change,” the announcement read.

Horizen explains deprecation

According to the Grayscale-backed layer 0 blockchain platform, the deprecation is being taken as a step to driving sustainable and growth for the ecosystem while mitigating against regulatory threats.

The goal is to ensure privacy technology is handled the right way, with the topic a hot one and which continues to impact the leading privacy-focused coins Monero (XMR), Zcash (ZEC) and Dash (DASH).

Horizen also notes that its shielded transactions rely on Sprout, an “outdated” privacy technology by ZCash. With the original Zcash release deprecated for sapling and blossom, the platform suggests its move allows it to improve and innovate.

Timelines for the removal of the mainchain shielded pools are put around August 2023 for the testnet and September 2023 for the mainnet.