Privacy coins explained: Monero, Zcash and Dash compared

What is a privacy coin?

A privacy coin, sometimes called a privacy-focused cryptocurrency, protects the details of who pays whom. On Bitcoin and Ethereum, every transaction is public: anyone can see the sending address, the receiving address and the amount, forever. A privacy coin changes some of that. The question to ask of any privacy coin is simple: which of the three, sender, receiver or amount, does it hide, and is that the default or something you have to switch on? A coin that hides everything for everyone by default gives every user the same cover. A coin where privacy is optional tends to have fewer private transactions, which makes those few stand out.

Monero (XMR): private by default

Monero hides all three parts of every transaction, and there is no transparent mode to fall back to. Ring signatures mix your spend with decoys so outsiders cannot tell which input is yours; stealth addresses give every payment a one-time destination so your published address never appears on the chain; and RingCT hides the amount. Because every transaction works this way, the whole network shares the same privacy. Blocks arrive about every two minutes, and received funds unlock after 10 confirmations, roughly 20 minutes.

• Sender hidden: ring signatures.
• Receiver hidden: stealth addresses.
• Amount hidden: RingCT.
• Default for every transaction.

Zcash (ZEC): private when shielded

Zcash has two kinds of addresses. Shielded addresses use zero-knowledge proofs to keep sender, receiver and amount private. Transparent addresses work like Bitcoin and make that information public. Privacy therefore depends on both sides using shielded addresses; a payment from a shielded wallet to a transparent address reveals the transparent side. Unified addresses, which start with u1, bundle a shielded receiver with optional others so wallets can pick the most private one both sides support. VeriSwap accepts transparent t-addresses and unified u1 addresses for Zcash.

Is Dash a privacy coin?

Partly. Dash runs on a transparent, Bitcoin-derived blockchain, so ordinary Dash transactions are public. Its privacy feature, CoinJoin, shuffles your coins with other users’ in mixing rounds to break the link between where coins came from and where they go. It is optional, it does not hide amounts on the chain the way Monero does, and only coins that have been through mixing benefit. Dash is better described as a payments coin with an optional privacy feature than as a privacy coin in the Monero sense.

Side by side

The short version, for each of the three coins VeriSwap supports.

• Monero: sender, receiver and amount hidden for every transaction, no transparent mode.
• Zcash: all three hidden only between shielded addresses; transparent addresses are public.
• Dash: public by default; optional CoinJoin mixing breaks the trail of mixed coins but does not hide amounts like Monero.

What a privacy coin does not do

Buying a privacy coin does not erase the history of the coin you paid with. If you swap Bitcoin into Monero, the Bitcoin deposit, its sending address and its amount stay public on the Bitcoin chain. What changes is what happens next: once the Monero is in your wallet, later transfers are private by default. Privacy coins are also no exemption from tax or other legal duties where you live.

Swapping into a privacy coin without KYC

If you already hold Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Solana, Cardano or USDT, you can swap into Monero on VeriSwap without an account or ID. The order shows one receive amount with the 0.5% service fee included, held for 15 minutes, minimum $50, and the XMR goes straight to your own Monero wallet. Zcash and Dash are available too, on their native networks.