Zcash: Shielded vs Transparent Addresses, Explained

Zcash runs on two address types. Transparent (t-) addresses look and behave like Bitcoin: amounts and participants are publicly visible. Shielded (z-) addresses encrypt everything — sender, receiver, and amount.

Most instant exchanges, including us, support t-addresses for swaps today. That's fine for the exchange leg — but your final storage should be a shielded address if privacy is the goal. Most modern Zcash wallets (Zashi, Nighthawk) make moving funds into the shielded pool a one-tap operation.

The emerging best practice: swap into a t-address, immediately shield to a z-address, and spend from shielded. This keeps the exchange leg simple while maximizing your on-chain privacy.