The security researcher, who discovered the Orchard Pool vulnerability in Zcash, says he has added other privacy-focused coins, including Monero, to his audit queue.
Researcher audits Monero after finding flaw in Zcash
Security engineer Taylor Hornby, who used Claude’s AI Opus 4.8 model, revealed that he intends to audit Monero, among other cryptocurrency projects, in the near future. “Sure! I’ll add Monero to my list of things to check,” Hornby responded when he said. Ask on X Whether it can find bugs in XMR and other privacy-focused cryptocurrencies.
The Orchard counterfeiting vulnerability, which could have enabled a bad actor to mint unlimited, undetectable amounts of counterfeit ZEC tokens, has not been discovered since May 2022. Hornby discovered the counterfeiting vulnerability in Zcash’s Orchard pool on May 29 and reported it to the Zcash Open Development Lab (ZODL), which Coordinate emergency network repair By June 2.
The vulnerability’s public notice language emphasized that although there was no evidence of exploitation, given Zcash’s privacy ownership, there was no way to cryptographically confirm that the vulnerability had not been exploited during the period that went unnoticed. This impossible situation has cast doubt on the privacy feature of some cryptocurrencies, such as Monero.
Hornby explained that his close relationship with the Zcash developers and the influence of the cryptocurrency project on his life were the reasons that prompted him to do so. Detected the bug Instead of exploiting it. Additionally, the security researcher revealed that he intends to apply for a Zcash token holder grant while seeking voluntary donations to fund further work.
The discovery of this vulnerability created a level of FUD-led capitulation in the cryptocurrency market, with… ZEC lost nearly half Of its value per day. With Monero next on the list, anything less than a positive security audit report could bring a return of suspicion to privacy-focused coins and the cryptocurrency market in general.
What’s next for the privacy coin?
With no cryptographic method to confirm whether a counterfeiting vulnerability has been exploited, Shielded Labs, along with ZODL and other key stakeholders, launched a proposal called Ironwood. Ironwood is expected to enable users to verify the authenticity of ZEC’s rolling stock.
According to the proposal, users will be able to independently verify the total circulating supply of Zcash by running a node. “Once Ironwood is activated, users can check the consensus rules that no more than the correct amount of ZEC can be traded.” Initial proposal He reads.
As of this writing, ZEC’s price is sitting at around $400, reflecting a roughly 4% jump over the past 24 hours.
The price of ZEC on the daily timeframe | Source: ZECUSDT chart on TradingView
Featured image from Shutterstock, chart from TradingView
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