A proof-of-work Layer 1 for private money
Aztec vs
Zcash
Zcash gives users a choice between shielded and transparent payments on an independent network. Aztec extends that choice to applications, with private and public smart-contract logic.
| Questions | Zcash | Aztec |
|---|---|---|
No one can stop it Independent miners, an open improvement process, and more than one node implementation. | No one can stop it Permissionless sequencers and provers run the network. Upgrades follow public governance rules with a timelock. L2BEAT assesses the rollup at Stage 2. | |
No backdoor Shielded transactions are private to the user, who alone decides whether to share a viewing key. Moving between pools can expose information. | No backdoor Private functions execute on the user's device and the network verifies a proof. There is no network-wide decryption key, no validator that re-executes private inputs, and no co-signer. Public calls and their inputs are visible by design. | |
Payments only The base protocol is private money, not general-purpose private and public smart contracts. | Private + public contracts Noir contracts combine private state and functions with public ones, and anyone can deploy them. Contracts compose on Aztec and reach Ethereum through L1/L2 messaging. | |
Permissionless to use and operate Anyone can mine, run a node, or transact under the protocol rules. | Permissionless to use, build, and operate Anyone can deploy contracts or participate as a sequencer or prover under the published protocol, staking, and hardware requirements. | |
User-held viewing keys. A user can share a viewing key with an auditor or a counterparty; the protocol has no screening or disclosure mechanism of its own. | Selective disclosure at the application and user level. An application decides which facts it proves or publishes, and a user can share their own viewing keys with whoever they choose. No protocol-wide audit key, screening gate, or operator sits in the path of a transaction. |
What Zcash does well.
Shielded payments, user-controlled viewing keys, and an open protocol developed through the public ZIP process.
The difference. The distinction is the application design space: Zcash is private money, while Aztec supports contracts that combine private and public state.
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