Is ZK better than Monero?
ETH Tbilisi 02 · December 2025 · 1:53
Lucid Samuel, founder of Kage Protocol, compares Monero's approach to privacy with zero-knowledge systems on Ethereum in a brief debate clip. It touches on trade-offs between a privacy-native chain and programmable privacy built on a general-purpose platform. Recorded at ETH Tbilisi 02.
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From ETH Tbilisi 02, hosted by ETHTbilisi.
Transcript
When we're talking about privacy, we have to talk about Monero, right? So, as of this moment, why should I use ZK or Zcash instead of Monero? Why is ZK better than Monero? Can you explain that? >> Okay, great. So, um I don't think there is a better or better than I personally like Monero, but even prefer their current upgrade. the current I've forgotten the name of the new upgrade you're working on but it would make uh Monero even way better than it currently is but Monero uses mixnet which is uh basically mixing your transactions to be able to
um um remove direct pointers on you know what transactions you made or how you send money. But then the last person that came, we were talking about, you know, AI becoming way more smarter to be able to, you know, de encrypt your transactions or, you know, understand the mixes and the patterns enough to be able to like, you know, show traces. Um, while Zcash has um again that's why I said I was very biased. So I am biased. >> [laughter] >> So yeah, but Zcash has um um Z addresses which are default privacy. They also have um Z addresses which are transparent and um yeah they have fully
default private transactions. So rather than using a mixer and I understand ZK snacks it's cryptography not mixing and opiscation. I would personally prefer cryptography and mathematics protecting my assets over mixing sequences. Do you understand?