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While the Winklevoss twins, Naval Ravikant and Balaji Srinivasan support the adoption of Zcash (ZEC), its success could spur the Bitcoin ecosystem to push for more privacy features by rethinking the reactivation of OP_CAT, according to Eli Ben-Sasson, founder of StarkWare and a renowned mathematician who helped pioneer zero-knowledge proofs.
Zcash was inspired by Bitcoin
In 2014, Ben-Sasson and his co-authors published ‘Zerocash: Decentralized Anonymous Payments from Bitcoin’.
The White Paper was the result of six years of theoretical work. Starting in 2008, Ben-Sasson and his collaborators worked on universal zero-knowledge proof technology. Although they had no use case, they knew the technology was incredibly powerful.
Zcash has been trending on Crypto Twitter for months.
Not many people know the backstory behind the largest cryptocurrency in terms of privacy.
We talk to @EliBenSasson about the history of @Zcash and the ZK technology behind it.
Join me and @rkbaggs live! https://t.co/ZRh96OzBD7
— Gareth Jenkinson (@gazza_jenks) November 10, 2025
“We knew that zero-knowledge proofs solve two problems: scalability and privacy. They provide integrity. They can basically convince you that the right thing was done even when you’re not looking and even when you don’t see all the details,” Ben-Sasson told Cointelegraph’s Chain Reaction live show on X.
Everything changed in 2013 when Ben-Sasson gave a talk on ZK at one of the first editions of the Bitcoin conference.
“I stepped off the stage and some very influential Bitcoin OGs like Greg Maxwell and Mike Hearn came up and said, ‘Okay, where is the technology? When can we use the code?’ And I asked them, ‘Why do you need it?’
Related: Truth behind the comeback of privacy-focused protocol Zcash in 2025
These early Bitcoin (BTC) developers and proponents outlined several ways Bitcoin could benefit from the new methodology. Suddenly ZK-proofs had found their great use case.
“So we’ve been working really hard to publish something that shows how this technology can solve one of the key problems of blockchains, which is the fact that when you make a Bitcoin transaction, anyone can see the amount and pretty much figure out who paid who and how much.”
This transparency, while inherent by design, means that there is an inescapable element of transparency when using Bitcoin. ZK proofs provide a solution, but Bitcoin’s code does not allow their inclusion due to a decision Satoshi Nakamoto made many years ago.
Why OP_CAT is the key to privacy on Bitcoin
Ben-Sasson said Bitcoin could still have native privacy and infinite scalability if developers agree to restore OP_CAT, a Satoshi-era OP_Code that Bitcoin’s creator disabled in 2010.
He also noted that Zcash’s revival in 2025 could serve as a potential catalyst for Bitcoin’s push for privacy.
There are rumors going around that Bitcoin hodlers are trading BTC for Zcash 🤔🔏
Why? Because some Bitcoiners want to be able to conduct transactions with more privacy.
BUT Bitcoin can still have NATIVE privacy and scale. @EliBenSasson explains how ZK-proofs and OP_CAT hold the key 🗝️👇
We caught… pic.twitter.com/UTwb6U2hbg
— Gareth Jenkinson (@gazza_jenks) November 12, 2025
“I hope one consequence of this would be that the Bitcoin community will be more open to things like OP_CAT and OP_STARK so that they can have post-quantum security, privacy, scale and programmability for this beautiful hard asset that is Bitcoin,” Ben-Sasson said.
“The technology is ready. All you need is a soft fork that adds nine lines of code, which Satoshi actually introduced. It’s called OP_CAT. It’s very, very easy. If there’s a will, there’s a way. In this case, it’s a very simple way to give all that good to Bitcoin itself.”
Related: Leap Therapeutics Soars 170% After $50 Million Zcash Purchase Backed by Winklevoss
Prominent Bitcoiners on social media have largely stayed out of the Zcash story, and there has yet to be a real conversation about ways to improve privacy when using Bitcoin for payments.
Cointelegraph also spoke exclusively with Gemini co-founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss at Bitcoin Amsterdam, who explained their belief in Zcash’s potential to complement Bitcoin.
The twins made headlines after announcing the launch of Cypherpunk Technologies, a ZEC-based treasury company, following the acquisition and rebranding of Nasdaq-listed Leap Therapeutics in November.
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