Taylor Hornby, a security engineer who leveraged Anthropic’s Opus 4.8 AI model to uncover a critical vulnerability in Zcash, has confirmed that Monero (XMR) is now on his list of privacy-focused cryptocurrencies for future audits.
When questioned on X about analyzing Monero and similar private digital assets, Hornby responded, “Absolutely! I’ll add Monero to my queue of things to audit.”
Monero, one of the largest privacy-centric cryptocurrencies, obscures transaction details by default, distinguishing it from Zcash, which offers users a choice between transparent or shielded addresses.
The Zcash flaw, discovered by Hornby on May 29, was located in the blockchain’s Orchard privacy pool. It had remained undetected since May 2022 and posed a risk of enabling attackers to generate unlimited, undetectable counterfeit ZEC tokens. Shielded Labs, a nonprofit organization supporting the network, publicly disclosed the issue and implemented an emergency fix by June 1.
Zcash’s value dropped sharply in the aftermath, falling 38% over the subsequent 24 hours as market participants reacted to fears that hackers might have exploited the vulnerability to siphon funds from the shielded pool without leaving forensic traces over an extended period.
Hornby, who was contracted by Shielded Labs in April to identify protocol weaknesses proactively, emphasized his ethical stance, stating he reported the flaw rather than exploiting it due to his close relationship with the Zcash development team and an inability to accept such a betrayal.
He plans to seek funding for ongoing research through a Zcash coinholder grant proposal.
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