October 28, 2025

The Privacy Coin Surge: How Monero, Zcash, and Others Are Competing — w/ Diego Salazar | EPI 366

1 hour 52 minutes

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TODAY'S SHOW: This episode of Monero Talk features the CypherStack team — CEO Diego Salazar and mathematicians Brandon “Surae” Goodell and Luke — for a deep dive into Monero’s Full Chain Membership Proofs (FCMPs) and how they compare to Zcash.

CypherStack is a privacy-focused research and development company behind Stack Wallet. Diego handles strategy while Brandon and Luke lead the mathematical research for Monero. They discussed their contributions to FCMPs, a major upgrade aimed at improving Monero’s privacy and scalability. While critics from the Zcash community call FCMPs “unproven,” the team explained that it uses well-established mathematics, not untested theory.

They also compared Monero’s community-driven model with Zcash’s corporate structure, noting strengths and trade-offs in both approaches. Despite praising Zcash’s Halo 2 privacy tech, they argue Monero’s privacy-by-default design gives it a real-world edge.On timelines, Diego said FCMPs are “three steps from the finish line” but still tackling technical challenges. The episode ends with a candid look at funding struggles in open-source development and a call for continued community support.

TIMESTAMPS:

00:01:22 - Introductions of Diego, Brandon, and Luke and discussion about the first Monero conference in 2017

00:08:18 - Diego explains Full Chain Membership Proofs (FCMPs)

00:12:43 - Discussion about "moon math" and the comparison between Monero and Zcash's mathematical approaches

00:27:38 - Brandon begins telling the Zcash origin story and trusted setup ceremony

00:47:10 - Comparison of Monero and Zcash projects

01:08:22 - Diego discusses what Monero needs to do to maintain its lead

01:32:44 - Discussion of interesting privacy tech projects outside of Monero

01:41:10 - Conversation about funding for Monero development

01:49:30 - Closing remarks and discussion about Monero Topia conference

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