Sep 23, 2026 · 56 min

Privacy infrastructure puts Zcash and NEAR at crypto’s crossroads

How Zcash and NEAR Are Driving This Crypto Bull Run

The episode examines whether confidential, cross-chain systems can make blockchain payments more useful while preserving security and user control.

3 key takeaways

1Zcash and NEAR are gaining attention by pairing privacy-preserving infrastructure with cross-chain access and institutional use cases.
2Near Intents uses intent execution, MPC, enclaves, verifier contracts, and distributed operators to settle transactions across networks.
3Private transaction state can improve confidentiality but makes vulnerabilities, upgrade authority, and system security harder to assess.

Don't miss

Illia Polosukhin walks through a Solana-to-Ethereum Near Intents transaction, from intent broadcast and solver execution to verifier-contract settlement.

The brief

Zcash and NEAR’s rallies frame a larger question: can privacy-preserving infrastructure turn crypto from a public ledger into usable financial plumbing?

Illia Polosukhin and Mert Mumtaz connect Zcash’s zero-knowledge privacy with NEAR’s cross-chain infrastructure, while disagreeing over which trade-offs matter most.

Near Intents routes transactions through intent broadcasting, solvers, deposits, verifier contracts, MPC, and secure enclaves rather than relying on a single intermediary.

The central tension is practical: private balances may protect users and institutions, but hidden state can complicate analytics, vulnerability detection, and trust.

Zcash’s planned upgrade, including faster blocks, could strengthen interoperability, but adoption still depends on privacy products becoming easier and safer to use.

What was said on this episode

11 statements · 11 positive

Illia Polosukhinon ZcashPositive11:17
Zcash privacy increases users’ willingness to spend and use it globally.
“zcash by virtue of being private people want to spend it people want to kind of participate in economy around the world”
Listen at 11:17
Illia Polosukhinon NEARPositive11:50
NEAR functions as a universal liquidity layer connecting blockchain ecosystems.
“NIR is, as I said, like kind of this universal liquidity layer that really connects all those things.”
Listen at 11:50
Illia Polosukhinon blockchainPositive13:08
Blockchain use is expanding into real businesses.
“we're actually getting people starting to use this for real businesses”
Listen at 13:08
Illia Polosukhinon blockchain privacyPositive14:50
Blockchain privacy enables business use without major security or operational problems.
“privacy becomes really an enabler for this to be like not a massive OPSEC issue, not a massive kind of business operations issue.”
Listen at 14:50
Illia Polosukhinon Zcash and NEARPositive15:05
Zcash and NEAR are delivering practical privacy and business-use value.
“Zcash and Near both are really delivering on that value prop.”
Listen at 15:05
Mert Mumtazon Zcash wallet Pay featurePositive17:43
Zcash wallets integrating NEAR Intents enable payments across chains.
“if you use a Zcash wallet. They all have the pay feature, which integrates near intense, which then lets you pay on any chain”
Listen at 17:43
Illia Polosukhinon NEAR systemsPositive48:42
NEAR’s systems have operated since 2021 without losing user funds.
“We've been running, like Rainbow Bridge was kind of the first version of this as we launched in 2021. And so we've been running this kind of systems for a while now without losing any money.”
Listen at 48:42
Illia Polosukhinon NEAR Intents transfersPositive49:09
Users’ principal risk ends when transferred funds reach the destination address.
“as soon as they arrive to the destination address right you're effectively done”
Listen at 49:09
Illia Polosukhinon NEAR ConfidentialPositive49:33
NEAR Confidential supports integrated balances, transfers, payments, and perpetuals.
“you can actually integrate the full near confidential and then you get balances transfers payments you know perps etc all together”
Listen at 49:33
Illia Polosukhinon NEAR ShieldPositive50:28
NEAR Shield detects, prevents, and pauses anomalous transactions.
“we have this system called Shield, which runs both detection and prevention and even pauses some of the transactions when it thinks something is really outside of the normal.”
Listen at 50:28
Illia Polosukhinon NEAR Shield response to Litecoin forkPositive51:10
NEAR Shield disconnected Litecoin after detecting a malicious fork and double spend.
“our system detected that something's wrong and effectively disconnected that network and said like, hey, we're not going to be accepting any transactions for now until the system stabilizes.”
Listen at 51:10

Statements are attributed to the speaker as said on the episode and reflect their view at the time, not PodLume's. They are not advice.