Taylor Hornby, who uncovered the Orchard flaw that sent Zcash down 38%, says other privacy coins are on his list too.
Jun 6, 2026, 9:38 a.m. 1 min read
Taylor Hornby, the security engineer who used Anthropic’s Opus 4.8 AI model to find a critical bug in Zcash, says privacy coin Monero is among the tokens he intends to audit next.
Asked on X whether he could look for flaws in Monero and other private cryptocurrencies, Hornby replied, “Absolutely! I’ll add Monero to my queue of things to audit.”
Monero, which trades under the ticker XMR, is among the largest privacy-focused cryptocurrency and hides transaction details by default compared to Zcash, where users can either either transparent or shielded addressed.
Hornby found the Zcash flaw on May 29. The bug, in the blockchain’s Orchard privacy pool, had gone undetected since May 2022 and could have let an attacker mint unlimited, undetectable counterfeit ZEC. Shielded Labs, a nonprofit developer on the network, disclosed it on Thursday and pushed through an emergency fix by June 1.
Zcash fell 38% over the following 24 hours amid fallout and concerns about a hacker possibly stealing money from the shielded pool – without leaving any detectable trace – over the past few years.
Hornby, hired by Shielded Labs in April to find protocol bugs before attackers could, said he reported the flaw rather than exploit it because the Zcash developers were “like family” and he could “not live with that kind of betrayal.”
He plans to apply for a Zcash coinholder grant to fund further work.
More For You
The Consensys leader told CoinDesk the Ethereum Foundation’s role should be narrower and more focused on stewarding the network’s core technology and values.
What to know:
- Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin rejected criticism of the blockchain foundation’s recent budget cuts, staff departures and restructuring, arguing the changes are meant to keep the foundation focused on Ethereum’s core technology and neutrality rather than commercialization.
- Lubin said Ethereum’s future will be driven by a broader ecosystem of organizations handling…
MST: 0319162252
SĐT: 0867 89 89 86
Email: support@hbbgroup.net
Đia chỉ: CII Tower, 152 Điện Biên Phủ – Phường 25 – Quận Bình Thạnh
