How Claude Found Zcash's Counterfeiting Bug

Description

For three years, a counterfeiting bug sat live inside Zcash's shielded pool, and no one noticed. Then Taylor Hornby pointed a custom Claude Opus 4.8 agent at the code, and it surfaced the flaw in Orchard that had gone undetected since 2022. Austin Campbell, Ram Ahluwalia, and Chris Perkins debate what that means for privacy protocols, the rotation away from dead-protocol alts, and why Bitcoin's simplicity may be its strongest security argument yet. The conversation closes on quantum risk and whether the Lindy effect holds up under the new threat environment. Hosts: ▶️ Austin Campbell, Founder of Zero Knowledge Consulting and Adjunct Professor at NYU Stern - https://x.com/austincampbell ▶️ Ram Ahluwalia, CEO of Lumida - https://x.com/ramahluwalia ▶️ Chris Perkins, President of CoinFund - https://x.com/perkinscr97 This clip is from a longer conversation on AI, security, and the Zcash counterfeiting bug. Full episode here: https://youtu.be/oSUVTmC3wZo We go live every Monday at 4:30pm ET - subscribe to catch it live. Sponsor: Cape: Your biggest crypto vulnerability isn't your wallet, it's your phone number. Cape is America's privacy-first mobile carrier that rotates your SIM identity daily and blocks SIM swaps before they happen. Get 33% off your first six months at https://cape.co/unchained (use code: UNCHAINED). Chapters: 🤖 00:00 Chris on AI, security vulnerabilities, and the Zcash counterfeiting bug 💰 02:28 Should you rotate into Hyperliquid over dead protocols? 🔍 05:53 Claude Opus 4.8 finds Zcash's live shielded-pool bug 📉 08:16 The Enron analogy for a confidence crisis in privacy coins ⚛️ 12:30 Bitcoin's Lindy effect meets the quantum risk tension _______________________________________________________ #bitcoin #ethereum #crypto #cryptocurrencies _______________________________________________________ Subscribe to our channel! Website → https://unchainedcrypto.com Unchained Daily Newsletter (FREE!)→ https://unchainedcrypto.beehiiv.com/subscribe/ Unchained X → https://x.com/unchained_pod Apple → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1123922160?ls=1 Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/1cJrrfGY1SKBIRn5noKSAf?si=6SI4qIcRTEO7EhOe0V9n4w RSS Feed → https://feeds.megaphone.fm/LSHML4761942757 Unchained: Your no-hype resource for all things crypto!