How Claude Found Zcash's Counterfeiting Bug

How Claude Found Zcash's Counterfeiting Bug

From Unchained by Laura Shin

June 10, 2026 · 16 min

About this episode

The episode discusses the discovery of a counterfeiting bug in Zcash and its implications for privacy protocols and security.

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://www.youtube.com/live/oSUVTmC3wZo?si=zTopwWKi3ETPD5Rz We go live every Monday at 4:30pm ET - subscribe to catch it live. Sponsors Cape: Your biggest crypto vulnerability isn't your wallet, it's your phone number. Cape is America's privacy-first mobile carrier that…

People in this episode

Hosts: Austin Campbell, Ram Ahluwalia, Chris Perkins

Topics covered

  • Zcash counterfeiting bug
  • privacy protocols
  • quantum risk
  • AI and security
  • cryptocurrency

Keywords

  • Zcash
  • counterfeiting bug
  • privacy protocols
  • quantum risk
  • AI
  • cryptocurrency
  • security

Sponsors

Cape

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Zcash, Zero Knowledge Consulting, Lumida, CoinFund

Products: Claude Opus 4.8, Cape

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