Zcash's co-founder Eli Ben-Sasson just dropped a bombshell about a past conversation. He claims a major Bitcoin advocate once told him straight up: Bitcoin shouldn't embrace Zcash-style privacy features. Why? The concern was brutal—nation states would use it as an excuse to shut the whole thing down.

This reveals a fascinating split in crypto philosophy. Some believe radical privacy is the ultimate goal. Others think it's a regulatory suicide note. The Bitcoin maximalist camp often argues that transparency is actually a feature, not a bug—making the network harder for governments to ban outright.

Zcash, with its shielded transactions, represents the opposite approach. Full anonymity by default. But does that make it a bigger target? The debate isn't new, but hearing it framed as an existential threat to adoption adds weight. Nation-state resistance remains crypto's biggest uncertainty, and privacy tech sits right at that friction point.