Monero Next? Researcher Who Found The Zcash Flaw Targets XMR For Future Audit

The security researcher, who discovered the Orchard Pool vulnerability in Zcash, says he has added other privacy-focused coins, including Monero, to his audit queue.

Researcher To Audit Monero After Finding Zcash Flaw

Security engineer Taylor Hornby, who used the Claude AI Opus 4.8 model, has revealed that he intends to audit Monero, among other crypto projects, in the near future. “Absolutely! I’ll add Monero to my queue of things to audit,” Hornby responded when asked on X whether he could look for bugs in XMR and other privacy-focused cryptocurrencies.

The Orchard Counterfeiting flaw, which could have enabled a bad actor to mint unlimited, undetectable amounts of counterfeit ZEC tokens, had gone undetected since May 2022. Hornby discovered the counterfeiting vulnerability in Zcash’s Orchard pool on May 29 and reported it to Zcash Open Development Lab (ZODL), which coordinated an emergency network fix by June 2.

The language in the public notice of the vulnerability emphasized that, while there was no evidence of exploitation, due to Zcash’s privacy property, there was no way to cryptographically confirm that the bug was not exploited during the period it went unnoticed. This impossible situation has cast doubt on the privacy feature in certain cryptocurrencies, such as Monero.

Hornby explained that his close relationship with the Zcash developers and the impact of the crypto project on his life were the reasons he disclosed the flaw rather than exploiting it. Additionally, the security researcher revealed that he intends to apply for a Zcash coinholder grant while seeking voluntary donations to fund further work.

The discovery of this vulnerability precipitated a level of FUD-driven capitulation in the crypto market, with ZEC losing nearly half of its value on the day. With Monero seemingly next on the list, anything less than a favorable security audit report could trigger the return of doubt into privacy-focused coins and the general cryptocurrency market.

What’s The Next Move For The Privacy Coin?

With no cryptographic way to confirm whether the counterfeiting vulnerability was exploited, Shielded Labs, alongside the ZODL and other key stakeholders, has launched a proposal called Ironwood. Ironwood is expected to enable users to verify the authenticity of ZEC’s circulating supply.

According to the proposal, users would be able to independently verify the total circulating supply of Zcash by running a node. “As soon as Ironwood activates, users can verify from the consensus rules that no more than the correct amount of ZEC can be circulating,” the initial proposal read.

As of this writing, the price of ZEC sits at around $400, reflecting an almost 4% jump in the past 24 hours.

The price of ZEC on the daily timeframe | Source: ZECUSDT chart on TradingView

Featured image from Shutterstock, chart from TradingView