YcashMost people assume cryptocurrency is private. For ordinary blockchain transactions, the opposite is true — they're visible to the entire world, forever. Shielded transactions are how Ycash fixes that.
What an ordinary transaction reveals
On a typical Bitcoin-style blockchain, every transaction is recorded on a public ledger that anyone can read. A single transaction exposes three things to the whole world:
- The sender's address
- The recipient's address
- The amount sent
And it stays there permanently. Anyone — a company, a stranger, a bad actor — can trace the flow of funds, link addresses together, and build a picture of who paid whom and how much. That's not a bug in the usual sense; it's just how transparent blockchains work. But it means "crypto" and "private" are not the same thing.
What a shielded transaction hides
A shielded transaction is the core privacy feature of Ycash. Instead of broadcasting the details, a shielded transaction:
- does not expose the sender's address — not even to the recipient
- does not expose the recipient's address to anyone
- does not expose the amount to anyone
The transaction still happens. The network still confirms it's valid — no double-spending, no coins created from nothing. It just does so without putting your financial details on a public billboard.
Why this is closer to physical cash
Think about how cash works. When you hand someone a banknote, you don't broadcast your bank balance, your home address, or your transaction history. The payment just happens, between the two of you.
Shielded transactions bring some of that back to digital money:
- You can pay a merchant without handing them — and everyone watching the chain — a window into your finances and an increased risk of identity theft.
- You can transact with friends and family securely, without exposing your relationships and balances to outsiders.
Privacy here isn't about hiding wrongdoing. It's the same ordinary expectation you already have with cash, a wallet, or a sealed envelope.
You still get to choose
Ycash supports both transparent and shielded transactions. That choice is yours to make for each payment. The point isn't to force privacy on every transaction — it's that genuine privacy is available, by default-capable design, rather than impossible.
How to use shielded transactions
To send and receive shielded, you need a shielded-capable wallet. The Ycash wallets page lists the options — the most popular choice is a wallet built for Ycash that handles shielded addresses (the ones that begin with "y") out of the box. Set one up, fund it, and you can transact privately.