Researcher who caught Zcash's flaw with AI debuts Monero to his audit queue
·2 min read
Compiled by KHAO Editorial
— aggregated from 1 source + 6 references discovered via search.
See llms.txt for citation guidance.
★ Tier-1 Source
Taylor Hornby, the security engineer who used Anthropic's Opus 4.8 AI model to find a critical bug in Zcash, says privacy coin Monero is among the tokens he intends to audit next.
Key facts
Zcash fell 38% over the following 24 hours amid fallout and concerns about a hacker possibly stealing money from the shielded pool
without leaving any detectable trace
over the past few years
Taylor Hornby, the security engineer who used Anthropic's Opus 4.8 AI model to find a critical bug in Zcash, says privacy coin Monero is among the tokens he intends to audit next
The bug, in the blockchain's Orchard privacy pool, had gone undetected since May 2022 and could have let an attacker mint unlimited, undetectable counterfeit ZEC
Asked on X whether he could look for flaws in Monero and other private cryptocurrencies, Hornby replied, "Absolutely
Summary
Security engineer Taylor Hornby, who recently used Anthropic’s Opus 4.8 AI model to uncover a critical bug in Zcash, says he will next audit Monero and other privacy-focused cryptocurrencies. The Zcash flaw, hidden in the Orchard privacy pool since May 2022, could have allowed unlimited counterfeit ZEC to be minted undetected and prompted an emergency fix by June 1 after its discovery on May 29. Hornby, hired by nonprofit developer Shielded Labs to find protocol bugs before attackers do, disclosed the vulnerability instead of exploiting it and plans to seek a Zcash coinholder grant to fund further work. Asked on X whether he could look for flaws in Monero and other private cryptocurrencies, Hornby replied, "Absolutely!