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To send Zcash (ZEC), use a wallet that supports the recipient’s address format, enter the supplied address and amount, and review the wallet’s privacy warning and transaction details before confirming. The address type matters: transparent transactions expose address and amount information on-chain, while shielded-to-shielded transfers conceal sender, recipient, and amount from public observers. Fees remain visible.
Check what the recipient’s address reveals
Zcash has transparent and shielded address receivers. A transparent address—often called a legacy t-address—does not provide transaction privacy: associated addresses and transaction values are publicly visible on-chain. A shielded-to-shielded transfer conceals the sender, recipient, and amount from public observers, but not the transaction fee. A transaction that involves a transparent address can disclose information about its transparent side. Zcash’s address documentation and its wallet UX checklist describe these distinctions.
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| Transfer | What public observers can see | Practical meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Transparent to transparent | Transparent addresses and transaction values. | Do not treat the transfer as private. |
| Transparent to shielded | The transparent sending side and its transaction information. | Value enters a shielded pool, but the visible transparent send is not erased. |
| Shielded to transparent | Information associated with the transparent receiving side. | Review any wallet warning before sending to a transparent address. |
| Shielded to shielded | Sender, recipient, and amount are concealed; fees remain visible. | This is the most private of these combinations against public on-chain observation, not a guarantee of total anonymity. |
Send ZEC safely
Wallet interfaces and supported address types differ, so there is no single button sequence that applies everywhere. Use your wallet’s current instructions and follow this general check-before-confirm workflow:
- Get the address from the intended recipient. Request it directly, and confirm the network and amount with them if anything is unclear.
- Check wallet support. Make sure your wallet can send to the recipient’s address type. If it does not accept a shielded address, that may indicate a wallet limitation rather than an invalid address.
- Enter the address. Scan the recipient’s QR code or paste the address into the wallet’s send form. Compare the displayed destination with the one the recipient supplied.
- Enter the ZEC amount. Review the amount and any fee the wallet displays, along with the destination and any privacy warning.
- Confirm only after reviewing the details. If the wallet warns that the transaction involves a transparent address, consider what information that can reveal before proceeding.
The Zcash wallet checklist says wallets should explain when shielded addresses are unsupported and should warn before a shielded-to-transparent spend. If your wallet rejects the address, check its support documentation or ask the recipient for an address format your wallet accepts. Do not assume that generating a new transparent address for every payment creates meaningful privacy; the checklist cautions that this can give a false sense of privacy.
If the recipient gives you a Unified Address
A Unified Address can contain receiver choices for different Zcash pools. A compatible sender generally selects the most preferred receiver type its implementation supports; you do not usually choose among the address’s hidden components manually. Under active ZIP 316, the selection priority is Orchard, then Sapling, then transparent receivers, subject to the sender wallet’s supported receiver set. The Zcash unified-address explainer describes one address that can work across transparent and shielded pools.
ZIP 316 Revision 2 is a draft proposing visibly distinct zu shielded-only and tu transparent-enabled forms. The original active revision uses u. Do not assume every wallet or service supports every form; check the receiving service’s instructions and your wallet’s capabilities. See ZIP 316: Unified Addresses and Unified Viewing Keys for the specification and revision status.
Wallet defaults and long-term storage
ZIP 315 recommends that wallets hold funds shielded for the long term and automatically shield transparent funds by default where the wallet supports it. That is a wallet implementation recommendation, not a guarantee that every wallet will perform the same action. Check your wallet’s current settings and documentation; the recommendation appears in ZIP 315: Best Practices for Wallet Implementations.
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