Protocol Study #2: Addresses, Keys, and the Privacy Onion

​Session 2 of the Zcash Protocol Study, a 12-session guided reading of the Zcash Protocol Specification.

​Live on Discord stage, recorded by Zcash Brazil.

​Topic: §3.1 - Payment Addresses and Keys. The "privacy onion."

​A single spending authority in Zcash decomposes into a tree of derived keys: full viewing key, incoming viewing key, outgoing viewing key, diversifier. Each key revealing a different slice of metadata to a different audience. §3.1 is where this is all defined, and nothing downstream in the spec makes sense without it.

​We'll walk Sapling and Orchard side by side: what Orchard cleaned up, where the proof system forced cleaner separation between IVK and OVK, and why "many addresses, one viewing key" is the design that makes diversified addresses work.

​Format: 50/50 structured study and open conversation with space to riff on implications, history, and connections. Think of it like a study group instead of a lecture. We aim to be accessible enough for a motivated newcomer and technical enough to be useful to people who are actually building.

​We'll be reading from https://zips.z.cash/protocol/protocol.pdf, §3.1.

​For more information:
https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/protocol-study-series-12-session-guided-reading-of-the-zcash-protocol-specification-starting-april-21/55350

​If you missed Session 1: