TechFlow news: The Horizen community has recently approved ZenIP 42204, a proposal to deprecate the shielded pool on the Horizen mainchain. Once this change takes effect, all privacy features will be removed from the consensus layer of the Horizen mainchain. As a result, ZEN will no longer be considered a privacy coin.
Horizen stated that the purpose of deprecating the mainchain's shielded pool is to ensure privacy technologies are used in a proper and sustainable manner in response to regulatory threats. The current regulatory environment poses challenges to the accessibility and adoption of privacy-focused cryptocurrencies.
The deprecation of the Horizen mainchain shielded pool will be implemented as part of the upcoming mandatory ZEN 4.1 software upgrade. The testnet will cease support for the shielded pool in August this year, while the mainnet will follow in September.
