Zcash-focused developers at Zakura are preparing a privacy update for ZEC swaps routed through NEAR Intents, with the goal of limiting what could be exposed if future quantum computers are able to break today’s cryptography.

The proposal would assign each swap its own viewing key for refunds while keeping the spending key in the user’s main account. That design is intended to stop a refund address posted on NEAR’s public chain from revealing a user’s full Zcash payment history.

Why the change is being proposed

The issue centers on refunds connected to ZEC swaps made through NEAR Intents. Because NEAR is a public blockchain, a refund address posted there could become a point of exposure if stronger future computing systems are eventually able to derive information from it.

Under Zakura’s proposal, every swap would use a separate private viewing key. If a refund address tied to one transaction were later compromised, the visible history would be limited to that individual swap rather than extending across the user’s broader set of payments.

How the design would work

The proposed setup separates viewing access from spending control. Zakura plans to leave the spending key with the user’s primary account, while generating a distinct viewing key for each swap.

That structure is meant to preserve custody over funds while narrowing the privacy risks around refunds. In practice, a refund address associated with a single trade would not act as a window into the rest of the account’s transaction history.

Finding refunds without exposing searches

One practical challenge is how wallets would discover where a refund was sent without turning those searches into another source of information leakage. To address that, Zakura proposes using private information retrieval through a private database.

With that method, wallets could query for refund destinations without disclosing which addresses they are checking. The approach is designed to make refund recovery workable while avoiding a new privacy tradeoff in the lookup process.

Rollout timing and broader context

According to the plan described by the team, compatible software wallets could add support within weeks. Hardware wallets would come later, once firmware updates make the feature possible.

The timing matters because Zcash has a January target for quantum-resistant payments. Zakura’s proposal is positioned as a near-term way to reduce the privacy risk around swap refunds before that broader milestone is reached.

Source: www.coindesk.com