How does the privacy of a Zcash "T" address transaction compare with a Monero mixin 0 transaction (back when they were available)?
Does 'T" stand for transparent?
Would it be technically possible for Zcash to eliminate "T" address transactions in the future just as Monero has eliminated mixin 0 transactions except for very limited use cases involving dust.
Monero mixin 0 is still superior to a Zcash "T" transparent transaction due to the fact that Monero uses stealth addresses for every transaction whereas Zcash does not have this feature.
I do not imagine there would be any scenario for Zcash to eliminate transparent transactions as this would break a lot of the intentional bitcoin compatibility that is currently part of Zcash. There's also no feasible way to create a Z shielded transaction on a mobile device due to the RAM and CPU requirements. It takes 60 seconds on a 4 core top of the line x64 processor - expect it to take maybe 20 minutes and to kill the battery on a mobile processor. Not going to happen.
TLDR; the default use of Monero is far more private than the default use of Zcash and this will continue to be the case for the foreseeable future.
I believe it is likely to be possible for Zcash to eliminate the need for t-addresses for the vast majority of use cases. Of course that would be dependent on major performance improvements, as well as adding support for multisig z-addresses, but I believe those improvements are feasible in the medium term.
Disclosure of interest: I'm a Zcash developer.
