Taylor Hornby, known for uncovering a critical bug in Zcash, will now audit Monero and other privacy-focused cryptocurrencies.
Security engineer Taylor Hornby, who identified a significant vulnerability in Zcash using Anthropic’s Opus 4.8 AI model, has announced plans to conduct an audit of Monero and additional privacy-centric cryptocurrencies.
The bug, discovered in the Orchard privacy pool, remained undetected since May 2022 and could have allowed for the minting of unlimited counterfeit ZEC without detection. Following its discovery on May 29, an emergency fix was implemented by June 1, but not before Zcash's value plummeted by 38% due to fears that an attacker may have exploited the flaw.
Hornby, who joined Shielded Labs in April to identify protocol vulnerabilities, opted to report the flaw rather than exploit it, citing a sense of loyalty to the Zcash development community. He expressed his intention to apply for a Zcash coinholder grant to support his ongoing work.
