Cash Privacy on Bitcoin Cash

Bring Cash-Like Privacy to Bitcoin CashMost crypto payments still expose too much. They can reveal who paid, who received, and how much was sent. That is not how cash works.This project is about changing that for Bitcoin Cash.The protocol is designed to shield both identity and payment amount. The public BCH transaction does not reveal the real amount being transferred. Instead, the visible on-chain BCH amount is only the fee required to move the private payment system forward. The real private value is carried inside the protocol’s protected state, not exposed in the public transaction amount.That is the core breakthrough this phase is building toward.This is not just about making transactions harder to follow. It is about building a private payment system where the public chain no longer tells the full story. The goal is cash-like privacy on BCH: self-custodied, on-chain, auditable, and not dependent on a trusted middleman.## Why this is technically importantThis work is not a cosmetic privacy layer. It is aimed at solving several hard technical problems at once:- actual zero knowledge, not “privacy-shaped” masking that still leaks critical information- succinct proofs under 100 KB, so private payments remain practical for real wallets and users- an off-chain prover, so heavy proving work happens client-side rather than on-chain- an on-chain verifier, so BCH itself enforces the payment rules without trusting an external service- a post-quantum direction, moving the security model away from ordinary signing keys and toward proof-based authorization that is more resistant to long-term quantum riskTogether, these properties move BCH toward a much stronger privacy model than ordinary transparent transactions can offer.## What makes this differentMost blockchain payments rely directly on ordinary signing keys. That creates two problems:- transaction details remain too visible- long-term security still depends heavily on conventional signature exposureThis protocol takes a different path.Instead of using the public transaction to reveal the true payment amount and ordinary transaction flow, it moves the meaningful private payment state into a protected protocol layer. The public chain mainly carries the cost of advancing that state. The actual authorization and consistency checks are enforced by cryptographic proofs and on-chain verification logic.That means the system is designed to:- hide who paid whom- hide how much was paid- reduce dependence on exposed signing-key-based transaction meaning- move toward a more quantum-resilient privacy architecture over time## A key piece of the designA major part of this phase is the move to a 128-byte token commitment format for the live payment path.In simple terms, that commitment acts as the compact on-chain carrier for the protected payment state. It is what allows the public BCH transaction to carry forward the private system without exposing the real payment amount directly in the visible BCH output value.This matters because it turns privacy from a loose wallet convention into something the chain can actually enforce and verify.## What supporters are fundingSupporters are funding the step from “privacy prototype” to “real private payment foundation for BCH.”That means funding work to:- harden the private payment path- publish a privacy-first reference wallet and CLI- validate the design with live transactions- prove that BCH can carry private payments without exposing the true payment amount publicly- demonstrate the new protected commitment path on-chain- prepare the ground for a later aggregation and privacy market layer built on top of a real self-sovereign base protocol## What this phase is notThis is not yet the final consumer wallet. This is not yet the final large-scale aggregation layer. This is not a custodial shortcut. This is not fake privacy built on hidden trust.It is the protocol-first foundation that must exist before a larger privacy ecosystem can honestly be built.## DeliverablesThis phase is complete when supporters can verify:- a privacy-first wallet can be initialized and funded- the protocol carries private value without exposing the true payment amount publicly- the live payment path uses the intended protected commitment format- the payment flow works on-chain- the code and evidence are published so others can inspect and reproduce the results- the system demonstrates a real zero-knowledge, proof-verified path rather than a privacy-themed wrapper## Why fund this nowThis is the point where the project moves from scaffolding into a real privacy protocol path.Until now, the work has advanced on Chipnet, where the protocol, wallet flow, and on-chain behavior could be developed and tested in public. This phase is about carrying that work forward into a form that is not just testable, but suitable to keep advancing toward Mainnet.The technical foundation now exists to stop talking about private BCH in the abstract and start proving it in a form that people can run, inspect, and build on.Funding this phase helps turn BCH privacy from a promising idea into a live, verifiable system:- shielded identity- shielded amounts- succinct proofs- on-chain enforcement- a path toward stronger post-quantum resilience