XMR And ZEC Surge 8% After US Targeted Encryption: Analysis

XMR and ZEC surge 8% over the past day despite the stagnation in Bitcoin’s price. The latest rally made the two main privacy-oriented cryptocurrencies the best performing assets in the past day as we are reading more in today’s Monero news.

It seems that this rally was related to the news that the US government is targeting encryption as both of XMR and ZEC are privacy-based digital assets. In a world where companies are meant to “embed the safety of the public in system designs” which could harm privacy, these cryptocurrencies that are anonymous will gain value. Monero and Zcash do have privacy capabilities but it is worth noting that there are government agencies across the world that are looking to fight against these technologies which usually drives the tokens lower.

According to the TRadingview data, both Monero and Zcash gained 8% in the past day. Analysts say that the ongoing move higher comes in response to a statement from the US Department of Justice where we can see that companies have to install encryption backdoors. In their statement, the DOJ said:

“We call on technology companies to work with governments to take the following steps, focused on reasonable, technically feasible solutions: Embed the safety of the public in system designs… Enable law enforcement access to content in a readable and usable format where authorization is lawfully issued… Engage in consultation with governments and other stakeholders to facilitate legal access.”

International Statement: End-To-End Encryption and Public Safety https://t.co/q7gvZfeHms

— Justice Department (@TheJusticeDept) October 11, 2020

Where are these two privacy coins fitting in is that they are technologies that have been deployed already, mining that a backdoor cannot be installed. Many in the crypto space reacted negatively to the news and even Matt Odell, the prominent BTC podcaster and privacy advocate stated:

“Encryption bans will not prevent criminals or our enemies from using it. They will go out of their way to use encryption if necessary. An encryption ban will simply hurt law abiding honest citizens and make us incredibly vulnerable to malicious actors.”

While these decentralized technologies don’t have to implement backdoors, Monero and Zcash are coming under fire from governments and government agencies. It was revealed a few weeks ago that the IRS is giving a $625,000 grant to developers/ contractors that can crack the technology that Monero has.