Anthropic Mythos Finds No Critical Security Issue In Zcash Protocol

Key Insights

• Anthropic reviewed the Zcash protocol using its Mythos model and found no major security vulnerabilities.
• Mythos is Anthropic’s premier AI model, which the U.S. government just suspended.
• The privacy project has come under renewed scrutiny over the past weeks after a vulnerability was identified with the AI audit.

Anthropic’s Mythos artificial intelligence model found no critical vulnerabilities in the Zcash protocol during a security review commissioned by Shielded Labs, according to Zcash founder Zooko Wilcox-O’Hearn.

The review comes weeks after developers disclosed and patched a serious flaw in Zcash’s Orchard shielded pool. The successful audit may help improve confidence in the privacy-focused cryptocurrency as developers continue working on additional security upgrades.

Zcash Security Audit Finds No Major Vulnerabilities

The news of the successful audit of the protocol with the leading AI model is positive for Zcash. The protocol has faced increased security concerns recently after a security researcher, Taylor Hornby, used Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.8, along with other tools, to identify a major flaw in the network.

Hornby disclosed a vulnerability that has been live since May 2022, allowing unlimited ZEC minting within the Orchard shielded pool. An emergency fix has since been deployed before the public disclosure on June 4.

Despite the fix and transparency about the incident, ZEC fell by more than 40%. It has struggled to return to those highs since then and currently trades around $410, down 3% in the last 24 hours.

Concerns persist about the network security and whether the vulnerability was exploited. The Orchard pool privacy properties make it impossible to even determine whether the flaw was ever exploited, but most stakeholders believe it was not.

With security concerns heightened, the latest decision to use Anthropic’s frontier model for another security audit could improve sentiment.

However, Zcash stakeholders continue to push for a network upgrade. One of those upgrades is Ironwood, which would allow Zcash users to verify the circulating supply independently.

Zooko added that the upgrade will also include additional security improvements, including restrictions on transactions involving counterfeit tokens, AI-assisted audits, and a new pool for shielded ZEC.

Stakeholders have already agreed on the consensus rule changes for the upgrade, with plans to launch by the end of July 2026.

Anthropic Suspends Access to Mythos for Users on US Government Directive

Meanwhile, the Zcash audit with Mythos comes at an opportune time as it coincides with Anthropic’s decision to suspend access to Mythos 5 and Fable 5 for all customers.

The AI company stated that it decided in accordance with the government order. The US government issued an export control directive suspending access to these models for all foreign nationals within and outside the US, including Anthropic’s own employees.

Fable 5 is a less powerful version of Mythos 5, which Anthropic made available to the public while it continued to test the Mythos 5 model with select companies. Mythos 5 is highly effective at identifying software vulnerabilities, prompting the decision to pause the public release.

While Anthropic insists that Fable 5 has safeguards to prevent misuse, the US government appears concerned about its jailbreaking capabilities. The company is pushing back against the order to suspend access even as it complies.

The post Anthropic Mythos Finds No Critical Security Issue In Zcash Protocol appeared first on The Market Periodical.