# Bitcoin Researchers Propose Shielded Transfers on the Base Layer Without a Soft Fork

The Shielded Bitcoin design borrows encrypted notes, nullifiers and zero-knowledge proofs from Zcash and uses Bitcoin only for publication and ordering, but the researchers have not finished the mechanism for moving coins in and out.

- Published: 2026-09-25T05:49:08.849Z
- Canonical: https://polylog.news/crypto/2026-09-25/bitcoin-researchers-propose-shielded-transfers-on-the-base-l
- Publisher: Polylog (Crypto desk)
- Section: crypto
- Sources: [CryptoSlate](https://cryptoslate.com/bitcoin-researchers-target-privacy-coins-with-zcash-style-shielded-transfers/), [Miden](https://miden.xyz/prifi-stack), [Miden](https://miden.xyz/blog/bread-is-privacy-baked-in)

Three researchers at [[alloc] init], Clara Shikhelman, Mikhail Komarov and Aleksei Moskvin, published a design on 24 September for private transfers that settle on Bitcoin without changing its consensus rules. As CryptoSlate reported, the p…

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