What is a viewing key?
A viewing key lets someone see the history of a private account without being able to spend from it, for example to show an accountant or an auditor exactly what happened.
Why it exists
Privacy does not have to mean nobody can ever see anything. A viewing key lets the owner choose who sees their history, and how much, while everyone else still sees nothing.
In Redacted
Redacted’s version is a read-only key, coming soon. It will let you give an auditor, a tax advisor or a court view access to your account history without any power to spend. A disclosure report and Proof of Innocence are coming soon too.
Compliance →Related terms
Stealth addressA stealth address is a one-time address created for a single payment, so payments to the same person cannot be linked on-chain, while the sender only needs the receiver’s public address.Shielded poolA shielded pool holds funds as private notes inside a smart contract. Deposits and withdrawals are public, but what happens inside is proved with zero-knowledge proofs and does not reveal who owns what.Self-custodySelf-custody means you hold the keys to your funds yourself, so no company can freeze, lose or move them on your behalf.
Sources: Zcash protocol specification
Updated October 7, 2026. All terms