How do I send a shielded ZEC transaction?

If you are experiencing issues trying to send your ZEC from Atomic Wallet to another address, it is possible that your ZEC coins are not shielded and the blockchain prevents you from making that transaction. Keep reading to find out more about why that happens and what you can do to fix that issue. 

Contents 

• The dual address system
• 'I can't send my ZEC'
• 'How do I make a shielded transaction?'

The dual address system

There are 2 types of addresses on the Zcash network:

• Transparent addresses, also known as t-addresses. These addresses are public. They are used by most wallets (including ours) and centralized platforms, e.g. Coinbase. 
• Shielded addresses, also known as z-addresses are private.

This dual-address system means that 4 different types of transactions can happen on the Zcash network:

• Public: transparent to transparent
• Shielding: transparent to shielded
• Deshielding: shielded to transparent
• Private: shielded to shielded

'I can't send my ZEC'

The reason why you might be having issues when trying to deposit your ZEC to Atomic Wallet or, vice versa, send some ZEC out of it, is that there are some limits when it comes to funds that can be sent via a public transaction. In particular, since the Heartwood upgrade, mining rewards received on a transparent address must be shielded when they are moved for the first time. In other words, if you use Atomic Wallet (which has a transparent ZEC address) for your ZEC mining, you will not be able to send out your funds to another transparent address. So, what you need to do is to create a shielded transaction. Unfortunately, simply sending your funds from a transparent address to a shielded one is not going to work, so you'll have to follow the steps below.

'How do I make a shielded transaction?'

First, you will have to import your ZEC private key to YWallet. Then, you'll be able to shield your funds from there. 

1. Open Atomic Wallet;
2. Go to 'Settings', and select the 'Private Keys' tab;



3. Enter your password, and click on the 'SHOW PRIVATE KEYS' button;
4. Copy your 12-word phrase;
5. Download YWallet;

   

6. Click on the kebab menu in the top right corner and select 'Accounts';
7.  Click the '+' button at the bottom right corner; 

   

8. Paste the 12-word phrase that you copied from Atomic Wallet and click '+ Import'; 
9. Now that your address has been imported, wait until YWallet synchronizes with the blockchain; 

10. Open the kebab menu again and click 'Settings'; 

11. Select the 'Advanced' option in the 'Mode' settings. Don't forget to click 'OK' at the bottom of the screen to apply the changes!

12. Click the 'Shield Transp. Balance' button;
    

13. That's it! Your ZEC is now shielded and you should now be able to send out your funds.