June 28 (Cointime) - Horizen, a blockchain supported by Grayscale Investments, a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group (DCG), has announced that it will eliminate support for shielded transactions on its mainnet to shift its native cryptocurrency, Zen, from a privacy coin to a more general digital asset.

This change will take effect with the mandatory software upgrade, Zen 4.1, scheduled for release on the mainnet in September 2023. The decision was made in response to the global trend of regulatory scrutiny of privacy-focused cryptocurrencies, which are being excluded from major exchanges.

However, Horizen's privacy strategy is not completely disappearing, as the network plans to use a sidechain that will support privacy features.