ZEC $1,246.7924H +1.04%CAP $21.21BRANK #10BLOCK 3,539,310GRANTS 144 ZEC PER DAYCOINHOLDER FUND 216 ZEC PER DAYISSUANCE 1,800 ZEC PER DAYPRICE AS OF 12:53 UTC 2026-11-02ZEC $1,246.7924H +1.04%CAP $21.21BRANK #10BLOCK 3,539,310GRANTS 144 ZEC PER DAYCOINHOLDER FUND 216 ZEC PER DAYISSUANCE 1,800 ZEC PER DAYPRICE AS OF 12:53 UTC 2026-11-02
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Memos and viewing keys.

Two shielded features most people never use: a private note on a payment, and a way to show your history to one person without risking your coins.

Checked 6 Oct 2026.

Memos

Shielded paymentCarries a private note: “May rent”. Only the receiver can read it.
Transparent paymentNo memo. There is nowhere to put one.

The note can be up to 512 bytes: about 512 English letters, fewer with emoji or many non-Latin scripts, which take 2 to 4 bytes each. Ledger Wallet desktop allows 250 characters.

Send a memo

  1. Pay a shielded address, starting u1 or zs. A transparent address can't receive a memo.
  2. Type your note in the memo or message field before you send. Zodl, Zingo, Zkool, Vizor and Ledger Wallet desktop all have one.
  3. The receiver sees it in the payment's details. In Zodl: Activity, then the transaction.

Viewing keys

A viewing key lets someone see your shielded payments without being able to spend. There are two kinds.

An incoming key sees money in, never money out

sees it hidden

Incoming keyFull key
Received 2.0 ZEC3 Oct
Sent 0.5 ZEC4 Oct
Received 1.2 ZEC, memo: “May rent”5 Oct
Neither key can spend your coinscan'tcan't

Export and share one

Zodl 3.15 or later
Open the “…” menu, then More, then Advanced Settings, and choose to export a viewing key. Pick incoming or full, confirm the warning, then share the QR code or text. It works for Keystone wallets too.
Zingo
Open Wallet Viewing Key and share it. Zingo can also restore a watch-only wallet from someone else's key.
Zkool
Use its viewing keys page; it can also add view-only accounts.

A shared key can't be taken back. Whoever has it keeps seeing new payments to that wallet for good. Share the smallest key that does the job, usually the incoming one for tax work. And a viewing key is not your recovery phrase: never share that.

Need records for taxes instead? Zodl exports a file of last year's transactions: Advanced Settings, then Export Tax File.

Sources