Sending Zcash with SSP
This guide walks you through sending Zcash from an SSP wallet end to end: five steps, one signing prompt on the device that starts the send, and one co-signature on the second device. Once you know the screens it takes well under a minute.
It's written for anyone about to send their first ZEC — and worth re-reading before your hundredth, because the address-checking habits are what keep funds safe. One note up front: this walkthrough covers transparent Zcash, the address type SSP's 2-of-2 multisig uses. If your recipient gave you a shielded or unified address, read the Zcash-specific notes below first.
Before you start
Three prerequisites — none of them optional.
- Both paired devices are powered on and unlocked. SSP's 2-of-2 model needs a signature from each. If one device is dead, charging, or asleep, the send won't complete. New here? Start with Setting up your first SSP wallet.
- You have the recipient address from a trusted source. Copy it — don't type it. Manual entry invites typos, and typos go to the wrong wallet permanently. Trust the recipient's verified channel, an invoice from a service you control, or an address from your own second wallet.
- You've confirmed the address type. SSP sends transparent Zcash — addresses that begin with
t1ort3. If yours starts withzs(shielded) oru1(unified), read the Zcash-specific notes below before continuing.
Step 1: Open the send screen
On the mobile app, tap the Send button on the home screen. On the browser extension, click Send in the top action bar.
If your SSP wallet holds multiple chains, the next screen asks you to pick the asset. Select Zcash from the list. Confirm you're on the correct sub-account — SSP supports multiple accounts per chain, and the balance shown at the top of the send screen is the balance for that specific account, not the wallet total.
If the balance looks low, back out and check which account you're sending from — funds in another account aren't spendable here.
Step 2: Paste the recipient address
Paste the recipient's Zcash address into the address field. Then — before anything else — verify the first 6 characters and the last 6 characters against the trusted source you copied from. Read them aloud if you need to. If even one character is off, stop, clear the field, and re-copy from the original.
This isn't paranoia. It's defence against a well-documented pattern called address poisoning: an attacker watches the blockchain for your transactions, generates an address whose first and last characters look almost identical to one you've used, and sends you a dust transaction so it lands in your history. Copy "the same" address from that history later and you copy theirs — your send goes to the attacker, with no recovery.
Always copy from the original source, never from history, and always check the first and last 6 characters. For how these scams reach you, see Phishing attacks targeting crypto users.
Step 3: Enter the amount and review the fee
Enter the amount to send. You can type in ZEC or your local fiat — SSP converts in real time at the current rate. The screen shows the spendable balance and an estimated total including fee, so you can see at once whether you have enough.
Zcash transaction fees are low. A transparent transfer costs a tiny, near-flat fraction of a ZEC no matter how busy the network is — there's no fee auction to win as there is on a congested chain. SSP shows the estimate before you sign; glance at it to confirm it looks normal, but you won't need to time your send around fee spikes. If you've only sent on a variable-fee chain, Bitcoin fee strategy in SSP shows how different that world is.
Step 4: Sign on both devices
This is where SSP's 2-of-2 model fires: the transaction needs an independent signature from each paired device before it can broadcast. If the two-key design is new to you, What is 2-of-2 multisig? explains why both signatures are required.
On the initiating device (the one you've been using), review the summary one last time — recipient, amount, fee — and tap Confirm. The device signs locally. It does not yet broadcast.
Switch to the second device. Within a few seconds it should show a pending signing request: the same recipient, amount, and fee, with an Approve / Reject choice. Check that it matches the initiating device, then tap Approve. The second device signs and the two signatures are combined.
If the second device doesn't show the prompt within ~15 seconds:
- Make sure the SSP app is in the foreground, not just running in the background.
- Check that battery saver / data saver isn't blocking background sync.
- Confirm both devices have internet — Wi-Fi or mobile data; SSP needs a connection on each side to relay the request.
You can safely retry from the initiating device. Until the second signature is in, no funds have moved.
Step 5: Watch the broadcast
Once both signatures are collected, SSP submits the transaction to the Zcash network. The send screen flips to a Pending state and shows the transaction id (txid) — tap it to open a block explorer.
Then wait for confirmations. Zcash blocks arrive roughly every 75 seconds, far faster than Bitcoin's ~10-minute blocks, so confirmations come quickly. How deep to wait still depends on the recipient:
- Casual transfers, small amounts — 1 confirmation, a little over a minute, is usually enough.
- Exchange deposits — most exchanges credit after a handful of confirmations; check their policy, as some require more blocks on faster chains.
- Large transfers — waiting for a deeper run is prudent, but at ~75 seconds a block that's minutes, not an hour.
You can close the app now. The transaction is on the network; SSP doesn't need to stay open for it to confirm.
Zcash-specific notes
Zcash has two kinds of addresses, and the difference matters before you send.
- Transparent addresses begin with
t1ort3. They behave like Bitcoin addresses — sender, recipient, and amount are all visible on the public blockchain. SSP's 2-of-2 multisig operates on transparent Zcash, so every step above is the transparent flow. - Shielded addresses begin with
zs(Sapling), and unified addresses begin withu1. Shielded transactions use zero-knowledge proofs to hide the amount and the parties involved — a separate Zcash capability and one of the network's defining features.
Because shielded and transparent sends are technically different, do not assume SSP can send to a zs… or u1… recipient. Before sending to any address that doesn't start with t1 or t3, confirm in the app that the destination is accepted; if it isn't, ask the recipient for a transparent (t) address. The transparent flow above is what SSP uses today.
For more on how the transparent and shielded pools fit together, see Zcash and the protocol team at Electric Coin Co..
Sending via a connected dApp
If the send is triggered by a browser-based dApp rather than started inside SSP, you're using <span id="[walletconnect](/academy/how-to/sending-bitcoin-with-ssp#walletconnect)"></span>WalletConnect — the open protocol that lets external dApps request signatures from your SSP wallet via QR code or deep link.
The flow is the same from step 4 onward: both devices must independently sign before the transaction broadcasts. The dApp never sees your keys — it just gets the signed result.
The difference is in steps 2 and 3: the dApp pre-fills the recipient, amount, and sometimes the fee. Your job shifts from entry to observation — verify that the recipient and amount you're asked to sign match what you intended to authorise in the dApp. If anything looks off, reject the request and start over from the dApp side.
Related reading
- Sending another asset? The same five-step flow covers Sending Bitcoin with SSP and Sending Litecoin with SSP.
- New to SSP? Start with Setting up your first SSP wallet.
- For the security model behind the two-device flow, see What is 2-of-2 multisig?.
