Questions
Private Key is an independent brand that accepts only Zcash. What people ask us, answered plainly.
What is Private Key?
Private Key is an independent brand that accepts only Zcash. It celebrates freedom, and those who understand what is asked to afford it. Its shop is bene vixit, at benevixit.com, where we make a small number of well-made goods, beginning with a linen herringbone cap.
Is Private Key a Zcash brand?
Yes. Zcash (ZEC) is the only way to pay, and privacy is as much the product as anything we ship. If you are looking for a brand that accepts Zcash, or somewhere to spend ZEC on something you will keep, you have found one.
What payment do you accept?
We only accept ZEC, the native currency of Zcash. Placing an order is straightforward using any Zcash wallet.
We do not take cards, PayPal, bank transfers, Bitcoin, or any other currency, and we are not going to.
Why only Zcash?
Because a brand about privacy should not ask you to give yours up at the register. A card payment tells a bank, a processor and the shop who you are, where you live and what you bought, and that record outlives the purchase.
Zcash was built so that it need not. A shielded Zcash payment encrypts the sender, the receiver and the amount on the blockchain itself. It is the one payment method whose design agrees with ours, so it is the only one we accept.
What does Private Key stand for?
Freedom, and the agency it takes. Freedom is not gifted; it is taken with agency. It requires intention, commitment, and a clarity of thought and process.
Privacy is part of that. It is not secrecy for its own sake, but the condition under which people make their own choices.
Where does the name bene vixit come from?
In 10 A.D., Ovid wrote "Bene qui latuit bene vixit": to live well is to live concealed. Over a millennium and a half later, it was adopted by René Descartes as his personal motto. Today, we believe the same.
Who can buy from Private Key?
To buy from our brand, one must live the values. No exceptions. How we enforce it will change with time, but we will never compromise the enforcement of authenticity.
Today, entry is by a short conversation with the keeper, an AI at the door. Pass, and you receive a time-limited pass to buy. The conversation is deleted when you pass, or within about an hour of going quiet.
Are you affiliated with the Zcash Foundation or any other Zcash organization?
No. Private Key is an independent brand, operated by Certified Compadre LLC. You can write to the shopkeeper at shopkeeper@benevixit.com.
How do you keep your customers' information private?
- No accounts. There is nothing to sign up for: no usernames, passwords or profiles.
- No tracking. No analytics or advertising cookies, no tracking pixels, no third-party beacons. The only cookies are the ones the shop needs to work, your pass through the gate and your cart, and none of them says who you are.
- The minimum to complete the order. An email, and one of two things, never both: your legal name and a phone number for a FedEx pickup, or an address for delivery. Never a billing address.
- Deleted within a week. Within a week of delivery we delete every name, address, phone number and email address on the order, along with your IP address and browser, the FedEx details and every order note. What remains is what accounting needs: the items, the totals, the payment and the tracking number.
- Shared only as delivery demands. FedEx receives what it needs to deliver the parcel, and nothing more. Our payment processor, CipherPay, receives no name or address. Nothing is sold or shared for marketing.
- Paid in Zcash. No bank or card network learns of the purchase.
How do I pay with Zcash?
At checkout you are shown a Zcash payment request through CipherPay. Pay it from any Zcash wallet; a shielded payment keeps the most to itself. The order is confirmed once the payment is seen on-chain.
CipherPay is non-custodial: the ZEC goes to our wallet, not an intermediary's. We strip your name and address from everything we send it, so it never learns who you are or where the parcel goes.
Where do you ship?
At present, due to tariffs and other requirements, we only ship within the United States.
How can I receive my order?
We optimize around customer privacy and security, offering two primary methods:
- Pickup at a FedEx location. Requires your legal name, as on your ID, an email and a phone number, but not an address. FedEx texts you when it is ready to collect.
- Delivery to a location of your choosing. Requires an address and an email, and a name for the parcel, which need not be your legal name.
When the shopkeeper is at an event, you may also collect in person with nothing but your email and order number.
What if something goes wrong with my order?
If it arrives damaged or never arrives, write to us and we will make it right, with a replacement or a refund in ZEC at the amount you paid.