Zcash is a blockchain project with its native coin ZEC created in October 2016 by Zooko Wilcox-O’Hearn. Zcash is aiming to provide a high level of privacy for transactions, ensuring the right to be anonymous when moving funds.
Read our Zcash (ZEC) Price Prediction for 2019
Zcash initially took the Bitcoin blockchain code as a basis and implemented its unique zero-knowledge proof system called zk-SNARKs (“Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Argument of Knowledge”). However, both the sender and receiver addresses can be publicly transparent if they want to. More information on zk-SNARKs can be found here.
What Zcash is used for?
ZEC coins are widely accepted by online retailers selling different things from food & clothes to hardware & VPN services. Lists of companies and online retailers accepting Zcash – https://cryptwerk.com/companies/shops/zec/.
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Zcash Explained
Zcash (ZEC) Coin Value
All-time highest point of Zcash (ZEC) price was tested on January 7, 2018, one ZEC was worth $955.27 USD. On November 23, 2017, at the very beginning of its existence, Zcash had its lowest point of $26.15 USD. Now the coin is trading for $71.29 and ranks 26th in terms of market capitalization, which is $501,834,068 USD at the moment.
You can check out the price-list formation and more details about the coin on BitcoinWiki.org.
Zcash Blockchain Review
The original project name was Zerocash, here’s the link to the original whitepaper. Zcash is supported by a large number of leading wallets and exchanges, built on a serious cryptographic scientifically-proven base and carefully checked by third-party auditors. No wonder that the famous J.P. Morgan bank has implemented their anonymous transaction technology in its own blockchain project called Quorum.
Translations on the ZEC blockchain are of four types: completely anonymous, with a hidden sender, with a hidden recipient, or completely transparent.
Zcash is an open-source project and published on Github.
Zcash Foundation
This is a non-profit organization a percentage from miner’s rewards regularly. The goal of Zcash Foundation is to fund the development process through. However, the future of the organization is actively discussed in the Zcash community, since at the end of 2020, the miners will stop sponsoring the Zcash Foundation.
In short, at the blockchain level, there is a “tax” called Founder’s Reward, which regularly takes 10% of the miners’ profits in favor of the Electric Coin Company (ECC) and 10% in favor of the Zcash Foundation. According to the plan, Founder’s Reward ends at the end of 2020, after which the community needs to decide whether to continue sponsoring developers or letting the coin float freely with independent developers.
However, not everything is so scary, both companies (ECC and Zcash Foundation) have accumulated certain stocks of coins, which they should be enough for several years with the current ZEC course.
Here is a link to the discussion if you want to understand the situation more – https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/the-future-of-zcash-in-the-year-2020/32372.
Zcash Mining
The ZEC mining process is built on the Equihash algorithm, which uses the Proof-of-Work console protocol. The Equihash is quite popular PoW-algorithm created by Alex Biryukov and Dmitry Khovratovich.
Unlike Monero, Zcash’s main competitor, the use of ASIC mining machines is not prohibited at the protocol level. In May 2018, Electric Coin, the developer of Zcash, officially announced that they are not yet ready to make ASIC mining impossible and are thinking over a “thoughtful and well-reasoned” response.
At the same time, there is the research going on to find miners using ASICs and make Zcash ASIC-resistant in the nearest future.
Upcoming Zcash Halving in 2020
Current block reward for miners is 12.5 ZEC per block, but in October 2020 it’ll be halved to 6.25 ZEC per block.
Roadmap & Future Plans
The official roadmap of the project is planned for release until the end of January 2021, specific changes in each interval are not indicated, a voting period takes place before planning for each release.
Hawk: Privacy-Preserving Smart Contracts
A group of researchers at the University of Maryland and Cornell published a report on decentralized smart contracts with transactions protected by cryptographic algorithms. Their project is called Hawk and the Zcash team, apparently, plans to implement this technology into its blockchain.
More information about the report can be found here.
Video explaining Hawk conception
Zcash (ZEC) Wallets
Zcash developers recommend and advise only their official Zcash Desktop wallet, which can be downloaded here. However, ZEC is quite a popular coin, which is supported by a large number of third-party wallets. Here are some of them:
- ZecWallet – a desktop wallet that support shielded transactions and memo field.
- Trezor & Ledger – a suitable and reliable hardware wallets
- Freewallet for Zcash – mobile wallet with a cold storage
- BitGo – a web wallet that supports transparent multi-signature transactions
- Jaxx Wallet – another mobile wallet with a dedicated Chrome extension
Where to trade ZEC coin?
Exchange | USDT | BTC | ETH | XRP |
Binance | ● | ● | ● | |
HitBTC | ● | ● | ● | |
Coinbase | – | – | – | – |
Gemini | ● | ● | ||
Kraken | ● |
Buy ZEC coin at Changelly
Zcash Summary
Zcash (ZEC) is a wonderful coin that has earned trust among the cryptocurrency community as well as in the traditional financial world. Nevertheless, 2020 will be a crucial year for the project, which will reduce the reward for the unit and decide the fate of the developer remuneration mechanism. Let us hope that the community and the developer will come to a consensus on this issue, and the value of the asset will grow significantly!
Disclaimer: This article about Zcash (ZEC) should not be considered as offering trading recommendations. The cryptocurrency market suffers from high volatility and occasional arbitrary movements. Any investor should research multiple viewpoints and be familiar with all local regulations before committing to an investment.