Zcash Coin Review: Beginners guide
Zcash (ZEC): Private digital cash.
Industry type: Digital spending cash economy.
What is Zcash? Zcash is a decentralised peer-to-peer cryptocurrency that provides users with highly sought after privacy options. Originally, it was forked from the Bitcoin blockchain and shares the same tried and tested network as well as a limited supply of 21 million coins. Unlike many other cryptocurrencies, there is a company behind Zcash called the Zcash Company, where 10% of all Zcash that is mined within the first four years is given to company stakeholders until the year 2020.
What gives it value?
- It is decentralised.
- It has a limited supply of 21 million.
- It has privacy options to protect the identity of users.
- Due to its privacy features it is fungible, meaning that coins are ‘cleaned’ of their history as it cannot be traced.
Interesting Technology:
- zk-SNARKs is the technology underlying Zcash’s privacy option. It works on what is known as ‘zero-knowledge proofs’. Zero-knowledge proofs allow for two parties to verify and prove each other’s information without revealing what that information is. So although the Zcash blockchain is a public ledger, with zk-SNARKs, a transaction can be verified and publicly recorded without revealing its information.
Notable team:
- Zooko Wilcox is the CEO of Zcash. Wilcox is an American computer security specialist and the CEO of Least Authority Enterprises, a manufacturer of freedom-compatible technologies.
- Alessandro Chiesa is a computer science faculty member of UC Berkeley and the co-founder of ZCash. Chiesa is well known for his research in zero-knowledge proofs and is a lead author at Libsnark, the library of zk-SNARKs proofs language.
- Vitalik Buterin is the founder of Ethereum and an advisor to the Zcash project. Buterin was quoted by CIA whistleblower Edward Snowden for praising the brilliance of zk-SNARKs technology.
Notable partnerships:
- Grayscale Investments, a trusted authority on digital currency investing has Zcash listed as one of its recommended crypto-investments.
- JPMorgan has partnered with Zcash to develop and incorporate its privacy zk-SNARKs layer into their own blockchain project.
- Ethereum is collaborating with Zcash to integrate its privacy technology into the Ethereum network.
Zcash Review: The Good
- It has privacy options which protect the users and acts more like a true form of cash.
- It was forked from Bitcoin so shares the same tried and tested network security.
- It has a limited supply of 21 million coins, and the coins are fungible.
- Its team focuses on a peer-reviewed scientific approach to developing its technologies.
- Its privacy technology is arguably more efficient than other popular privacy cryptocurrencies, as it does not load transactions with high volumes of data.
- Its team is highly respected, and its zk-SNARKs technology has received praise from prestigious individuals such as Edward Snowden.
Zcash Review: The Not So Good
- As it is similar to Bitcoin in terms of governance or lack thereof, it may run into similar problems with scaling the network if it receives as much traffic as has caused Bitcoin trouble in the past.
- The Zcash foundation behind Zcash has received criticism for centralising the project and claiming 10% of mined Zcash in the first 4 years.
Future Roadmap:
- Protocol Research and Development to scalability improvements without compromising decentralization.
- Ongoing Business Development and Marketing including community development, market research, and public relations.
CONCLUSION:
Decentralisation, a capped supply, privacy options, and fungibility are all highly sought-after components of a well-rounded cryptocurrency. Zcash has all of these components as well as a respected expert team and institutional support. In my opinion, it is difficult to find fault with Zcash but bare in mind that as it is so closely related to Bitcoin, it may be at risk of sharing similar downfalls.
ZCash Price:
The current ZCash price, market cap and charts.
Local exchanges:
Coinspot: www.coinspot.com.au
Overseas exchanges:
Indacoin: www.indacoin.com
Binance: www.binance.com
Bitfinex: www.bitfinex.com
Kraken: www.kraken.com
Changelly: https://changelly.com/
Where to store this crypto:
Hardware wallet: www.bitgear.com.au
Desktop wallet: https://jaxx.io/
Online wallet: www.cryptonator.com
Mobile wallet: https://coinomi.com/
Similar coins:
Monero (XMR) – The most popular privacy coin.
Dash (DASH) – A popular coin with privacy features.
ZenCash (ZEN) – A privacy focused cryptocurrency.
Verge (XVG) – A developing privacy coin.
Loki (LOKI) – A developing privacy coin.
Further information:
Whitepaper: https://whitepaperdatabase.com/zcash-zec-whitepaper/
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/zec/
Website: https://z.cash/
