Zcash

Zcash (ZEC) is a decentralized open-source cryptocurrency that ensures privacy and selective transparency of transactions. Zcash coin payments are published on the public blockchain, but the sender, receiver and transfer amount remain confidential.

The level of anonymity of Zcash is noted by many well-known companies and individuals. For example, WikiLeaks began accepting donations in Cash, Edward Snowden called cryptocurrency the most interesting alternative to Bitcoin, and Europol officially expressed concern about the increasing popularity of cryptocurrency.

What is Zcash?

Zcash cryptocurrency is based on the protocol of Bitcoin, however, it supports its own blockchain and currency token. Like Bitcoin, Zcash cryptocurrency can be sent around the world and exchanged for other crypto or fiat currencies through online exchanges, personal transfers etc.

Zcash has a maximum supply of 21 million coins. A draft proposal for the NU7 network upgrade describes the current target spacing as 75 seconds and proposes 25-second spacing together with per-pool action limits. The proposal is marked as a draft and does not establish that these changes have activated on the network.^[1]

The main technical peculiarity of Zcash is the use of the zero-knowledge proof, which allows to confirm transactions without disclosing additional information and makes the use of the crypto currency totally anonymous.

History

In 2014, zerocoin developers from Johns Hopkins University and cryptographic teams from Massachusetts Institute of technology, Israel Institute of Technology and tel Aviv University developed the zerocash Protocol. Together they were able to improve the original design, making it more efficient and more private^[1].

> "Thanks to the New zerocash Protocol, unlike Zerocoin, users can make direct payments to each other using a much more efficient cryptographic Protocol that hides not only the origin but also the amount of the payment".»

The zcash for the project was officially announced as the Executive Director Zuko Wilcox. January 20, 2016 as the evolution of the Existing zerocoin project (work of Matthew green, Ian Mayer, Christina Harman, Aviel D. Rubin, Johns Hopkins University, Department of computer science).

With the use of the new Protocol appeared independent cryptocurrency Zcash (ZEC), ceased to be a "Supplement" to bitcoin. On October 28, 2016, Zuko Wilcox held the official" cryptographic ceremony " of the Zcash launch.

Zero-knowledge proof

Zero-knowledge proof is a cryptographic principle that allows to check transactions with encrypted data of the sender’s address, receiver’s address and the transferred amount.

Zcash coin uses a specific type of the zero-knowledge proof that is called zk-SNARKs. For that end, in a Zcash transaction a data string (“key tuple”) is generated by the sender, which consists of a spending key, viewing key and billing address.

A sender cannot generate this string unless he possesses spending keys or the values of sending and receiving are not equal. Zk-SNARKs also creates a unique nullifying function, which marks the tokens as spent after the transaction completion.

Usually, a collection of a billing address, viewing and spending keys is encrypted and unavailable for users. In this way, the transaction check with the keeping the confidentiality of its details is carried out. However, Zcash can carry out public transaction too, providing all data of keys in this case^[2].

Zcash exchange

Zcash cryptocurrency is available for purchasing for anybody. To buy Zcash, it is enough to have a cryptocurrency wallet and crypto exchange. It is traded on most popular exchanges, such as Bitfinex, Binance, Huobi, HitBTC, Changelly, Bithumb and etc.

Wallet

To store Zcash tokens, it is possible to use an official Zcash wallet and 3rd party wallets, including Exodus, Jaxx, Coinomi, Freewallet and etc.

Moreover, Zcash offers two types of wallet addresses:

A shielded address - a type of account that has advanced privacy of transactions from being exposed to third parties.
Transparent addresses are being openly viewed in the blockchain, but they are also pseudonymous and do not necessarily reveal the owner’s identity. ^[3]

Zcash Price

There is a relevant Zcash price in USD from COIN360 widget:

Rewarding of founders

During the first 4 years, a tenth of the whole possible money stock will be divided among the founders, investors, employees and consultants of the Zcash project – the so-called “rewarding of founders”.

The investors who invested funds in the creation of Zcash will all together receive 1.65%, the founders, employees and consultants – 5.72%. Another 1.19% goes to the “Strategic Reserve of Zcash Company”, while the remaining 1.44% is received by the non-commercial organization Zcash Foundation, founded in May 2017. The strategic reserve is intended to finance projects related to Zcash, while the Foundation supports and maintains the Zcash protocol.

Proposed NU7 changes and 2026 poll

ZIP 218 is a draft proposal to change the target spacing from 75 seconds to 25 seconds and to add global and per-pool action limits for shielded transactions. It also describes an adjustment to per-block issuance so that the emission rate per day would remain comparable under the proposed spacing. These are proposed changes; the ZIP does not provide an activation height or establish that the changes are active.^[2]

In September 2026, Zcash Labs listed a coinholder voting window for NU7 from 25 August through 14 September. A Zcash Community Forum post reported poll results including support for preserving scheduled halvings and for faster block times. These polls were governance consultations and did not themselves activate a consensus change.^[3]^[4]

External links

References

[1] Zcash ZIP 218, “25-second Block Target Spacing”, draft.

[2] Zcash ZIP 218, “25-second Block Target Spacing”, draft.

[3] Zcash Labs, “NU7 coinholder vote”.

[4] Zcash Community Forum, “NU7 Sentiment Polls Results”, 14 September 2026.

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