006 – Zcash is a decentralized open source cryptocurrency that ensures privacy and selective transparency of transactions. Zcash coin payments are published on a public blockchain, but the data of the sender, the recipient and the amount of the transfer are confidential.

Thank you for reading this post, don’t forget to subscribe!

Zcash’s main pillar is to maintain in all situations: maximum security, privacy and even anonymity of its users; for this purpose it uses first level cryptographic technology.

This cryptocurrency is based on the Bitcoin protocol, but has its own blockchain and cryptocurrency. Moreover, unlike Bitcoin, it is intended to be private and completely anonymous. This is possible thanks to the use of Zero Knowledge Protocols (ZKP). Thanks to this system, it is possible to confirm transactions without revealing additional information, making its use completely anonymous.

This project was born in 2014 with the design of the Zerocoin Protocol and with the aim of improving the privacy and anonymity of Bitcoin. However, its operation had several weaknesses, mainly the high computational cost it added to Bitcoin. Despite this, the protocol was successfully implemented in currencies such as ZeroVert (ZER) and Zcoin (ZXC).

The Zcash project started as a Bitcoin fork with added support for the Zerocash protocol. Finally, its launch was officially announced on January 20, 2016 by Zooko Wilcox-O’Hearn. Currently, the Zcash version is called by the code name, Sapling and differs considerably from the Bitcoin code.

Zcash has two types of addresses: private (z-addresses) or transparent (t-addresses). Private addresses start with a “z”, and transparent addresses start with a “t”. A z-to-z transaction appears in the block explorer, so it is known that it occurred and the fees were paid. But the addresses, transaction amount and memo field are encrypted and not publicly visible. This is possible through the use of zero-knowledge protocols, i.e. through the use of zk-SNARKs.

Thus, for example, the owner of an address may choose to disclose the z address and transaction details with trusted third parties. For these, he makes use of display and payment disclosure keys. In this way, the display option can be enabled to trusted third parties for auditing purposes. Moreover, transactions between two transparent addresses (t-addresses) work just like Bitcoin.

Zcash has some attractive features including:

– Low-cost transactions: Transactions have costs close to 0.0001 ZEC.

– Address and transaction privacy: Zcash offers two types of addresses: private and transparent.

– Encrypted mems: Another feature of Zcash is the ability to send encrypted mems.

– Viewing keys: These features allow Zcash owners to enable audits on their accounts.

– Payment disclosure: The sender or recipient of a transaction may disclose specific details of the transaction to third parties. This is as necessary for an audit.

– Transaction expiration: Zcash supports transaction expiration to minimize the impact of an untapped transaction. By default, a transaction will expire and funds will not be encumbered if the transaction is not mined after 50 minutes (20 blocks).

-Transacciones multi-signatura: Zcash admite transacciones que requieren varias firmas. Esto significa que una transacción puede requerir que dos o más partes acepten la transacción antes de que se envíen los fondos.

– Multi-signature transactions: Zcash supports transactions that require multiple signatures. This means that a transaction may require two or more parties to accept the transaction before funds are sent.

Zcash has become a very attractive crypto for users and stands out in the digital financial markets.