Meet Zcash, an Anonymous Alternative Version of Bitcoin

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by Tatsiana Yablonskaya · 3 min read
Meet Zcash, an Anonymous Alternative Version of Bitcoin
Zooko Wilcox, Founder and CEO of Zcash Photo: Zcash

Zcash has many similar features with bitcoin although it strives to be as anonymous as cash.

Bitcoin is not dead. This fact is indisputable. However the cryptocurrency is undergoing tough times. And as always when the best in the area grows weaker, multiple alternatives get activated.

Today we are telling you about Zcash launched by Wilcox. Just like bitcoin, Zcash is underpinned by the blockchain. However, this new cryptocurrency is absolutely anonymous and relies on “zero-knowledge proof” to offer the same anti-forgery assurances, while masking the sender or receiver if they wish. Zcash is called an anonymous alternative version of Bitcoin.

Despite the basic idea, bitcoin has never been anonymous. Zcash is intended to make transactions as anonymous as cash. Knowing that bitcoin has quite a lot of competitors, Zcash is believed to stand out as it uses the blockchain to secure and verify transactions while doesn’t pass along identifying data. If things shape up, it can serve as a start of the world’s first truly anonymous currency system.

“Consumers want to buy and sell things over the Internet and need privacy from snoops who might use the knowledge of their transactions against them,” says Wilcox, a 41-year-old cryptographer and creator of Zcash. “This is the first time you can transact with anyone on the Internet, and control over who gets to find out about those transactions is solely in your hands.” By the way, Wilcox is also known in the crypto community for creating Tahoe LAFS, a decentralized encrypted file-storage system.

Zcash will be also created by “mining” computers. However, it differs from bitcoin by its for-profit nature. For the first four years, Wilcox’s Zcash company will get 10% from every mined Zcash coin. A smaller portion of 1% will also go to a non-profit created to oversee the Zcash code and community longterm. The for-profit part will be used to repay investors. With over US$715,000 in funding, the project will have to pay dividends from the very first day.

It’s interesting that since Mike Hearn called bitcoin a failure, Zcash is not the first cryptocurrency that comes into sight.

Aten Coin, one of the bitcoin’s alternatives, is striving to take its place in the digital currency space. Aten Coin is also decentralized, but at the same time it is very transparent and aims to become a currency that is accepted by governments. The new currency is announced to be anti-theft. It is possible to identify the owner of Aten Coins at all times. Thus even if they were stolen, the location of funds would be defined and the coins would be frozen.

Aten Coin’s team has already conducted its first conference in Warsaw, Poland. The list of more than 100 attendees included government and banking professionals from the region, while the CEO of Groupon was a speaker at the event.

There is no confirmed information about who is standing behind Aten Coin. Rumors are flying that the CEO of NAC the National Aten Coin Foundation might be Marcus Andrade. As if the company has raised an undisclosed amount through private funding and is going to reveal its marketing plan about mass adoption soon.

Altcoin News, Cryptocurrency News, Editor's Choice, News
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