Zcash

Zcash is a cryptocurrency aimed at using cryptography to provide enhanced privacy for its users compared to other cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. It initially appeared as Zerocoin protocol that was later improved and transformed into the Zerocash system, which was then developed into the Zcash cryptocurrency in 2016.

Development of protocol improvements and the reference implementation is led by the Zerocoin Electric Coin Company, colloquially referred to as Zcash Company. The founder and CEO of Zcash Company is Zooko Wilcox-O’Hearn. Its founding team includes cryptographer Matthew D. Green from Johns Hopkins University. Roger Ver was one of Zcash Company’s initial investors.

Zcash’s mission is to enable everyone to achieve economic independence. With Zcash, everyone has the right to privacy, the pursuit of economic independence is noble, and the future of money is a virtual currency that is impervious to attack and censorship.

Zcash aims to keep the same structure as Bitcoin but with its anonymity and fungibility as an additional feature. Fungibility refers to the ease of replacement of one commodity with another. Money, if it is gold or cash like the US Dollar, is fungible because you may swap it for anything else.

One of the key features of Zcash is the integration of PIVX-adopted ZK-SNARK technology. ZK-SNARKs is an abbreviation for Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Knowledge Argument. They aid in establishing trust while dealing in a blockchain and significantly increase the speed of verifying a transaction while masking data from prying eyes.