Zcash – more anonymous than Bitcoin
Zooko Wilcox is another pioneer who has created Zcash — a new cryptocurrency which is claimed to be more anonymous and safe than Bitcoin. In this review we are going to learn more about Zcash and check if this new payment system is that anonymous indeed.
Confidential payments and full decentralization
Zcash is often called the most mysterious cryptocurrency. It was launched in 2015 and since then users have no clear understanding about how exactly it works.
Initially Zcash creators were thinking about launching a cryptocurrency that would be functioning "above" Bitcoin blockchains and will act more like an addon. By some reason Bitcoin administration didn't pay much attention to this idea or, in other words, ignored it.
The name Zcash means not "zero cash" (there were jokes about that) but "zero-knowledge proof". That's a technology used by Zooko Wilcox and his team. It enables to people to make financial transactions between themselves without disclosing any personal information.
Here we have the principal difference between Bitcoin and Zcash. Bitcoin system stores the information about both transaction sum and participants while Zcash system contains only the outcome data (if a transaction was successful or not).
As we see technically Zcash provides more anonymity than Bitcoin indeed. This technology was highly appreciated by scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technologies and Tel Aviv University. The scientists and students also contributed into Zerocash created. Zerocash is just a name of the newest and safest protocol which replaced the previous one — Zerocoin.
Reaction of Bitcoin
Peter Todd — a Bitcoin developer — has a rather show-me attitude to Zcash. He says that this new payment system is "too experimental". Peter Todd is absolutely sure that Zcash makes everything too complicated. He also noted that there is a serious vulnerability in Zcash system — if you want to get more technical details on this, please find the review from Peter Todd online.
In general Todd warns that since Zcash stores no information about transaction sum and participants hackers can find a way to successfully imitate a transaction and create queer money! Yes, that's possible to imitate electronic currencies and sell the fake e-money.
However, some experts disagree with these statements. Lots of users and people who understand encryption well tend to consider Zcash as an innovation. We've found an interesting comparison between Bitcoin and Zcash on the website of the latter: "If Bitcoin is http, then Zcash is https". We really like that!
Other advantages of Zcash
What is the biggest problem of any new electronic currency? You're right — poor availability in exchange services. That is definitely not about Zcash which is available on Poloniex, Kraken, BitMEX and few other major exchange services.
We would also like to specify volatility as an advantage, although that's relevant for experienced traders only. For example, in February Zcash exchange rate steeply fell by more than 20%! It has been gradually growing since then, though, and now it's the high time to buy some ZAC!
Website of Zcash is a masterpiece among websites of other cryptocurrencies and payment services — it is modern, easy to use and fully localized into five mostly used languages (English, Chinese, Portuguese, Spanish and Russian). Well, French and German are missing for now but we're sure they will be added soon together with Japanese.
F.A.Q section contains plenty of useful information — for instance, step by step instruction for environment and electronic wallet installation. The only minus here is that some answers are not translated and are available in English only.
Zcash offers an opportunity to mine coins for everybody who is interested. Medium time for a block creation is 2.5 minutes only. Today is great time for Zcash mining — the cryptocurrency is only growing popular and the competition for mining is not that tough yet. You have all the chances to win your prize! Check F.A.Q section of Zcash website to find more details on mining.
Zcash website is simple and impressive. You can read the latest news there and check what worldwide known newspapers and magazines write about this cryptocurrency. New York Times, The Economist, American Banker and lots of other famous editions have already noticed and reviewed Zcash.
Finally, there is users' forum and developers' chat available on the official website of Zcash. Ask your questions, share your opinion — that's all possible as pretty many users are registered.
Disadvantages of Zcash
The most obvious disadvantage is that the system can be used for illegal purpose. That's absolutely obvious that if the system does not save and store personal and financial data anyone can use it for anything. You cannot exclude that it's already happening. We hope Zcash administration has some effective tools to prevent illegal actions in their payment system.
Customer support of Zcash is slow, really. They answer questions in English only. You can ask them in your language but please try to be brief and avoid using difficult words and long sentences — they will translate your question in Google Translate and get back to you.
Probably that's all about disadvantages of Zcash. That's a very young service and the time will soon show if it's really a cryptocurrency of the future.
Conclusion
Traders who set up sail to every wind were aware about launch of a new cryptocurrency even on beta-testing stage. Zcash is a serious service and we'd rather not recommend it for beginners. If you only start online trading there're lots of other worthy electronic currencies which are less risky. But if you are eager to try with an innovative e-currency — install Zcash wallet and start mining and trading!
