This article is about the cryptocurrency Zcash. Not to be confused with Zerocoin.
Zcash
Ticker symbolZEC
Currency nameZcash
White paperZcash Protocol Specification
Initial release date28 October 2016 (age 9)
Iso codeZEC[infobox 1]
Block reward3.125 ZEC (80% to miners; 20% is portioned out to a Major Grants Fund (8%), Electric Coin Co (7%), and the Zcash Foundation (5%)), from Canopy upgrade until first halving[1][2]
Supply limit21,000,000[1]
StatusActive
Latest release version6.11.0
Latest release date10 January 2026 (age 0)[3]
Project fork ofBitcoin Core
Programming languagesC++ and Rust (zcashd), Python (zcashd test suite), Rust (zebra), Kotlin (Android SDK), Swift (iOS SDK), Go (lightwalletd)
Hash functionEquihash
Issuance scheduleSimilar to Bitcoin, with "slow start" and different block interval
Block time75 seconds (post-Blossom upgrade)[1]
Operating systemLinux, Windows, macOS
DeveloperElectric Coin Company (zcashd), Zcash Foundation (zebra)
Source modelOpen source
LicenseMIT (main zcashd code); MIT/Apache (zebra and some support libraries); BOSL (orchard)
Websitez.cash
Code repositorygithub.com/zcash/zcash
  1. ^ Unofficial.

Zcash is a privacy-focused cryptocurrency which features an encrypted ledger using zero-knowledge proofs.[4]

Launched in October 2016, Zcash was developed by cryptographers at Johns Hopkins University and MIT and derived its code from bitcoin.[5][6][7][8] Zcash was one of the first large-scale implementations of zero-knowledge proofs outside of academia.[9][10][11]

Design

Zcash is modeled on bitcoin, sharing its proof-of-work consensus mechanism.[5][12][13][11]

In 2016, Tom Robinson, co-founder of blockchain tracing firm Elliptic, told CNBC that Zcash appeared to have achieved a high level of anonymity.[14]

Zcash supports two types of addresses: transparent addresses, which function similarly to bitcoin addresses with publicly visible transactions, and shielded addresses, which use zero-knowledge proofs to encrypt transaction data.[5][15][12] Shielded transactions can be verified as valid without revealing the sender, recipient, or amount transferred.[6][12] Users can transact between the two types, allowing funds to move between the transparent and shielded pools.[5]

This optional privacy model is intended to preserve fungibility, allowing units of the currency to be treated equally regardless of their transaction history.[12][6] Users also have the option to share private viewing keys, allowing designated third parties to see their transaction details for auditing purposes.[12][16] A 2018 study found that while it is possible to use Zcash privately, the anonymity set of the shielded pool could be reduced through heuristics-based analysis of usage patterns.[17] The analysis predates subsequent protocol upgrades to the shielded transaction system.[9]

In 2022, journalist Andy Greenberg described Zcash's shielded transactions as "provably inaccessible" to surveillance and said he had not seen evidence that its anonymity could be compromised.[18][page needed]

History

Development work on Zcash began in 2013 by Johns Hopkins University professor Matthew Green and his graduate students Ian Miers and Christina Garman, who developed the Zerocoin protocol. They subsequently joined forces with a team of cryptographers including Alessandro Chiesa and Madars Virza from MIT, and Eli Ben-Sasson from the Technion and Eran Tromer from Tel Aviv University, who had developed a more efficient variant called zk-SNARKs.[5][19][9][16] The development was completed by the for-profit Zcash Company, led by Zooko Wilcox, a Colorado based computer security specialist.[5] The Zcash Company raised over $3 million from investors including Naval Ravikant.[5][19]

Zcash was first mined in late October 2016.[12] To generate revenue, 10% of all coins mined for the first four years were automatically distributed to the Zcash Company and the Zcash Foundation.[5]

The instantiation of the Zcash network required the creation of a master private key. To ensure privacy, this private key must later be destroyed, otherwise counterfeit Zcash coins could be generated. To maximize the chance that no one person could obtain the private key, software was written which allowed individuals from six different locations to collaboratively generate the private key, use it to instantiate Zcash, and then destroy the computers used in the process afterwards.[20][19][10] In 2019, Electric Coin Company researcher Sean Bowe discovered Halo, a technique for generating zero-knowledge proofs without requiring a trusted setup ceremony.[9][21][22] This eliminated the need for the elaborate multi-party ceremonies used at launch.

In 2018, MIT Technology Review named Zcash co-founder Alessandro Chiesa, an assistant professor at the University of California, Berkeley, to its Innovators Under 35 list for his work on the zero-knowledge proof technology underlying the cryptocurrency.[23]

In 2022, Edward Snowden revealed that he had participated in the creation of Zcash under the pseudonym "John Dobbertin."[24][25][26] Other participants in the ceremony included Peter Todd, a Bitcoin Core developer.[24]

On February 21, 2019, the "Zcash Company" announced a rebranding as the Electric Coin Company (ECC).[27] In 2020, the Electric Coin Company transitioned to nonprofit ownership, becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of the Bootstrap Project, a 501(c)(3) organization.[28]

In September 2023, a mining pool named ViaBTC had seized control of over half the hashing power on Zcash. This 51% dominance raised worries about a 51% attack, where they could potentially manipulate transactions and harm the network. In response, Coinbase placed Zcash markets into "limit-only" mode in an effort to prevent significant price swings.[29]

In November 2025, Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss invested $50 million to launch Cypherpunk Technologies, a digital-asset treasury company focused on the cryptocurrency.[30]

In January 2026, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission closed a probe into Zcash.[30]

In April 2026, Foundry, one of the largest bitcoin mining pool operators, launched a dedicated Zcash mining pool.[31]

Usage

In 2017, JPMorgan Chase integrated Zcash's zero-knowledge proof technology into its enterprise blockchain platform Quorum to enable confidential transactions for business clients.[19][13][32] Fortune reported that Zcash's fundamental technology would be added to the Ethereum network.[19]

In late 2017, Grayscale Investments launched a Zcash investment fund, which is the company's third dedicated cryptocurrency fund after bitcoin and Ethereum Classic.[33] In 2026, Grayscale filed with regulators to convert the fund into an exchange-traded fund.[30]

In May 2018, the New York State Department of Financial Services approved Zcash for trading on Gemini.[34][35]

The Freedom of the Press Foundation, the Human Rights Foundation, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation have accepted Zcash donations.[36][37]

Crime

In 2017, the European Union's law enforcement agency Europol flagged Zcash, along with bitcoin and Monero, for potential use in internet-based crime.[38] The same report noted that Zcash was not known to have a significant criminal following.[38] In 2018, several Japanese exchanges delisted Zcash and other privacy-focused cryptocurrencies citing regulatory pressure following a major exchange hack; the delisted coins had not been involved in the hack.[39][40]

A 2020 research report by the RAND Corporation examined eight major dark web marketplaces and found that 59% of cryptocurrency mentions were bitcoin and 27% were Monero, compared with less than 1% for Zcash, concluding that there was "little evidence" that privacy coins were preferred by criminals despite their anonymity features.[15][39] A 2023 analysis of cryptocurrency and crime similarly found that Zcash held less appeal to criminals than other privacy coins, noting that it "featured very rarely on the dark web" compared to Monero.[41]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Frequently Asked Questions - Zcash". Zcash. Archived 24 June 2019 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 10 July 2019.
  2. ^ "Canopy". Archived 17 April 2023 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2023-04-17.
  3. ^ "Releases - zcash/zcash". Retrieved 21 March 2026. – via GitHub
  4. ^ Carlisle, David (2023-12-26). The Crypto Launderers: Crime and Cryptocurrencies from the Dark Web to DeFi and Beyond. John Wiley & Sons. p. 70. ISBN 978-1-394-20319-2.
  5. ^ Popper, Nathaniel (2016-10-31). "Zcash, a Harder-to-Trace Virtual Currency, Generates Price Frenzy". The New York Times. Archived 11 January 2019 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 26 January 2017.
  6. ^ Hackett, Robert (2016-10-29). "Meet the Latest Hyped Cryptocurrency". Fortune
  7. ^ Orcutt, Mike (2017-11-09). "A Mind-Bending Cryptographic Trick Promises to Take Blockchains Mainstream". MIT Technology Review
  8. ^ Greenberg, Andy (2016-01-20). "Zcash, an Untraceable Bitcoin Alternative, Launches in Alpha". WIRED
  9. ^ Weiss, Ben (2023-06-05). "A brief history of zero-knowledge proofs, the buzzy mathematical technique that's taken crypto by storm". Fortune. Retrieved 22 March 2026.
  10. ^ Peck, Morgen E. (2016-12-02). "The Crazy Security Behind the Birth of Zcash, the Inside Story". IEEE Spectrum
  11. ^ "Known unknown". The Economist. 2016-10-27.
  12. ^ Elaine, Ou (November 1, 2016). "Bitcoin Isn't Anonymous Enough". Bloomberg.com. Bloomberg. Retrieved 17 November 2020.
  13. ^ Orcutt, Mike (2017-11-24). "Why America's Biggest Bank Digs Anonymous Cryptocurrency". MIT Technology Review
  14. ^ Graham, Luke (2016-10-31). "New bitcoin rival promises anonymity for online purchases". CNBC
  15. ^ Silfversten, Erik; Favaro, Marina; Slapakova, Linda; Ishikawa, Sascha; Liu, James; Salas, Adrian (2020-05-06). "Exploring the use of Zcash cryptocurrency for illicit or criminal purposes". Archived 21 September 2020 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 5 September 2020.
  16. ^ Peck, Morgen E. (2016-11-18). "A Blockchain Currency That Beats Bitcoin On Privacy". IEEE Spectrum
  17. ^ Kappos, George; Yousaf, Haaroon; Maller, Mary; Meiklejohn, Sarah (2018). An Empirical Analysis of Anonymity in Zcash. pp. 463–477. ISBN 978-1-939133-04-5. Archived 26 April 2020 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
  18. ^ Greenberg, Andy (2022). Tracers in the Dark: The Global Hunt for the Crime Lords of Cryptocurrency. Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-385-54809-0.
  19. ^ Hackett, Robert (2017-12-18). "Can This Man Build a Better Bitcoin?". Fortune
  20. ^ Webster, Molly & Kielty, Matt (25 February 2021). "The Ceremony". Radiolab. National Public Radio. Archived 28 June 2021 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 29 June 2021.
  21. ^ Bowe, Sean; Grigg, Jack; Hopwood, Daira (2019). "Recursive Proof Composition without a Trusted Setup". Cryptology ePrint Archive
  22. ^ Hackett, Robert (2019-02-05). "Zcash Discloses Vulnerability That Could Have Allowed 'Infinite Counterfeit' Cryptocurrency". Fortune
  23. ^ Solomon, Dan (2018-06-27). "Alessandro Chiesa". MIT Technology Review
  24. ^ Locke, Taylor (2022-04-28). "Edward Snowden says he's the mystery man involved in the creation of leading privacy cryptocurrency Zcash". Fortune. Archived 2 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2022-11-02.
  25. ^ del Castillo, Michael (2022-04-27). "Edward Snowden Revealed As Key Participant In Mysterious Ceremony Creating $2 Billion Anonymous Cryptocurrency". Forbes
  26. ^ Christensen, Meg (2022-04-29). "Edward Snowden Taught Zcash CEO Zooko Wilcox A CIA Trick To Help Keep The Creation Ceremony Secure". Forbes
  27. ^ "Goodbye, Zcash Company. Hello, Electric Coin Company.". Electric Coin Company. 2019-02-21. Archived 21 October 2020 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2020-11-09.
  28. ^ "ECC owners approve donation to Bootstrap Project". Electric Coin Company. 2020-10-27. Archived 9 November 2020 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2020-11-09.
  29. ^ "Crypto and the Curse of the 51%". Bloomberg.com. 2023-09-26. Archived 27 September 2023 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2023-12-24.
  30. ^ Zuckerman, Gregory & Huang, Vicky Ge (2026-05-14). "It’s a More Secret Version of Bitcoin and It’s on a Tear". The Wall Street Journal
  31. ^ Roberts, Jeff John (2026-04-13). "Bitcoin mining giant Foundry adds new pool for privacy-focused Zcash". Fortune. Retrieved 21 April 2026.
  32. ^ Hackett, Robert (2018-05-24). "How JPMorgan Chase Learned to Love the Blockchain". Fortune. Retrieved 4 May 2026.
  33. ^ Hackett, Robert (2018-01-31). "One of Bitcoin's Biggest Asset Managers Says Zcash Could Hit $60,000 in 2025". Fortune. Retrieved 4 May 2026. – via Yahoo News.
  34. ^ Kharif, Olga (2018-05-14). "'Privacy Coin' ZCash Lands on Winklevoss's Gemini Exchange". Bloomberg.com
  35. ^ Shen, Lucinda (2018-05-15). "Here's Why Cryptocurrency Zcash Is Soaring While Bitcoin Languishes". Fortune. Retrieved 4 May 2026. – via Yahoo News.
  36. ^ Liao, Shannon (2018-06-18). "The Freedom of the Press Foundation now accepts bitcoin cash, ether, and other cryptocurrencies". The Verge
  37. ^ del Castillo, Michael (2020-05-06). "Cypherpunk Zooko Wilcox Aims To Bring Anonymous Zcash To Law-Abiding Masses". Forbes
  38. ^ Kharif, Olga (2018-01-02). "The Criminal Underworld Is Dropping Bitcoin for Another Currency". Bloomberg.com
  39. ^ del Castillo, Michael (2020-05-12). "Privacy Coins Monero, Zcash And Dash Face Uphill Battle In Japan". Forbes
  40. ^ Evans, Jon (2018-06-24). "Zcash: life on the crypto roller coaster". TechCrunch
  41. ^ Carlisle, David (2023-12-26). The Crypto Launderers: Crime and Cryptocurrencies from the Dark Web to DeFi and Beyond. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 70–73. ISBN 978-1-394-20319-2.