Zcash (ZEC) is a privacy-focused coin that maintains the anonymity of transactions while supporting quick and low-cost global value transfer. The digital currency uses cryptographic technology to provide its users the ability to shield their transaction information.
Buy Zcash
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What to Consider When Buying Zcash?
ZEC uses a zero-knowledge cryptography, known as zk-SNARK (zero-knowledge Succinct Non-interactive Arguments of Knowledge), developed by the team behind ZEC. Zero-knowledge proof works by allowing one party to prove to another that a statement is true without revealing any information beyond the validity of the statement. This allows the network to maintain a secured ledger while keeping sender, recipient and amount transferred private. In addition to this, you should consider the points below if you want to buy ZEC:
Use — ZEC is a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency which uses zero-knowledge cryptography. While transaction payments are visible on the public blockchain, participants and amounts are hidden.
Availability. ZEC is one of the more popular cryptocurrencies and is available on a number of crypto exchanges. You can also buy ZEC with a credit card and with fiat currencies.
Market competition. ZEC is a privacy-oriented cryptocurrency but does not provide full anonymity. Cryptocurrencies similar to ZEC, some of which are completely anonymous, are Monero, Bytecoin, Dash, Verge, Spectrecoin, CloakCoin, Hush, NavCoin and PIVX.
Mine Zcash
Like Bitcoin, there are different ways that you can mine Zcash. The two primary methods for Zcash mining are Pool Mining and Solo Mining. Below, I will break down the difference between Pool Mining and Solo Mining and describe which one I think is more beneficial.
Pool Mining
Mining in a pool just means that you combine with other miners, or pool together to increase the chances that you will be awarded the ability to mine a block. The miners then pool the reward for successfully mining the block and divide that reward evenly based on the computing power that each miner contributed to the Zcash mining pool.
Solo Mining
As opposed to pool mining, solo mining does not force the miner to rely on other people to do the work. According to some sources, solo mining and pooled mining yield similar results. However, you will notice that with some coins, as you will soon see with Zcash, newer technology has made solo mining almost obsolete.
In the past, solo mining was profitable for mining Zcash. However, the network hash rate is very high now. This factor is swaying some people away from solo mining. The network hash rate can be thought of as a way to measure processing power within the Bitcoin (or Zcash) network. Since the network hash rate is high, it requires a lot of electricity and expensive hardware. I recommend starting with a mining pool instead.
Regardless of whether you mine in a pool or you choose to go with solo mining, you will be rewarded for successfully mining a block. This is known as the Block Reward. Read more about block rewards below.
Is Zcash Mining Profitable?
As the price currently stands, Zcash mining is profitable. Like other investments, though, you are of course taking a financial risk. If the price of the Zcash coin fell overnight, your income would suffer. It may seem easy to just set up a rig and make a passive income, but do not underestimate the associated risks.
Depending on the source you look at, you will find different answers for whether Zcash mining has a strong ROI. When compared against an Ethereum mining rig in this post, Zcash came out as the loser. It yielded more than $40.00 less than what ETH yielded in the same month.
Stake Zcash
Earning interest on your Zcash is easy and we will go over the steps for you to take to do so. Celsius is a popular crypto borrowing and lending platform that allows you to earn interest on a variety of different cryptocurrencies. Earning interest on Celsius is extremely easy because all you need to do is hold the cryptocurrency in your Celsius wallet, no need to lock it up. Celsius currently provides 2.02% interest on your Zcash.
Trade Zcash
In case you’re not up for mining, another alternative is to just purchase Zcash tokens. A few trading platforms including Bittrex, Poloniex, Kraken, and HitBTC have established themselves as reputed Zcash exchanges.
The expectation is that Zcash will take care of the privacy issue, utilizing the setup of cryptographic algorithm, zk-Snarks. The fundamental thought is that when you make an exchange, you give a proof that says you approach a specific measure of assets, yet that verification gives zero information to other individuals about what those assets are.
Regardless of whether Zcash fulfils its aim, the truth will eventually surface. As it states on its site, Zcash still sees itself as “an exploratory innovation” and alerts that “there is chance included.” But for some individuals who wish they had bounced into Bitcoin before, those alerts may go unheard.
Lend Zcash
The easiest way to earn yield on your ZEC in Australia is through an exchange or lending service such as Celsius and Gemini Cryptocurrency Exchange.
You can earn up to 0.65% on ZEC with Celsius or compare a range of other rates and providers by using our comparison table and rewards calculator.
How to Earn Free Zcash?
- Zcash Faucet
- Zcash PTC Sites
- Zcash Airdrop
- Zcash GameFi
- Zcash Bounties
- Learning AboutZcash
- Shopping Reward
- Zcash Interest
- Owning a Faucet
- Write about Zcash
- Zcash Affiliate Program
- Free ZcashCloud Mining
Read More: How to Earn Free Zcash (ZEC) in 2022 (12 Safe Ways)
Zcash Origins and History
Zcash was launched on October 28, 2016 by the Electronic Coin Company (ECC). The ECC was formerly known as Zerocoin Electric Coin Company, LLC before rebranding. The company was founded by an information security and cryptography expert, Zooko Wilcox-O’Hearn. He developed the Zcash protocol together with professors and academic researchers from John Hopkins University, MIT, Tel Aviv University, and Technion.
The ECC raised $3 million in funding to develop the initial Zcash protocol. Zcash was initially based on Bitcoin codebase. Zooko Wilcox-O’Hearn was also previously involved with Digicash, Mojo Nation, and the Tahoe Least-Authority File Store filesystem. He also co-invented the BLAKE3 cryptographic hash function.
Between 2016 and 2018, Zcash released a series of upgrades called the “Sprout Series” with two core protocol upgrades, i.e., Overwinter and Sapling. The Zcash Foundation was launched in March 2017 with an initial endowment of 273,000 ZEC, released from the “Founders Reward.” The foundation organized the largest multi-party computation ceremony called the Powers of Tau Ceremony.
Blossom, the third network upgrade for Zcash, was carried out in December 2019 and halved the target block interval to 75 seconds. The fourth and fifth network upgrades, Heartwood and Canopy, occurred in July 2020 and November 2020, respectively. After the first halving in November 2020, Zcash did away with the “Founders Reward” and cut miners’ rewards from 6.25 ZEC to 3.125 ZEC.
Zcash: To invest or not to invest?
The decision to buy Zcash is a personal one that predictions and data will only help you with it. On a short-term projection, investing in Zcash looks tricky because price predictions are not uniform.
While some believe it will increase, others think it is a bad short-term investment.
However, the opinions on long-term investment are quite uniform. Almost every prediction platform, including WalletInvestor, expects an increase in price in two to five years. The predictions are already fully explained above, and you can study them to make your decision.
