Zcash Price, News and Analysis (ZEC)

zk-SNARKsThe BasicZcash is the first widespread application of zk-SNARKs, a novel form of zero-knowledge cryptography. The strong privacy guarantee of Zcash is derived from the fact that shielded transactions in Zcash can be fully encrypted on the blockchain, yet still be verified as valid under the network’s consensus rules by using zk-SNARK proofs. The acronym zk-SNARK stands for “Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Argument of Knowledge,” and refers to a proof construction where one can prove possession of certain information, e.g. a secret key, without revealing that information, and without any interaction between the prover and verifier. “Zero-knowledge” proofs allow one party (the prover) to prove to another (the verifier) that a statement is true, without revealing any information beyond the validity of the statement itself. For example, given the hash of a random number, the prover could convince the verifier that there indeed exists a number with this hash value, without revealing what it is.   Application to ZCASHIn order to have zero-knowledge privacy in Zcash, the function determining the validity of a transaction according to the network’s consensus rules must return the answer of whether the transaction is valid or not, without revealing any of the information it performed the calculations on. This is done by encoding some of the network's consensus rules in zk-SNARKs. At a high level, zk-SNARKs work by first turning what you want to prove into an equivalent form about knowing a solution to some algebraic equations. In the following section, we give a brief overview of how the rules for determining a valid transaction get transformed into equations that can then be evaluated on a candidate solution without revealing any sensitive information to the parties verifying the equations. (Description provided by CryptoCompare)

Zcash can be purchased or sold on the following cryptocurrency exchanges: Lbank, HitBTC, Huobi, Binance, BCEX, WEX, Bit-Z, Bitfinex, OKEx, Bittrex, OTCBTC, Sistemkoin, Exmo, Kraken, C2CX, Poloniex, Bithumb, Coinroom, Ovis, Upbit, Gate.io, YoBit, BTC-Alpha, CoinEx, CEX.IO, Cryptopia, BX Thailand, BTC Trade UA, Waves Decentralized Exchange, The Rock Trading, Crex24, GOPAX, BigONE, LiteBit.eu, CoinExchange, Braziliex, Qryptos, Trade Satoshi, Abucoins, Allcoin, Bitlish, Cryptohub, Tux Exchange, Cryptomate, Mercatox and Coinrail.

It is not possible to buy most cryptocurrencies with U.S. dollars. Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum and Litecoin can be purchased with U.S. dollars using Coinbase. Once you have purchased Bitcoin using Coinbase, you can then transfer your Bitcoin to an exchange such as Binance or Changelly to purchase other cryptocurrencies, including Zcash.

Zcash produces its own wallet software that is available for download on its website, which allows you to store Zcash on your computer. For maximum security, you can store your cryptocurrencies on a dedicated hardware wallet such as a TREZOR wallet or a Ledger Nano S. If you do not wish to buy a hardware wallet, you may consider using a mobile wallet such as Jaxx or Coinomi to store multiple cryptocurrencies with some added security benefits.

One Zcash (ZEC) is currently worth $262.96 on major cryptocurrency exchanges. You can also exchange one Zcash for 0.03596800 bitcoin(s) on major exchanges. The value (or market capitalization) of all available Zcash in U.S. dollars is $1.05 billion.

Zcash is a proof of work (PoW) coin that uses the Equihash algorithm.

Zcash can be mined using specialized mining software. XMR Stak is a commonly-used mining tool that works for CPU mining and GPU mining with both Nvidia and AMD graphics cards. CCMiner is another popular mining tool for computers with NVIDIA graphics cards. In addition to having mining software, you will need a Zcash and access to a mining pool that pools your effort with other miners and a wallet to store the Zcash that you earn from mining. Most cryptocurrencies have multiple publicly-available mining pools that can be found with a simple Google search.

The following coins use Zcash's Equihash algorithm and proof of work (PoW) proof-type: Bitcoin Gold, Bitcoin Private, ZenCash, ZClassic, BitcoinZ, Hush, Zero, Bitgem, VoteCoin and Bitcoin Interest.

The official Reddit community (subreddit) for Zcash is N/A.