Zcash is one of the cryptocurrencies that can be considered first generation, and despite the fact that it is not usually in the cryptoactive mainstream, its proposal has been so interesting over the years that it has maintained a strong and growing community around it. its more technical characteristics.
Cointelegraph en Español has spoken with the Venezuelan Roosevelt Gordones, entrepreneur, podcaster and member of the Zcash community from Latin America, In order to learn and understand a little more about this cryptoactive and its network, which is popular, they say that it provides a remarkable level of security and privacy compared to other blockchains.
What makes Zcash unique
According to Roosevelt Gordons, Zcash’s power lies in its technology by using the zk-snarks protocol, which guarantees total or partial obfuscation (depending on the user’s decision) of transaction data.
According to him, Zcash has been a pioneer in the use and development of this protocol, and other blockchains are already considering implementing it. “Even Vitalik Buterin has mentioned a couple of times his desire to make Ethereum more private using this very protocol”he mentioned.
In addition, Gordones took the opportunity to clarify that Zcash is completely based on bitcoin, therefore, its creation was given to improve bitcoin, and not to compete with it.
Some network improvements
In Gordon’s opinion, wallets are a pending product on the network, since they should try to improve their native wallets, making them more pleasant and faster in their graphical interface. He told us that while I know improvements are being made to a couple of them, they haven’t come as fast as they should have, and it’s ended up being a key roadblock to mass adoption: “When a user starts using a cryptocurrency, and their wallets are slow or complicated to manage, their intensive use will be difficult”Gordons said.
About the switch to Proof of Stake
In context, who is also a member of the Zcash community in Latin America, revealed that the community is very dividedresulting, in his opinion, in practically a technical draw, where there is no clear trend that favors one algorithm or the other. However, he believes that the change will soon be made, because the Electric Coin Company has already been talking about the issue since 2021, and proposals are being prepared, to show them to the community and decide their implementation.
“Personally, I think that the change from Zcash to PoS will be positive, due to the advantages that this entails. This could also help increase adoption.”he opined.
On the other hand, he stressed that zcashd protocol update 5.5 is expected in the coming weeks, with a lot of improvements in terms of wallets, nodes, fees and other technical details.
Why isn’t Zcash talked about so much?
In this sense, Gordones revealed that he believes that it is because the financial privacy niche is not as attractive to people as the price of a crypto asset is.
“Unfortunately, people care more about the price, than about the implications of shielding their identity, their transactions and their funds”said.
“Although that is changing, because initiatives are being implemented from the community to disseminate and educate more about Zcash and the importance of its use”Gordon added.
The accusation of use only for criminal purposes
In Gordon’s words, those who think so seek to have an excuse to prohibit or regulate its useand also reveal a lot of ignorance about reality, since, according to him, it is public and notorious that criminals prefer fiat money and traditional banking.
“Every year there are studies that show numbers about this, and only 1% of crimes use this type of cryptocurrency. That is why constant education and information on these issues is important”he commented.
“Privacy cannot be demonized because a minority misuses it. Privacy is a right”he stressed.
Zcash Price and Network Usage Insights
About the price of Zcash, Gordons reviewed that, like Bitcoin, Zcash started the year with very optimistic numbers in terms of its market price.. Then, after 3 months, and with all the news, regulations, and bank closures, there was a slight pullback in prices and market capitalization, but despite this, there is still a lot of optimism inside and outside the Zcash community.
“As for the price, Zcash is deflationary, due to its maximum supply, so the projections for its price increase are optimistic. Although Zcash holders are clear that the true value of Zcash does not lie in the price of ZEC in the market, but in what this technology can bring to its users”he pointed.
At the time of writing this note, Zcash remains in a downtrend around USD 33, that is, 91% less than its maximum value reached. In terms of market capitalization, according to the Coinmarketcap ranking, it appears in position number 76 with 544,724,787 million dollars. It should be noted that Monero, the other cryptocurrency with similar characteristics, occupies the 23rd place in this ranking.
To close, Regarding the network and the adoption of Zcash, Gordones first mentioned that the real challenge is to educate; and then he related that in the community they have carried out several activities to talk about the use of Zcash in Latin America, all of them agreeing that due to the political instability of the region, Zcash is emerging as an excellent tool for the protection of citizen data. and of activists opposed to the autocratic regimes of certain countries.
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