Zcash as a New Investment Asset

Digital currencies have undoubtedly emerged as one of the driving forces behind the new wave of the digital revolution sweeping the globe right now. Besides being a convenient payment facilitator, cryptocurrency has crept its way into other areas of human interest, particularly in economic, political and social systems around the world. In the future of multiple digital assets, it is thus not surprising to see many other crypto-based projects achieve success, especially as a viable investment option for the long run. Such is the case for Zcash. So, let’s figure out whether you should buy Zcash or not.

About Zcash and Its Salient Features

Introduced back on October 28, 2016, by a team of world-class cryptographers , Zcash was originally intended to expand upon the capabilities of Bitcoin, arguably the most used cryptocurrency in the world. The core features of the Zcash cryptocurrency can be divided into two parts, namely:

● Privacy. It’s no denying that privacy is a basic human right which is fast deteriorating in the digital world. Privacy is crucial for optimizing the fungibility of a particular currency, which is required for it to be a liquid medium of exchange. Zcash hence aims to address real-world use cases, where a financial network is needed to restore privacy and in turn promotes economic freedom.
● Preservation of Bitcoin’s Qualities. Unlike many other cryptocurrencies which do away with most of the attributes of Bitcoin, Zcash preserves this to a great degree. Along with Bitcoin’s deflationary economic model, the core principles of decentralization and immutability are rightfully preserved by Zcash. This means Zcash also has a limited supply, further equipped with the PoW consensus for performing trustless verification of transactions.

Types of Zcash Transactions

The main cryptographic technique in use for Zcash is called “Zero Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Argument of Knowledge” or zk-SNARKs . This enables Zcash to provide the highest degree of privacy as well as fungibility to its users. There are four distinct types of transactions that are performed in the Zcash network, explained in brief below.

● Public Transactions. These types of transactions are performed between two public addresses with all balances and transaction details revealed. These addresses usually begin with “t”.
● Private Transactions. These types of transactions occur between two private addresses, only with all balance and transaction details hidden. This ensures complete privacy and is considered one of the main features of Zcash.
● Shielding Transactions. These transactions are performed between public and private addresses. Here, the public address and the transaction amount is only revealed at the inception of the transactions but is subsequently hidden upon receipt. These transactions usually begin with “z”.
● De-Shielding Transactions. Usually performed between a private address and a public address. Here, the transaction amount is revealed while the total balance in the private address remains hidden. They usually begin with the letter “x”.

Why Zcash is Profitable for Investors at the Moment

Zcash has all the encouraging qualities of being a viable investment option, especially since 2018 is considered the year of cryptos. One of the first and foremost properties of Zcash is that it has a sound economic model closely resembling that of Bitcoin, meeting the interests of investors, developers, network users, as well as miners. Below are a few pointers as to why Zcash is a viable investment option in 2018.

1. Decentralization. The design of Zcash indicates it to be an anti-fragile system stressing on the principles of decentralization and immutability. Since it’s an open-source network, it is naturally more secure and stable than other centralized networks due to the absence of one single point of failure.
2. Immutability. Zcash’s system contains an immutable global ledger, which is crucial to prevent the possibility of censorship, fraud or any unjust influence by any outside party.
3. Adaptability. Since Zcash’s protocol is open-source, it allows for a greater degree of adaptability, which is a pre-requisite for a viable technology.
4. Scarcity. The overall supply of Zcash tokens is limited to 21 million, which makes it as scarce as Bitcoin. As of 19 June 2018, Zcash’s total circulating supply is 4,171,094.
5. Divisibility. In today’s world, digital currencies are among some of the most divisible forms of payments available to the world. Like Bitcoin, Zcash’s smallest unit, coined as “Zatoshi,” is equal to 0.00000001 ZEC Token. This makes it possible to create one hundred million units from a single token.
6. Portability. Zcash can be sent across international borders electronically with fast processing speeds. This makes it a useful alternative to BTC while being far more portable than precious metals or fiat currencies.
7. Fungibility. Fungibility is reflected by the fact that one unit of ZEC has the same value as another equal singular unit of ZEC. Features such as private addresses and transactions further highlight this property.
8. Verifiability. This is an important aspect of any successful cryptocurrency. Zcash tokens have unique cryptographic properties that can easily be verified on the blockchain. This can be performed with selective disclosure, in real time from anywhere in the world.
9. Recognition. With a string of partnerships formed and several breakthroughs in other industries, Zcash has been gaining broader recognition for quite some time now. It is highly regarded as a transactional token with perceived utility, and proven results.

Final Thoughts

With new digital assets being introduced daily, it becomes quite difficult to distinguish between projects with potential and those with no sustainable value. At present, digital currencies are starting to promote economic growth in innovative ways and Zcash is high among them. At the time of writing, Zcash’s value was $196.94 USD with a total market cap of over $820 million. With slow global growth, secular-high debt burdens, deteriorating monetary policies, as well as low yielding assets affecting investment opportunities, cryptocurrencies emerge as viable investment assets, and Zcash can be considered an attractive option to diversify your portfolio. Still, before making final investment decisions, it is always a good practice to do a thorough research. Invest your money wisely!