Despite the recent South Korean initial coin offering (ICO) ban, Bithumb has gone ahead and added cryptocurrency Zcash (ZEC) to its exchange.
Previously Zcash has been referred to as “Zerocash” or “Zerocoin” and was first launched in October 2016 by founder Zooko Wilcox. ZEC’s market cap is currently at $595,261,984 with a circulating supply of 2.31 million coins.
Though this cryptocurrency is inspired by Bitcoin, adds an element of privacy through zkSNARKS, the cryptographic tool underlying Zcash, that Bitcoin, an open financial software system, does not provide.
Zcash Security and privacy
“Security and privacy are two great goals of the decentralization movement,” explains Richard Ma, CEO Quantstamp, a centralized tokenized security-audit platform that focuses on smart contracts before they are deployed to the blockchain. “We’re happy to see zCash and zkSNARKs gaining worldwide recognition for ultimately improving the security and privacy choices of users.”
How does Zcash differ from other cryptocurrencies?
“ZCash has an unique market position compared to other crypto-currencies — every transaction can have hidden recipient, sender and amount,” said Kamil Pzeorski from Experty.” Zero Cash protocol provides more privacy than Monero. On the other hand it is harder to calculate the ZCash total supply.”
Another important thing to note is that it’s impossible to audit the blockchain so that provides some additional risks to ZCash holders in case of a bug in the codebase.
Pete Wassell from Augmate explains that because Bithumb accounts for 50% of all digital currency trading daily, this is a big deal for ZCash.
“The insiders who knew ZCash was getting integrated into Bithumb bought in and drove up the price and then it surged again after it was listed,” Wassell said. “When insider trading happens on Wall Street, investigators tend to find out who knew special information that affects prices and when they knew it. This type of behavior is not tolerated in other markets, and it won’t last with cryptocurrency –people will get fined, loose their job or go to jail.”
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