Cryptocurrency Review: Zcash

I have taken a recent interest in Zero-Knowledge Proof technology and what I have stumbled across was the cryptocurrency called Zcash!

Now I may be a little late to this, but there were so much hype around cryptocurrency on the monetary gain and long-term wealth security, we almost forget about what makes this the technology so threating to centralized systems and how it can revolutionize the way we operate.

Zcash is known in the crypto space as being the privacy-protecting currency for transactions. This coin runs off the technology called zk-SNARKS which is an incorporation of the zero-knowledge proof idea in cryptography. That two parties can trade a medium exchange or specific data without revealing sensitive information other than the information that parties present are true. This project has been built from computer scientist from some of the top Ivy League Universities such as MIT, Technion, Johns Hopkins, Tel Aviv University and UC Berkeley just to name a few.

Cryptocurrencies already enforce the idea of privacy in trading. Bitcoin’s, for example, transactions are validated by linking the sender’s and receiver’s address to match the amount sent from A to B. Zcash’s zk-SNARK (Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Argument of Knowledge) sets itself unique from these protocols. zk-SNARK is their system to provide a proof of possession without crucial information about the sender or receiver being revealed in mid-transaction.

The conditions that must be met are:

• the input values adds to the output values for each shielded transfer.

• the sender proves they possess the private keys of the funds sent, giving them the authority to spend.

• The private keys of the funds sent are encrypted and linked to a signature over the whole transaction, in such a way that the transaction cannot be modified by a party who did not know these private keys of received or sent addresses.

There are multiple applications and usage for zk-SNARK’s technology for the decentralized and centralized application. Something like this could be useful for submitting information through a mail service or any information that handled by a third party.

I’d love to hear your thoughts about this new technology!

Ty Cooper

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