Although cryptocurrencies are still the hottest topic, there is a renewed interest in private coins. Sure, Bitcoin transactions don’t identify personal information, but they aren’t completely anonymous because the transaction history is in public view on a blockchain, making it possible for others to reveal people’s identities through coin movements and address details. But now, it’s all about the privacy of users. That’s where privacy coins that use cryptographic techniques to obscure transaction details and protect users’ privacy take the stage. The network of anonymous validators maintains this fascinating technology. Simply put, privacy coins work by hiding the transactions of cryptocurrency through their networks. And if you’re a crypto geek like us, the chances are that you’ve heard of the debate between Zcash and Monero.
Zcash or Monero? What you need to know
As two of the largest privacy-focused altcoins on the market, Zcash and Monero protect senders’ and receivers’ anonymity, along with amounts and balances. However, there’s a reason why people choose one over the other. Although there are many similarities between Zcash and Monero, they have different characteristics and underlying protocols that suit different purposes.
Zcash overview
It all started when a professor and two of his students—Matthew Green, Ian Miers, and Christina Garman—at Johns Hopkins University teamed up to create a privacy-focused extension to Bitcoin named Zerocoin. The trio collaborated with other scientists and formed the Zerocoin Electric Coin Company, called the “Zcash Company,” but later rebranded to Electric Coin Company (ECC), dropping the “Zerocoin.”
Zcash, which was created in 2016, was designed to address privacy issues that Bitcoin faced at the time. Zcash, which is based on the Bitcoin Network’s blockchain technology, provides advanced privacy by using cryptography. Zcash’s team modified the Bitcoin codebase several times. They added zero-knowledge proofs in order to make sure transactions went through. This allows sending and receiving addresses to be hidden along with the transaction amount. To support protocol users and the Zcash Blockchain, the Zcash Foundation has been established in 2017.
Zcash and Anonymous Transactions
Zcash, although it is based on Bitcoin’s original code, differs from Bitcoin Network in that it applies the zk–SNARKS privacy protocol, which allows users to remain anonymous. Zcash, on the other hand, allows for anonymity transactions. Bitcoin is transparent, but Zcash does not. Monero is not the Zcash network, but more later. And Shielded transactions allow them to make transparent or completely private transactions.
Private payments are required to perform a shielded transaction. Zcash allows users to choose between transparent and shielded addresses. Privacy is an option. These addresses look similar to the Bitcoin Network’s, but the transparency makes all transaction details anonymous.
Is Zcash able to supply a maximum amount?
Zcash currently has 21 million coins in circulation. The total Zcash coin supply is 5,8%, which makes it 12,189,000,000,000 million. Zcash Network continues to grow in activity. Zcash can be used for many purposes. It is used to buy goods and services as well as to exchange Euros or US Dollars or other currencies.
Zcash is a team that focuses on research. This makes altcoins rewarding to the core team. The block reward is 20% shared by developers, investors and Zcash Foundation, a non-profit organization.
Zcash Trading Pairs
Effective March 3, 2022
| Exchange | Pair | Volume | Pricing |
| Binance Futures | ZEC/USDT | $875K | $124.62 |
| Yobit | ZEC/BTC | 879 BTC | 0.002 BTC |
| Coinbase | ZEC/USDC | 2,017 ZEC | $125.04 |
| OKX | ZEC/ETH | $114267 | 0.0432 Ethereum |
Zcash’s Advantages
Like every altcoin, Zcash comes with a slew of advantages and some disadvantages, and you get to decide whether or not it’s a suitable investment for you. Crypto forecasts predict that things are looking great for Zcash since it’s intriguing new traders to break into the market, as well as established traders looking to expand their horizons.
The pros
– Zcash coin is easily exchanged for another
– Guaranteed high prices due to the fixed supply of Zcash
– Several levels of anonymity to choose from
– The Zcash blockchain is ASIC resistant
– A fungible privacy coin
– Good long-term investment due to being currently undervalued
– Highly secure zero-knowledge proof technology
– Shift from public to private transactions
– A block time of only two and a half minutes.
Cons
While crypto experts and analysts have predicted a bright future for the coin, it’s always wise to also weigh on the cons before deciding to buy Zcash, just like with other coins. Some of the negative aspects include:
– Restricted to CPU mining
– Mainly designed for Linux users
– Zero-knowledge proof is not unique to Zcash, meaning other cryptocurrencies could potentially implement it
– A privacy coin could potentially raise suspicion.
Zcash: The Reasons You Should Purchase It
Zcash, a promising cryptocurrency that was launched in 2016, is Zcash. This token allows you to securely transact and already has a market cap of $1.2 million. It is the best place to start if you are looking to make a profit with crypto investments.
Firstly, Zcash’s privacy is what’s needed for cryptocurrency mass adoption. Zcash is a public blockchain with added privacy aspects designed to remove as much data from public view as possible — something that Bitcoin fails to offer. Zcash is a public blockchain that solves the problem by offering zero-knowledge verifications, shielded transactions and total control. And It ensures a private transaction, despite it being built on Bitcoin protocol. Zcash is therefore attractive to European companies looking for cryptocurrency payment services that are GDPR-compliant.
Secondly, Zcash’s low transaction costs attract both new and established traders. In perspective, Bitcoin’s and Ethereum’s high transaction costs make small transactions not worth, whereas Zcash guarantees reasonably low transaction fees even in the long run.
Limited Zcash Coin Supply
Zcash is also a leader in coin supply. We all know how it goes— the Value Demand and supply determine what is available. Zcash is likely to have similar prices as Bitcoin due to rising demand. It might therefore be a good time for Zcash investors. Zcash’s long-term price forecasts show that privacy-focused altcoins will reach $400 in 2024 and $500 in 2026. It is also expected to skyrocket up to nearly $800 by 2028. Zcash can be purchased on many cryptocurrency exchanges. You can also store it securely in your digital wallets.
Monero overview
Monero emerged in 2014 when Bytecoin’s hardforked. There was much controversy over Bytecoin—80% of the privacy-focused altcoin had been mined before its release. The pre-mining led to disagreements between the project’s developers and the community, which in turn led to the hardforking of Bytecoin as Monero.
Monero uses Proof-of Work mining to achieve distributed consensus. It employs sophisticated cryptographic systems. Monero uses an opaque blockchain to hide transaction details in order to allow secure and private transactions that are untraceable. Let’s break it down piece by piece.
Monero and Private Transactions
Monero’s transactions are by default private. Monero employs three methods to protect privacy. Ring signatures, stealth addresses, and ring confidential transactions. Ring signatures hide the spent outputs to protect a user’s privacy in the input side of a transaction; ring signature transactions, also known as RingCT, hide the amount being sent, and stealth addresses disguise the receiver.
Monero’s underlying protocol is CryptoNote. This grouping of transactions uses CryptoNote and uses one-time keys and ring signatures to conceal the origin and destination. Monero transactions can only be validated by the Moner network, which runs an exclusive Proof-of Work consensus algorithm known as RandomX.
Monero’s security is its sole focus. It utilizes a combination of a sender’s account keys and clubs them with public keys on the blockchain to produce a ring signature, a type of digital signature in which possible signers are merged together to produce a distinctive signature that can authorize a transaction. It is virtually impossible to determine which public keys are used to create the ring signature. Monero rings are signed by the original signer and non-signers.
Monero Introduced Confidential Ring Transactions
Monero had previously divided the transactions into different denominations in order to guarantee sufficient ring members on its network before they implemented ring confidential transactions. Nonetheless, complete privacy wasn’t guaranteed since outside parties could see the transacted amount. Monero devised ring-confidential transactions to solve this problem.
Monero ensures that decentralization is maintained by updating its mining algorithm and many other features each six months. Monero mining is done in both pools and the cloud. Monero does not have a maximum supply, unlike Zcash.
Monero Trading Pairs
Effective March 3, 2022
| Exchange | Pair | Volume | Pricing |
| Binance Futures | XMR/USDT | $14.8M | $180.57 |
| Binance | XMR/BTC | 0.004 | $180.26 |
| Kraken | XMR/USD | $10,286 | $180.02 |
| Poloniex | XMR/USDT | $477689 | $180.2 |
| Gate.io | XMR/USDT | $3.48M | $180.99 |
Monero’s Advantages
As a secure, fungible, and untraceable digital currency, Monero ensures the users’ complete and total privacy, and just like with Zcash, the future is looking pretty good for the altcoin. Let’s look into Monero’s pros and cons to help you understand how you can benefit from it.
The pros
– Stealth addresses
– Ring signatures
– All the transactions are completely private
– Supported by more than 40 cryptocurrency exchanges
– A block time of only two minutes, making it almost five times faster than that of Bitcoin.
Cons
While the abovementioned benefits have resulted in Monero’s rapid growth, there are also certain disadvantages to consider:
– Dark web marketplaces have started using Monero for transactions instead of Bitcoin
– It’s used for fraudulent purposes since it’s completely untraceable
– Despite being resistant to ASIC, three mining pools own 3% of the hash rate
– Few crypto wallets support Monero
– Storing Monero is a lot more difficult than other cryptocurrencies, explaining the lack of its broader adoption in the crypto space.
Monero: Why you should buy it
Monero is growing fast since it was launched. With a market cap exceeding $2.6 billion, Monero users continue to grow at an incredible pace. Algorithm-based forecasts predict a positive outlook, with Monero’s price going up to $261.55 at the beginning of 2023 and rising to $702.5 by the time 2027 rolls in. Monero forecasts predict that the altcoin will be worth $191.33 through 2022, $317 in 2025 and $500 by 2028. Monero appears to be facing a steep climb.
Transaction fees for Zcash or Monero
Zcash charges a transaction fee of 0.00001 ZEC. You’ll pay the same fee by default for both transparent and anonymous transactions, not having to reimburse for your privacy. Zcash doesn’t allow you to customize and set your own transaction fees. Zcash does not allow mining incentivization.
Monero transactions can be expensive because the altcoin has scalability problems with Bitcoin. Monero cost $20 at its highest point.
There are similarities between Zcash & Monero
Privacy and security should be the top priorities when you compare Zcash with Monero. While both altcoins share the same goal of solving transaction privacy problems, each one approaches the issue differently.
Since their inception, Monero and Zcash both have had a similar price structure. Monero’s price trend grew in 2016, and then soared in 2017, when it experienced an uptrend. Monero reached a new all-time high in 2018 at $500 per coin.
Zcash price was initially pretty steady, but its value started increasing a little after Monero’s in 2017 and was pretty consistent with Bitcoin. Whenever Bitcoin’s value dropped, Zcash followed suit.
Differentialities between Zcash & Monero
Along with similarities between Zcash and Monero, two of the most significant privacy coins on the market, there are also vast differences concerning how they maintain users’ privacy while making transactions. Monero Network employs privacy-enhancing technology to protect every transaction’s privacy and make them completely anonymous. ZCash, which is focused on privacy allows users to select between transparent and shielded transactions. Monero transactions remain private by default. ZCash transactions, however, are made public if users request them.
Zcash, unlike Monero is more regulatory-friendly as transactions can be posted publicly to the network. It was this factor that prompted crypto exchanges like Coinbase to offer Zcash as an option on their server. Regulators have been more critical of Monero.
The two also have different speeds – new blocks are created every two minutes on the Monero network, whereas Zcash’s block time is around two and a half minutes.
The most interesting distinction is between their teams. Monero’s team is essentially a mystery — so far, only two of the lead developers are known to the public. Zcash however has an open-source team, with many of the top names in blockchain and crypto serving as advisers. Their contrasting natures — one open to the world and the other hidden from the public eye — are exactly what makes these two of the most exciting projects to keep up with.
Final Thoughts
It all boils down to your preferences and how you plan to use the altcoins. Many opt for Monero’s unlinkable transactions; others are attracted by Zcash’s focus on cryptography research and development. At the end of the day, whether it be Monero, Zcash, or any other altcoin, it’s up to you to decide whether you want to go back and forth between transparent and private transactions or go full-on private.
Keep your cash safe by purchasing a wallet, either a metal or a digital one. Private keysA seed phrase is used for storage.
And lastly, the best and most effortless way to purchase and store Monero and Zcash is through CoinStats, where you’ll easily manage and track your crypto and DeFi assets on just one platform.