Zcash

ZEC is a proof-of-work digital currency with optional privacy: shielded transfers hide sender, receiver and amount.

Zcash (ZEC) is a digital currency built from Bitcoin's original code, with added privacy based on zero-knowledge proofs, a kind of cryptography that proves a transaction is valid without revealing its details. It was conceived by academic researchers, and its main network started on 28 October 2016. Users can choose transparent addresses, which are public like Bitcoin's, or shielded addresses, where the sender, receiver and amount are encrypted; viewing keys let an owner show shielded activity to people they choose, such as an auditor.

Supply is capped at 21 million ZEC, and about 16.95 million existed on 27 September 2026. New coins are created by proof-of-work mining (the Equihash algorithm) and halve roughly every four years. Since 2020 a part of each block reward has funded development instead of miners: today 8% goes to Zcash Community Grants and 12% to a fund that coinholders vote to spend, until the next halving (block 4,406,400).

Privacy use has grown fast: nearly 30% of circulating ZEC sat in shielded pools in 2026, and shielded transactions reached a record 59% of all transactions in February 2026. In late May 2026 a researcher found a flaw in the Orchard shielded pool that could in theory have allowed hidden counterfeiting. It was fixed by an emergency upgrade on 3 June, and on 28 July the Ironwood upgrade moved shielded funds to a new pool behind a 'turnstile' that lets anyone check that the supply limit still holds. Developers believe the flaw was unlikely to have been exploited, and the turnstile lets anyone verify this.

No single company controls Zcash. In January 2026 the whole Electric Coin Company team left after a clash with its nonprofit parent and said it would form a new company. Development now runs through several independent groups, including the Zcash Open Development Lab (ZODL), which did most of the Ironwood engineering, the Zcash Foundation and Shielded Labs, which proposes a future hybrid proof-of-stake design called Crosslink. Because transfers can be hidden, regulators treat Zcash as a privacy token: the Dubai DIFC and onshore UAE rules restrict it, and EU service providers must stop handling such coins from July 2027.