Galaxy Research Report: What Is Driving the Surge in Zcash, the Doomsday Vehicle?
The term [translate:Bitget crypto news!] refers to the crypto news source reporting on Zcash's recent surge. Satoshi Nakamoto also acknowledged bitcoin's privacy limitations in early forum posts.
- After years of dormancy, ZEC has surged about eightfold in the last month, outperforming the broader market and reigniting interest in [translate:"privacy features"].
- This resurgence revives the early bitcoin debate between [translate:"the right to privacy"] and [translate:"regulatory reality"].
- Zcash's market capitalization has now surpassed that of Monero.
- The user experience has improved, with wallets like Zashi enhancing accessibility.
- Cross-chain intent channels such as NEAR Intents have lowered operational barriers.
- The anonymity set of Zcash is expanding significantly.
- For the first time, over 30% of ZEC's supply is stored in shielded pools, boosting privacy.
- Despite this progress, Zcash still has far fewer full nodes compared to bitcoin.
Origins and Development
Zcash originated from academic research conducted in 2013 by cryptographers at Johns Hopkins University who developed the Zerocoin protocol. To enhance efficiency, this protocol evolved into Zerocash and was launched as Zcash in 2016 by cypherpunk Zooko Wilcox and his Electric Coin Company as a fork of bitcoin.
The goal was simple: retain bitcoin's monetary properties while fixing its most cited design flaw (also acknowledged by Satoshi himself): the lack of transaction privacy.
Author's summary: Zcash's sharp price surge is driven by improved privacy features, user experience, and growing market interest, reviving key debates on privacy versus regulation in crypto.
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