{"id":3387,"date":"2017-10-09T11:20:54","date_gmt":"2017-10-09T18:20:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coincentral.com\/?p=3387"},"modified":"2018-08-09T11:50:38","modified_gmt":"2018-08-09T18:50:38","slug":"zcash-vs-ethereum-how-do-they-compare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coincentral.com\/zcash-vs-ethereum-how-do-they-compare\/","title":{"rendered":"Zcash vs Ethereum: How Do They Compare?"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the cryptocurrency economy develops and begins to engulf the world of alternative investments, \u00a0the community continues to discuss the best new applications of blockchain technology and how these projects can not only develop on their own but come together to bring a decentralized solution to the internet. <\/span><\/p>\n

Two applications of blockchain technology that will soon have real-world uses involving conducting completely private transactions via the blockchain and the use of smart contracts through decentralized applications (DAPPS). <\/span><\/p>\n

Zcash, a protocol that provides a privacy-preserving version of Bitcoin, aims to help users pay one another directly via payment transactions that reveal neither the origin, destination or amount of payment. On the other hand, Ethereum <\/a>provides a decentralized virtual machine which can execute smart contracts, store data and facilitate services currently centralized by the global economy. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Although similar in decentralized scope, Zcash and Ethereum are structured differently and aim to accomplish different goals within the blockchain community. As you will see below, despite their inherent differences, these two platforms aim to work together to change the future of the internet and the future of decentralized protocols. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Zcash vs Ethereum at a Glance: <\/span><\/h2>\n

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What is Zcash? <\/span><\/h2>\n

Zcash is based on the Zerocash protocol which aims to fix \u00a0Bitcoin\u2019s privacy issues wherein every user\u2019s payment history is in public view on the blockchain. Anonymity (one of pure cash transactions\u2019 biggest advantages) \u00a0is a crucial step to allow cryptocurrencies to become everyday payments, and Zcash makes strong strides in this direction. The Zcash team decided to fork a copy of the bitcoin blockchain and kept the design relatively the same aside from a few differences. These differences included: <\/span><\/p>\n

-Changing the block interval target from 10 minutes to 2.5 Minutes.<\/span><\/p>\n

-Increasing the block size limit to 2MB.<\/span><\/p>\n

-Introducing a confidential value transfer scheme.<\/span><\/p>\n

-Implementing a 20% reward to the Zcash team for each block rewarded for the first four years (or until the first halving occurs). \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Truly private transactions?<\/span><\/h2>\n

Currently, the Bitcoin blockchain has a major limitation\u2014the blockchain is public, and the history of all payment transactions is available to anyone. To compare, when making payments with a bank, you only disclose your finances to the bank and the related parties. With Bitcoin, you disclose them to the whole world. <\/span><\/p>\n

Zcash guarantees users privacy by providing Zerocash payment transactions that do not reveal the origin, destination, or amount of any transaction. If you were to look at the ledger you would see a random-looking string that provides no information beyond the fact that the transaction was valid, and it occurred. <\/span><\/p>\n

To implement this policy with an extra focus on anonymity, users create Basecoins which are non-anonymous in nature and can convert those to Zerocash coins or Zcash coins. When these coins are converted, they can be sent to other users in any way that the user sees fit. <\/span><\/p>\n

The underlying zK-Snark proof that enables Zcash to be functional will allow for the enforcement of a wide range of policies. For example, imagine a situation where users can prove that they paid their taxes on all transactions without revealing their private information and keeping it out of centralized servers that are prone to hacking and data breaches. <\/span><\/p>\n

Market Outlook:<\/span><\/h2>\n