Well privacy coin is more or like a digital cash and it is a kind of blockchain created to protect the privacy of it's users by keeping their transactions on the blockchain annoymous.It cloaks transactions making it hard to also know who is sending and who is receiving. We have many privacy coins like Dash, Monero, Zcash, Beam and Horizen and many others. But in my post i will be deliberating or talking about the pivacy coin Zcash and it's fundamentals.

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Zcash Fundamentals

Zcash is a decentralised crypto project founded in 2016 as a direct fork to bitcoin. Just like Monero, Zcash project was set up to tackle privacy of the users within the network. As a fork of bitcoin the are very similar in many things and just like bitcoin Zcash also has a fixed amount of supply just like bitcoin's fixed 21million supply rate. But unlike bitcoin they offers more faster and secure transaction. Ofcourse privacy is what they set out to do.

They are two main core factor in the Zcash ecosystem

• The Electric Coin Company
  This electric coin company is madeup of developers, scientist and educators. It's more or like the chief protagonist to the Zcash ecosystem and exist only to support the development of Zcash. The electric coin company does not control the currency, the miners or the redistribution because Zcash is a decentralised blockchain with proof of work as it consesus algorithm.

• The Zcash Foundation
  This foundation is like a charitable organization that creates sustainable and open network with tools that helps protect the privacy of their users. The Zcash foundation is mainly responsible for the funding of development. They also distribute grant to developers and are responsible for the management of the Zcash community and participate in the governance of Zcash.

Well all in Zcash as a privacy coin offers the ability to transact privately on the Zcash blockchain. Zcash utilizes a lot of bitcoin's original open source code but with advanced privacy features. It was uniquely created in a way that is almost impossible to counterfeit the Zcash. One thing that also set Zcash apart is that it can have both public and private transaction. Yes the public addresses are transparent addresses that is very identical to bitcoin's transaction but the blockchain also creates an avenue for the user to make a private transaction using Z address or a shielded address. This shielded address are verified without disclosing the senders or recipient balance or even the transaction history. This shielded address use a cryptographic technology known as Zk snarks or zero knowledge which insures a statement being validated without without releasing any other details apart from its validity.

Zcash is also somewhat different from other privacy coin like Monero because Zcash offers it's users with a choice either public or private transaction while monero is privacy focused in nature and does not really offer it's users much of a choice. I honestly think Zcash ability to allow both public and private transaction may make more open to adoption and institution's money to flow into it.

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How To Set Up A Zcash Wallet

Well first of all i will go to coinmarketcap with my browser ofcourse.

Coinmarketcap opens up and i see a lot of coins at top first with bitcoin rightly leading.

So i searched for Zcash in the search bar

And it rightly opens up, occupying the no. 54 position on coinmarketcap as of the time i explored. So to setup wallet i clicked on the place slightly below on the right hand side written z.cash

Now when i do this opens up with a bold Zcash sign so i scroll down a bit and...

This is what i saw when i scrolled down and as you can see we have wallet foe desktop users and mobile users. Seeing as am using a mobile device i choose the second one Night Hawk Wallet for mobile users. I click on it and then

I had to choose to either get the app on apple store or google playstore and based on my device i choose google playstore ofcourse.

I installed it and enable it on my device and open it up ofcourse.

I was asked if am creating a new wallet or restoring an old one, i choose new because i was just creating a Zcash wallet for the first time.

And it got underway, later my mnesonic codes were shown to me to store securely and ofcourse for security purpose i won't show that to you.

And my wallet was successfully created.

And this is my wallet with $0 balance ofcourse. So this is how to create a Zcash wallet, simple aye.

Why Zcash

There are a couple of reasons why i choose the privacy coin Zcash. For one i do love a good project with highly sufficient technology, yes Zcash as a fork of bitcoin is technologically advanced and sufficient. We all know the kind of technology present in the bitcoin blockchain with it's proof of work governance and Zcash which was created by a group of bitcoin ethusiasts was made to mimic bitcoin on many levels and even offers a much faster transaction.

Apart from this also i am a kind of secretive person and kind of like to keep my transactions private free from public eyes which Zcash offers made possible with its ZK snarks unlike in bitcoin where every transaction is made public made like the traditional financial institution. Zcash offers both public and private feature transaction setting it apart from other privacy coin and this means the users can choose feom either. This is one of the many reasons Zcash is my choiced privacy coin.

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Pros

• Has a high transaction speed
• Offers more advanced security
• Was created in a way that it is impossible to create a counterfeit
• Offers annoymity of it's users transaction
• For a privacy coin it Has a dual transaction type which is public and private

cons

• It's privacy features offers an avenue for illegal transaction to take place
• It offers a way too for the users to successfully elude tax
• Also makes the user's to make countless transactions a day since there is no way to check their transaction record.
• One of the reasons why governments of some countries are against cryptocurrency because with this privacy coin feature you cannot have a record of one's transaction since everything is shielded and only known to the parties involved.

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Conclusion

In all i think considering the pros and cons, yes it is true that the privacy feature of Zcash makes it possible for illicite transaction to take place but we can't also neglect it pros and the fact that unlike other privacy coins like monero for instance it has a dual transaction feature which means the user's can either choose to be open and make transactions public or choose for their transactions in the blockchain to remain annoymous. Well for me personally i would rather choose for my transactions to remain private ofcourse because i do love my privacy and all in all with Zcash prolific security system and technology i would lean toward Zcash and think the blockchain could rightly look for a way to see to it that illegal transactions are curtailed if they are not already on it, i mean with all those developers that must have thought os something. But anyways i still choose Zcash it remains my privacy coin of choice.

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All images used was screenshot by me on coimarketcap, google playstore and Zcash mobile wallet app