ZK-SNARK, the protocol Zcash uses to keep its shielded transactions private, gained attention after experts from the crypto scene praised its capabilities.
Zcash (ZEC) might be edging ahead of its fellow privacy coins in a competitive cryptocurrency market. Just this month, the technology the crypto is operating in received praise from some of the leading community in the crypto community for its utility and ability.
The crypto uses zk-SNARK—Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Argument of Knowledge—to keep a select number of the transactions on the network private. This kind of proof allows the blockchain to verify the transactions without divulging their contents.
With this, Zcash users can choose to keep their deals private by using shielded transactions. Meanwhile, customers can opt for transparent transactions instead in which, similar to most cryptos, values are recorded publicly in a blockchain.
One study released on September 18 suggested that Zcash’s zk-SNARK is better than Monero’s (XMR) proofing system.
Lucaz Nuzzi, lead tech at Digital Asset Research, wrote that while there are some shortcomings, zk-SNARK could provide a stronger privacy guarantee compared with Monero’s Ring Confidential Transactions (Ring CT). In addition, the researcher called Zcash “one of the most important projects in the entirety of crypto space.”
Meanwhile, the capability of zk-SNARK to verify transactions has grabbed recently the attention of Vitalik Buterin, co-creator of smart contracts platform Ethereum. In a blogpost, Buterin explained that implementing zk-SNARK could increase the transaction speed on the Ethereum network to 500 transactions per second.
Many attribute the low number of decentralized application (dApp) users on the Ethereum network to slow transaction speeds. The current amount of transactions Ethereum can process per second is only around 15.
Buterin, also a Russian-Canadian programmer, explained:
“A relayer takes a set of operations from transactors, and combiens them all into a transaction and makes a ZK-SNARK to prove the validity, and publishes the ZK-SNARK and the transaction data in a highly compressed form to the blockchain.”
Prices of Zcash—the 21st largest crypto with more than US$643 million worth of coins in circulation—is on an upward trend during the week. On September 25, the crypto was trading at US$132.01 against the US dollar, a 21.76 percent increase from seven days before.
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