Zcash Nixes Trusted Setup, Enters New Era With Major Network Update

The Electrical Parts Company (ECC) announced today in a blog post the launch of the first major update of the Zcash privacy coin network since November 2020, Zcash Network Upgrade 5 (NU5).

NU5 includes the Orchard secure payment protocolwhich the company says will remove reliance on complex setup “ceremonies” that Zcash used in the past.

ECC claims that the use of the Halo proof system in the protocol enables Zcash users to make private and trustless digital cash payments on mobile phones. This is made possible by a new address format called unified addresses, which eliminates the need to juggle multiple address types.

Another feature that the company touted as interesting for privacy-conscious crypto enthusiasts is the ability to automatically route any ZEC received at a unified address to the last protected pool. This ensures that every Zcash transaction is protected by default.

Zcash, a fork of the Bitcoin protocol, is known as a privacy coin. Zcash uses zero-knowledge proofs, a form of cryptography that can verify a legitimate transaction without exposing details such as potentially identifying information. Like Bitcoin, Zcash’s total supply is 21 million coins.

When Zcash launched in October 2016, its zero-knowledge proofs required a reliable setup phase that allowed users to construct and verify private transactions.

Zcash’s original ceremony included famed whistleblower Edward Snowden, who by then went by John Dobbertin, among its attendees.

According to ECC Senior Vice President Josh Swihart, Snowden was not compensated for his involvement, saying: “He did it as a service, as a public good and with a belief in privacy. .”

At $1.36 billion, Zcash is currently the 45th largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization and the second largest privacy coin behind Monero, according to CoinMarketCap.