A lead technician at Digital Asset Research said the firm spent a good chunk of time reviewing everything associated with Zcash and the ZEC cryptocurrency. In a blog post, the company called Zcash one of the most important cryptocurrency projects and hailed its unmatched privacy.
Digital Asset Research, an institutional research firm focused on tokens, blockchain, ICOs, and other topics related to cryptocurrencies, conducted an in-depth review of the Zcash project and the ZEC cryptocurrency.
The firm primarily offers token profiles, in-depth research on aspects related to the cryptocurrency industry, and data services, like market indices.
In a blog post, Digital Asset Research Lead Technician Lucas Nuzzi wrote how the team spent nearly 200 hours reviewing the project and ZEC. They came to the conclusion that “Zcash is one of the most important projects in the entirety of the crypto space.”
‘Unmatched Privacy’
The blog post noted how Zero-Knowledge Proofs are really one of the only ways right now to ensure a blockchain can be both encrypted and publicly verifiable. Zcash uses a type of Zero-Knowledge Proofs called zk-SNARK, which enables encrypted transactions to have a verification time of milliseconds.
However, Nuzzi noted how zk-SNARKS are computationally intensive and take a long time to create, which inhibits their use on mobile devices. This has probably affected the adoption of Zcash transactions that are private.
Zcash vs. Monero
The blog post also takes time to address the privacy debate concerning Zcash and Monero.
According to Digital Asset Research, Monero’s privacy record was “greatly tainted” in April 2017 after researchers found a vulnerability that let them see the real sender in most transactions before RingCT was activated.
A May 2018 research paper from the University College London said they were able to find 23 Zcash addresses (in the study) that could partially be traced by analysis, but noted how more than 200,000 XMR addresses were most likely at risk for chain-reaction exploit.
Overall, Digital Asset Research said Zcash’s zk-SNARKs were much stronger in terms of privacy guarantees when put up against Monero’s RingCT.
They also noted how systemic risk to the entire project could occur if ‘The Powers of Tau’ were compromised, but asserted they could find no indication this has been the case.
