On 28 October 2023, the privacy-focused cryptocurrency Zcash (ZEC) community marked seven years since the launch of its mainnet.
In 2016, it was accompanied by high volatility for the coin — at one point the price surged to 2,600 BTC per 1 ZEC or more than $1.8 million at the rate at the time.
Today the asset is trading around $27, up 1.8% over the last 24 hours, according to CoinGecko. In market-cap terms, Zcash sits at 149th place with a market capitalization of $220.3 million.
In 2020, Zcash’s founder and CEO of the Electric Coin Company (ECC) behind its development, Zooko Wilcox said in an interview with ForkLog that the project had achieved significant successes during its existence. Among the achievements, he highlighted identifying and remedying a critical vulnerability in 2018, as well as the growth of the community.
In 2021, ECC presented a roadmap for Zcash through 2025. The team called the plan “aggressive, but achievable.” It included three key products: the transition to the consensus algorithm Proof-of-Stake, interoperability, and ECC’s official wallet.
In 2022, former NSA and CIA of the United States Edward Snowden revealed his involvement in the launch of Zcash.
activated Network Upgrade 5 on the mainnet. The first major network upgrade since November 2020 was the launch of the Orchard privacy-preserving payment protocol, which uses the Halo verification system.