Zcash is a decentralized and open-source cryptocurrency that offers privacy and selective transparency of transactions. Zcash payments are published on a public blockchain, but the sender, recipient, and amount of a transaction remain private. Zcash is based on peer-reviewed cryptographic research, and built by a security-specialized engineering team on an open source platform based on Bitcoin Core's battle-tested codebase. Our improvement over Bitcoin is the addition of privacy. Zcash uses advanced cryptographic techniques, namely zero-knowledge proofs, to guarantee the validity of transactions without revealing additional information about them. How Zcash works Zcash encrypts the contents of shielded transactions. Since the payment information is encrypted, the protocol uses a novel cryptographic method to verify their validity. Zcash uses a zero-knowledge proof construction called a zk-SNARK, developed by our team of experienced cryptographers based on recent breakthroughs in cryptography. These constructions allow the network to maintain a secure ledger of balances without disclosing the parties or amounts involved. Instead of publicly demonstrating spend-authority and transaction values, the transaction metadata is encrypted and zk-SNARKs are used to prove that nobody is cheating or stealing. Zcash also enables users to send public payments which work similarly to Bitcoin. With the support for both shielded and transparent addresses, users can choose to send Zcash privately or publicly. Zcash payments sent from a shielded address to a transparent address reveal the received balance, while payments from a transparent address to a shielded address protect the receiving value. Check out CoinBureau for guide on What is ZCash.
Curecoin is a new SHA-256 based cryptocurrency with a big vision, that is - Curing Cancer, Alzheimer's, Huntington's, preventing viruses, and designing next-level of pharmaceuticals. Curecoin can be earned with both GPU and CPU. Folders use high-end GPUs and CPUs to fold proteins, earning a proportional amount of coins set-aside for their contributions. SHA-256 ASIC Miners could still get along by mining Curecoin as usual which will further secure the blockchain and the network. Whether you are heavily-invested in ASIC equipment or still have GPUs and CPUs, you can participate. Due to the nature of folding (diverse, constantly changing, not easily predictable), GPUs and CPUs will both always be relevant, so an investment in consumer hardware isn't wasted. Curecoins go to three main areas: Folders, Miners, and Developers. The folders get 76% of the total coins (80% of the coins distributed per day). SHA256 miners get 19% of the total coins (20% of the coins distributed per day). 2% of the total funds are distributed to people who donated to project development. The other 3% is dedicated to Curecoin developers, and will be used for paying for development costs (such as hiring professional programmers, paying for infrastructure, etc.), and for giving back to the community (folding hardware giveaways, faucets, covering 0% mining pools, etc.).