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.
Emercoin (EMC) is an open-source cryptocurrency which originated from Bitcoin, Peercoin and Namecoin. Other than being a cryptocurrency, it is also a platform for secure distributed blockchain business services. The EMC coin is used for accessing the blockchain-based services provided by Emercoin. Emercoin inherits the reliability and security of Bitcoin, while at the same time adding more features to its own blockchain by leveraging several innovative technologies. The Emercoin blockchain has been specially designed to provide businesses with the secure blockchain services and also allow them to create their own decentralized apps. Emercoin was founded in the year 2013 by Eugene Shumilov who also serves as the chief executive officer of Emercoin. The Emercoin team also consists chief technical officer Oleg Khovayko, a cryptocurrency & financial expert and Stan Polozov a Blockchain Implementation Specialist. Emercoin is also backed by a decentralized team of nine advisors from across the world. Emercoin has been in the market since 2014, and its past trend in the cryptocurrency market shows that it has followed a steady and stable growth. Emercoin has scored many partnerships. Two of its major partners are Coca Cola and Microsoft. Some other partners are RedHat, LLoyd’s, Bitfury, Aspanta, Deloitte, Authorizers, Foundico, Anteko, etc. Emercoin has also been featured on some prominent media platforms such as Forbes, Digital Trends, Engadget, The Business Times, Aljazeera, Gadgets Now and others. With the sheer variety of services that the Emercoin platform makes available to its users, it would not be surprising to see this currency be viewed as a lucrative investment option by many novice as well as experienced investors in the near future. With the currency’s value currently hitting new highs, it can be said that many people are now beginning to see the true power and potential of this emerging blockchain. However, as is the case with all crypto assets, past performance should not be used to predict the future value of EMC.