Zcash Wallet

In June 202 the ECC released an open-source, shielded-first, fully functional ZCash wallet with a software development kit for demonstration and testing. One of the aims was to make sure that at least 40% of the world could read and understand the wallet. The app has been translated into five languages: Simplified Chinese, Russian, Spanish, Italian and Korean, other than English.

Heartwood Network Upgrade

In July 2020 ECC launched the Heartwood Network Upgrade activation, which added Shielded Coinbase and FlyClient support. Shielded Coinbase allowed Zcash to completely shield ZEC from its creation, thereby increasing privacy. It also gave miners the option to get mining rewards issued immediately into a z-address.

FlyClient provides a more efficient method for verifying the blocks on a blockchain. It could increase the utility and market for Zcash.

Zcash Halving

Zcash experienced its first halving at the tail end of 2020, which led to a cut in miners’ block rewards from 6.25 ZEC to 3.125 ZEC. It also launched the network’s fifth upgrade, Canopy, which removed the controversial “Founders Fund,” which seemed to give too many ZEC tokens back to the founders.

Halo Arc Update

ECC has announced the next suite of upgrades to Zcash – the Halo Arc.

Halo Arc includes updates to Zcashd (Zcash’s consensus node), an ECC wallet prototype and the ECC wallet SDKs. In the wallet, transactions will be shielded by default, which is an option for Zcash at the moment.

After a number of delays, Halo Arc was set to launch in April 2022, but it has been delayed as of right now. The launch was in coordination with the activation of Zcash’s Network Upgrade 5 (NU5). NU5 will be the first mainnet activation of the Halo proving system, furthering the development of zero-knowledge-proof cryptography.

This protocol upgrade will also introduce unified addresses, a feature that creates a single Zcash address compatible across all Zcash value pools. At present, protocol upgrades at times required new address formats.

About ZCash (ZEC)

ZCash uses the zk-SNARK security protocol to verify transactions without revealing any information about the involved parties whatsoever. This feature is very different from most cryptocurrencies because almost all of them promote transparency. Also, ZCash is an altcoin, which means that it shares many characteristics of Bitcoin.