A few days ago, Electric Coin Co. (ECC) announced a plan to transition Zcash from Proof-of-Work (PoW) to Proof-of-Stake (PoS).
It has become clear that the best way for ECC to contribute to the #Zcash $ZEC community over the next three years is to release an official ECC wallet on top of a highly interoperable Zcash protocol that leverages proof-of-stake consensus.https://t.co/SxMF1pNCTB
— Electric Coin Co. (@ElectricCoinCo) November 19, 2021
Summary
ZCash, the roadmap to Proof of Stake
The company has also published a roadmap outlining the various steps up to 2024.
The goal is to offer Zcash users a better user experience by offering an official ECC wallet and a new highly interoperable cryptocurrency protocol based on PoS.
PoW is still used by several first or second-generation cryptocurrencies, primarily Bitcoin, but more and more crypto protocols are switching to PoS because it is faster and cheaper.
ECC’s roadmap to bring Zcash to PoS in three years is described as “aggressive” but achievable.
The price of ZEC
It is worth noting that the price of ZEC has definitely gone up since the news was announced, although still a long way from the $880 of January 2018. In the last week, it has appreciated by 52%, returning above $250, although still below May levels.
Zcash is a second-generation cryptocurrency with a high level of privacy, but it has never managed to really make waves. It is ranked 55th in terms of market capitalization, although not far behind its main rival Monero (XMR).
ZCash towards Web 3.0
ZEC also aims to be a cryptocurrency for the next generation of the Internet, called Web 3.0, in which “each individual is self-sovereign”. According to ECC, in Web 3.0, people will be able to, for instance, bypass banks and obtain loans from other people all over the world.
Web 3.0 is described as a revolution that goes beyond finance and is based on multi-chain interoperability.
In such a scenario ZEC would like to play a leading role.
One of the proposed solutions to achieve this would be the use of the Cosmos (ATOM) platform to achieve cross-chain interoperability.
" By leveraging a highly trusted and used platform such as Cosmos to move @zcash to proof of stake, we would immediately realize the benefit of cross-chain interoperability with other projects participating on the platform"
— Cosmos – The Interchain ⚛️ (@cosmos) November 22, 2021
It is probably no coincidence that the price of ATOM has also risen in the last week (+7.4%), although it is still 30% lower than its September highs.
So the idea is to combine the anonymity of Zcash with a cross-chain solution like Cosmos to give Web 3.0 a cryptocurrency with a high level of privacy and interoperability.
