Zcash (ZEC)

System: Zcash — Money and Payments

Zcash is a peer-to-peer payment and settlement network that lets users transfer ZEC through transparent or shielded transaction flows. Launched in 2016, it uses Equihash proof-of-work and zero-knowledge succinct non-interactive arguments of knowledge to support confidential payments on a public blockchain. The system boundary includes Zcash Mainnet consensus, ZEC, miners, full nodes, transaction validation, transaction fees, block-subsidy rules, funding streams, Zcash Community Grants, and the Coinholder-Controlled Fund/lockbox. For the lockbox component, the boundary includes the named Key-Holder Organisations: Zcash Foundation, Electric Coin Company and Shielded Labs.

Market Data

Price$504.10
Market Cap$8.51B
Fully Diluted Valuation$8.51B
30d Change-7.90%
365d Change1328.30%

Token Functionalities

Governance

  • Treasury Control (Partial)

    Right to vote to direct assets from the Coinholder-Controlled Fund. It is marked as Partial because coinholder voting does not execute unilaterally: key-holder organisations retain defined execution and veto roles over approved disbursements.

Payments

  • Native Resource Fee (Strong)

    Right to consume Zcash Mainnet transaction-settlement capacity by paying ZEC-denominated transaction fees. It is marked as Strong because ZEC is the native unit used to pay for the system-controlled transaction resource.

  • General Medium of Exchange [Exogenous]

    Right to discharge a payment obligation to a willing external counterparty for goods or services using ZEC. This functionality is exogenous because acceptance depends on merchants, payment rails or counterparties outside Zcash Mainnet rather than on protocol enforcement.

System Attributes

Operating Model

<p>Zcash&nbsp;is&nbsp;an&nbsp;on-chain&nbsp;protocol.&nbsp;The&nbsp;core&nbsp;operating&nbsp;model&nbsp;is&nbsp;coordinated&nbsp;through&nbsp;mainnet&nbsp;consensus&nbsp;rules,&nbsp;proof-of-work&nbsp;mining,&nbsp;full-node&nbsp;validation&nbsp;and&nbsp;transaction&nbsp;propagation&nbsp;rather&nbsp;than&nbsp;through&nbsp;a&nbsp;custodial&nbsp;operator&nbsp;or&nbsp;centralised&nbsp;account&nbsp;system.&nbsp;Miners&nbsp;compete&nbsp;to&nbsp;produce&nbsp;blocks&nbsp;and&nbsp;receive&nbsp;block&nbsp;rewards&nbsp;and&nbsp;fees,&nbsp;while&nbsp;full&nbsp;nodes&nbsp;validate&nbsp;transactions&nbsp;and&nbsp;enforce&nbsp;consensus&nbsp;rules.&nbsp;Off-chain&nbsp;organisations,&nbsp;software&nbsp;teams,&nbsp;committees&nbsp;and&nbsp;key-holder&nbsp;organisations&nbsp;are&nbsp;material&nbsp;to&nbsp;funding&nbsp;administration&nbsp;and&nbsp;governance&nbsp;processes,&nbsp;but&nbsp;they&nbsp;do&nbsp;not&nbsp;operate&nbsp;the&nbsp;core&nbsp;payment-settlement&nbsp;service.</p>

Value Creation

<p>Zcash&nbsp;creates&nbsp;value&nbsp;on-chain&nbsp;by&nbsp;providing&nbsp;final&nbsp;settlement&nbsp;for&nbsp;ZEC&nbsp;transfers&nbsp;and&nbsp;optional&nbsp;transaction&nbsp;confidentiality.&nbsp;Transparent&nbsp;transactions&nbsp;resemble&nbsp;ordinary&nbsp;public-chain&nbsp;transfers,&nbsp;while&nbsp;shielded&nbsp;transactions&nbsp;allow&nbsp;users&nbsp;to&nbsp;hide&nbsp;sender,&nbsp;recipient&nbsp;and&nbsp;amount&nbsp;while&nbsp;still&nbsp;preserving&nbsp;verifiability&nbsp;under&nbsp;Zcash&nbsp;consensus&nbsp;rules.&nbsp;The&nbsp;productive&nbsp;activity&nbsp;valued&nbsp;by&nbsp;users&nbsp;is&nbsp;not&nbsp;custody,&nbsp;order&nbsp;matching&nbsp;or&nbsp;off-chain&nbsp;payment&nbsp;processing;&nbsp;it&nbsp;is&nbsp;the&nbsp;blockchain’s&nbsp;ability&nbsp;to&nbsp;validate,&nbsp;order&nbsp;and&nbsp;settle&nbsp;ZEC&nbsp;transactions&nbsp;with&nbsp;optional&nbsp;privacy.&nbsp;External&nbsp;wallets,&nbsp;processors&nbsp;and&nbsp;integrations&nbsp;can&nbsp;improve&nbsp;access&nbsp;or&nbsp;distribution,&nbsp;but&nbsp;they&nbsp;do&nbsp;not&nbsp;change&nbsp;the&nbsp;location&nbsp;of&nbsp;core&nbsp;value&nbsp;creation.</p>

Value Capture

<p>Zcash&nbsp;has&nbsp;Hybrid&nbsp;Value&nbsp;Capture&nbsp;and&nbsp;Routing.&nbsp;On-chain,&nbsp;transaction&nbsp;fees&nbsp;and&nbsp;block&nbsp;subsidies&nbsp;are&nbsp;routed&nbsp;through&nbsp;protocol&nbsp;rules&nbsp;to&nbsp;miners&nbsp;that&nbsp;produce&nbsp;valid&nbsp;blocks.&nbsp;The&nbsp;Zcash&nbsp;protocol&nbsp;also&nbsp;defines&nbsp;funding&nbsp;streams&nbsp;that&nbsp;route&nbsp;part&nbsp;of&nbsp;issuance&nbsp;away&nbsp;from&nbsp;ordinary&nbsp;miner&nbsp;rewards&nbsp;and&nbsp;towards&nbsp;ecosystem&nbsp;funding&nbsp;mechanisms.&nbsp;Off-chain,&nbsp;those&nbsp;funding&nbsp;mechanisms&nbsp;depend&nbsp;on&nbsp;governance&nbsp;and&nbsp;administrative&nbsp;structures&nbsp;such&nbsp;as&nbsp;Zcash&nbsp;Community&nbsp;Grants,&nbsp;the&nbsp;Financial&nbsp;Privacy&nbsp;Foundation,&nbsp;where&nbsp;applicable,&nbsp;and&nbsp;the&nbsp;Coinholder-Controlled&nbsp;Fund/lockbox&nbsp;Key-Holder&nbsp;Organisations&nbsp;named&nbsp;in&nbsp;the&nbsp;relevant&nbsp;Zcash&nbsp;Improvement&nbsp;Proposal:&nbsp;Zcash&nbsp;Foundation,&nbsp;Electric&nbsp;Coin&nbsp;Company&nbsp;and&nbsp;Shielded&nbsp;Labs.&nbsp;The&nbsp;hybrid&nbsp;label&nbsp;reflects&nbsp;this&nbsp;split:&nbsp;settlement&nbsp;fees&nbsp;and&nbsp;block&nbsp;rewards&nbsp;are&nbsp;enforced&nbsp;by&nbsp;the&nbsp;on-chain&nbsp;protocol,&nbsp;while&nbsp;a&nbsp;material&nbsp;share&nbsp;of&nbsp;development-funding&nbsp;value&nbsp;is&nbsp;routed&nbsp;through&nbsp;off-chain&nbsp;committees,&nbsp;entities&nbsp;and&nbsp;multisig-controlled&nbsp;processes.</p>

Governance

Token-Based: <p>Token-Based&nbsp;Governance&nbsp;applies&nbsp;only&nbsp;to&nbsp;the&nbsp;Coinholder-Controlled&nbsp;Fund&nbsp;grant-allocation&nbsp;process.&nbsp;Opt-in&nbsp;ZEC&nbsp;coinholders&nbsp;can&nbsp;vote&nbsp;on&nbsp;eligible&nbsp;grant&nbsp;applications,&nbsp;giving&nbsp;ZEC&nbsp;a&nbsp;scoped&nbsp;treasury-control&nbsp;governance&nbsp;role.&nbsp;This&nbsp;does&nbsp;not&nbsp;extend&nbsp;to&nbsp;binding&nbsp;control&nbsp;over&nbsp;protocol&nbsp;upgrades,&nbsp;technical&nbsp;parameters,&nbsp;economic&nbsp;consensus&nbsp;rules,&nbsp;miner&nbsp;admission&nbsp;or&nbsp;the&nbsp;wider&nbsp;Zcash&nbsp;governance&nbsp;process.&nbsp;The&nbsp;token-based&nbsp;component&nbsp;is&nbsp;also&nbsp;constrained&nbsp;by&nbsp;entity-based&nbsp;execution:&nbsp;key-holder&nbsp;organisations&nbsp;must&nbsp;sign&nbsp;disbursements&nbsp;and&nbsp;may&nbsp;veto&nbsp;under&nbsp;defined&nbsp;conditions.&nbsp;Token&nbsp;governance&nbsp;is&nbsp;therefore&nbsp;present,&nbsp;but&nbsp;limited&nbsp;to&nbsp;this&nbsp;funding&nbsp;component&nbsp;and&nbsp;not&nbsp;the&nbsp;system&nbsp;as&nbsp;a&nbsp;whole.</p> Participant-Based: <p>Participant-Based&nbsp;Governance&nbsp;applies&nbsp;to&nbsp;Zcash&nbsp;protocol&nbsp;upgrades,&nbsp;economic&nbsp;consensus&nbsp;rules,&nbsp;node-software&nbsp;adoption,&nbsp;mining&nbsp;participation&nbsp;and&nbsp;Zcash&nbsp;Community&nbsp;Grants&nbsp;committee&nbsp;decision-making.&nbsp;Protocol&nbsp;changes&nbsp;depend&nbsp;on&nbsp;the&nbsp;Zcash&nbsp;Improvement&nbsp;Proposal&nbsp;process,&nbsp;implementation&nbsp;work,&nbsp;and&nbsp;adoption&nbsp;by&nbsp;node&nbsp;operators&nbsp;and&nbsp;miners&nbsp;rather&nbsp;than&nbsp;automatic&nbsp;execution&nbsp;by&nbsp;ZEC-holder&nbsp;vote.&nbsp;Mining&nbsp;admission&nbsp;and&nbsp;block-production&nbsp;weighting&nbsp;are&nbsp;determined&nbsp;through&nbsp;proof-of-work&nbsp;participation.&nbsp;Zcash&nbsp;Community&nbsp;Grants&nbsp;decisions&nbsp;are&nbsp;also&nbsp;participant-based&nbsp;where&nbsp;grant&nbsp;authority&nbsp;sits&nbsp;with&nbsp;an&nbsp;elected&nbsp;committee&nbsp;rather&nbsp;than&nbsp;with&nbsp;passive&nbsp;ZEC&nbsp;ownership&nbsp;alone.</p> Entity-Based: <p>Entity-Based&nbsp;Governance&nbsp;applies&nbsp;to&nbsp;specific&nbsp;funding&nbsp;and&nbsp;administration&nbsp;components,&nbsp;not&nbsp;to&nbsp;the&nbsp;whole&nbsp;Zcash&nbsp;protocol.&nbsp;The&nbsp;Financial&nbsp;Privacy&nbsp;Foundation&nbsp;and&nbsp;related&nbsp;administrative&nbsp;structures&nbsp;are&nbsp;relevant&nbsp;where&nbsp;they&nbsp;administer&nbsp;Zcash&nbsp;Community&nbsp;Grants&nbsp;funding.&nbsp;Zcash&nbsp;Foundation,&nbsp;Electric&nbsp;Coin&nbsp;Company&nbsp;and&nbsp;Shielded&nbsp;Labs&nbsp;are&nbsp;named&nbsp;as&nbsp;Key-Holder&nbsp;Organisations&nbsp;for&nbsp;the&nbsp;Coinholder-Controlled&nbsp;Fund/lockbox&nbsp;multisig,&nbsp;giving&nbsp;them&nbsp;material&nbsp;execution&nbsp;and&nbsp;veto-relevant&nbsp;roles&nbsp;over&nbsp;that&nbsp;funding&nbsp;component.&nbsp;These&nbsp;entities&nbsp;do&nbsp;not&nbsp;unilaterally&nbsp;govern&nbsp;Zcash&nbsp;Mainnet&nbsp;consensus,&nbsp;mining&nbsp;admission&nbsp;or&nbsp;protocol&nbsp;upgrades,&nbsp;but&nbsp;they&nbsp;do&nbsp;hold&nbsp;binding&nbsp;execution&nbsp;rights&nbsp;over&nbsp;defined&nbsp;funding-disbursement&nbsp;components&nbsp;inside&nbsp;the&nbsp;system&nbsp;boundary.</p>