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Zcash To Enhance User Protection With Privacy-Focused Partnership

A partnership between privacy-focused projects Nym and Zcash was recently announced. The partnership aims to address some persisting issues in the sector to enhance user protection and data privacy in the Zcash ecosystem.

Data Leakage, A Challenging Issue

Electric Coin Company (ECC), the Zcash development organization, is collaborating with Nym, a privacy blockchain project focused on enhancing data confidentiality. The collaboration is possible through a Zcash Community Grants (ZCG) grant, as the project’s team announced on its X (former Twitter) account.

The partnership aims to address challenging user protection issues by integrating Nym’s mixnet into the Zcash ecosystem. Integrating with the Zcash light client libraries would allow the wallet developers to implement Nym mixnet’s privacy protection at their discretion.

The goal, as the announcement explains, is for the integration process of Nym and Zcash to fill the gap in the network layer.  This gap allows the metadata of user’s transactions to be traceable and leaves the data vulnerable, which then presents a privacy problem for users, as the post explains:

Powerful adversaries can analyze traffic patterns such as the stream of TCP/IP packets used to submit transactions, which can then be used to de-anonymize users. ISPs can snoop on traffic patterns to passively record Zcash activity. And the growing crypto surveillance industry can passively spy on peer-to-peer traffic, as well as conduct active attacks.

Nym will work with Zcash’s already existing privacy-preserving infrastructure to “help provide an end-to-end protected solution for users’ privacy. Zcash uses zero-knowledge proofs to secure transaction privacy, but “even advanced privacy protections like Zcash’s auto-shielding feature are vulnerable at the network later.”

The Nym mixnet is a technology that prevents government, corporate, and criminal surveillance adversaries from tracing metadata by encrypting user data into sphinx packets and dispersing them across global ‘mix nodes’, making metadata patterns untraceable and ensuring online privacy:

The mixnet achieves this by splitting data into identically sized encrypted Sphinx packets and dispersing these in three hops to ‘mix nodes’ worldwide at randomized intervals. Next, the mixnet shuffles in dummy ‘cover’ traffic, further complicating tracing. Together these features make tracking metadata patterns impossible even for powerful adversaries with a global view of the network.

A Shared Vision: Privacy For Everyone

Nym and Zcash are privacy-focused projects that protect users’ rights to their personal information and transaction data. “It is an alienable right to a dignified life free from gross intrusion and interference,” said Harry Halpin, cofounder and CEO at Nym Technologies.

Halpin also commented on the state of the digital realm regarding privacy matters. The CEO believes that although intrusion and interference are the “normal state of affairs,” a change is needed. “With this groundbreaking integration, Nym and Zcash are working to make real privacy online a reality,” he concluded.

Josh Swihart, CEO of ECC, expressed his positive outlook on the partnership, reaffirming that network-level privacy has been a “missing piece since Zcash’s inception.” He believes that privacy ecosystems coming together will only “deepen protections from everyday users to protect their financial privacy.”

Global regulators have scrutinized privacy-focused projects and accused them of enabling criminal activity. Last year, Zcash (ZEC), alongside other privacy coins like Monero (XMR), was announced to be delisted from Binance, the largest crypto exchange in the world, in four European countries. Similarly, Binance recently announced its plan to delist Moreno in the US amid regulatory pressure.

ZEC, ZECUSDT, Zcash, Crypto

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Privacy For All: Brave To Integrate Zcash Protocol On Native Crypto Wallet

During the Messari Mainnet event, the company behind the internet browser Brave announced a partnership with the Electric Coin Co. (ECC) and the Filecoin Foundation. These entities are the leading developers of the Zcash (ZEC) protocol and Filecoin (FIL).

Brave Brings Zcash Tools Into Web3

According to an official announcement, the cooperation aims to “improve” privacy for Brave’s Web3 wallet. This feature allows users to transact with cryptocurrencies, including the Basic Attention Token (BAT), which people can earn by interacting with websites.

Zcash’s native token, ZEC, will become the latest to integrate with the wallet. The company behind Brave claims that this cooperation underscores its “commitment” to provide privacy tools for its users.

The integration will allow users to transact privately or publicly with other users and “have greater control” over their Web3 activity. Zooko Wilcox, CEO of the Electric Coin Co., stated:

I’m excited about integrating Zcash into the Brave web browser because privacy should be normal. The Brave browser is a tool that tens of millions of people are using for everyday communication, web browsing, shopping, and other activities. This gives them access to money that respects their security and consent. I’m thrilled for this launch — and what’s to come — as a result of this partnership with Brave and Filecoin Foundation.

Since its inception, Brave has provided its users with more control over their data and activity. The company behind the browsers has been increasing its privacy features recently by launching easy ways to delete cookies, profiles, and any traces of interaction with a website.

In that sense, Yan Zhu from Brave added:

This partnership with like-minded organizations reinforces Brave’s mission for a more private and user-first Web. Not only do we hope to make it simple to use ZEC for private transactions, but we also aim to maximize privacy during key moments of purchase or exchange.

More Privacy, More Features

In addition to the above, the partners hinted at launching a new privacy-based tool to send and receive messages and multimedia files supported by the Zcash protocol. The content will be stored using the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS), which supports Filecoin.

Marta Belcher, president of the Filecoin Foundation, said:

We’re thrilled to be a part of this important project. We believe cryptocurrency can be the foundation for a better Internet — an alternative to big tech that puts people in control of their own data, protects user privacy and security, and permanently preserves humanity’s most important information.

As of this writing, neither ZEC nor BAT has seen any upside driven by the announcement. However, Brave users will likely benefit long-term by leveraging a privacy-oriented tool and an alternative to Google and other big tech companies seemingly growing more hungry for people’s data.

Brave Zcash ZEC ZECUSDT Filecoin FIL BAT

Cover image from Unsplash, chart from Tradingview

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These Altcoins Will Be Hit The Hardest If DCG And Grayscale Fall

The pressure on the Digital Currency Group (DCG) and Grayscale continues to mount. The Winklevoss twins have given DCG an ultimatum of January 8th to return the $900 million Gemini Earn customer funds, while the users themselves have filed a class action lawsuit against both companies.

In addition, in what is believed to be a tactical decision, Valkyrie Investments and Fir Tree recently got involved in the “Shakespearean drama,” as NewsBTC reported yesterday. Thus, the pressure on DCG CEO Barry Silbert is building up day by day, while he is presumably hoping for Feb. 3rd when a three-judge panel will rule on the complaint against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for refusing to convert GBTC into a Bitcoin spot ETF.

These Altcoins Are The Biggest Holdings Of DCG And Grayscale

As many know, Grayscale owns a massive amount of Bitcoin as part of its GBTC, namely more than 630,000 BTC, which is causing great concerns among investors. However, as a Twitter user, Karl shows, not only BTC investors but also altcoin investors should be rooting for Silbert’s companies to survive.

While the more than 630,000 BTC “only” represent 3.28% of all Bitcoins in circulation, there are two altcoins owned by the company that represents an even higher percentage of the total market cap. Within its other trusts, Grayscale holds a staggering 8.53% of all Ethereum Classic (ETC), the equivalent of around $189 million. Second, on the list is Horizen (ZEN). The share of the total market capital is 4.64%, around $5.7 million.

But Grayscale also has an immensely high share of ZCash (ZEC) and Ethereum (ETH) with 2.53% and 2.52%, respectively. They are followed by Litecoin (2.11%), Bitcoin Cash (1.6%), and MANA (1%).

The main concern for the above cryptocurrency investors could be that the company led by Micheal Sonnenshein is liquidating some of its altcoin trusts to save its flagship product the GBTC and possibly Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETHE) and the entire Digital Currency Group. Silbert could use the funds to serve creditors.

Given the massive stakes in the overall market, it would be almost impossible to rule out the possibility of the already underperforming altcoins suffering even higher, hefty losses due to a Grayscale dump.

The Ethereum Classic price is currently 90.85% below its all-time high of $176.16, while Horizen is trading 94.44% below its all-time high of $168.15. The biggest loss comes from Zcash, which is 99.36% below the all-time high of $5,941.80.

Hurdles For Grayscale For Dissolving Their Trusts

Whether there will be a dissolution of all or only some of the trusts can only be speculated at this time. CEO Michael Sonnenshein had emphasized several times in recent weeks that Grayscale has no intention of dissolving the GBTC fund.

Despite that, he brought into play the option of returning up to 20% of GBTC’s capital to shareholders if he fails to convert the product into an exchange-traded fund two weeks ago.

Still, there are high legal hurdles. It’s important to remember that Grayscale is regulated by the SEC. Dissolving trusts requires an application to the SEC, and the process is very lengthy and difficult, on the other hand not impossible as evidenced by the dissolution of the XRP trust as a result of the SEC lawsuit against Ripple.

Grayscale has a low-risk, high-return project. However, the current developments put massive pressure on DCG and therefore also on Grayscale. Due to the connections through loans between both companies, a downfall of the parent company could also drag the cash cow Grayscale down with it.

However, it is important to emphasize that a downfall does not necessarily mean a dump of all coins at once. If there is a Reg M solution, probably not all Grayscale investors would want to sell. It, therefore, remains important for investors to monitor the development of the DCG/ Grayscale drama.

At press time, the Ethereum price stood at $1,216, still lagging momentum.

ETH price amid Grayscale / DCG drama

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Zcash Sheds 14% Last Week, But Analysis Reveals Buying Opportunity

Zcash (ZEC) was treading a bearish route along with other altcoins, having shaved off as much as 14% in the past few days.

  • Zcash loses 14% last week but opens up an increased buying opportunity
  • Awesome Oscillators looks bullish
  • ZEC’s RSI at 42

On-chain metrics have shown a glimpse of a buying opportunity with a hint of a downtrend. Now, will the bulls pull it off and haul the price back to $66?

Zcash Fibonacci retracement levels have hovered up from $55 to $92.6, showing an 83.4% retracement level, which is close to the key support zone of $58. In June, the $55 to $58 zone emerged to be a bullish lane.

OBV Hints Increased Buying Volume

More so, the OBV is also seen to rise since July hinting at a more stable buying volume which is recognizably stronger compared to the selling pressure.

On the flip side, frequent retests of the support level seem to have weakened it. If the ZEC price dips below $58, then the coin could further slip to $55 and $52, triggering a new buying opportunity.

Still, the momentum is geared towards the sellers with the RSI unable to offshoot the 50 zones and stay above that level.

On a 2-hour chart, Zcash appears to have dampened its strength and has weakened as seen in the past couple of weeks. The $67.3 area was bearish as seen since August. More so, the same area has been retested twice.

At this point, the AO reveals a bullish divergence. So, as the price thrusts into the support zone, the momentum is perceived to switch.

ZEC’s price is currently heading above the consolidation period while enjoying the uptrend.

ZEC’s Price Spikes By 1.86%

According to CoinMarketCap, ZEC’s price has surged by 1.86% or trading at $58.25 as of press time. The total market capitalization slumped by 4.62%. More so, trading volume has dipped by 39. 53%, which shows that the buyers are trying to grow their ZEC holdings.

On the daily price chart, ZEC is seen to spike in price as it hovers near the upper trendline. In order to breach the support line, bulls must consolidate at ZEC.

On the other hand, bears can try to deter the coin’s uptick at any time with the constricted rate of accumulation.

If the bulls want to go in full force and avoid any deterrence from the bears, then they must accumulate.

Based on the daily chart, ZEC’s price is trying to maintain its momentum during the consolidation period. Technical indicators show the increased speed of ZEC’s upward trend.

ZEC’s RSI is currently 42 which is below neutral. The MACD seems to intersect with the signal lines which could signify changes in trends.

Crypto total market cap at $938 billion on the daily chart | Source: TradingView.com

Featured image from Tino Group, Chart: TradingView.com
(The analysis represents the author’s personal views and should not be construed as investment advice).

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Here’s Why Zcash Could Trend Upward, ZEC Prepares for Major Upgrade

Zcash and privacy coins could be back in vogue. Two weeks they began moving upwards, following an oppositive sentiment in the market, and scored profits of around 11% for ZEC’s price, and 15% for Monero (XMR).

Related Reading | Monero And Zcash Take Off With 15% Gains, Here’s What May Have Spurred The Rally

ZEC’s price has returned to move back in tandem with the rest of the crypto market. At the time of writing, ZEC trades north of $160 with a 2.3% loss in the past 24 hours.

ZEC with minor gains on the daily chart. Source: ZECUSDT Tradingview

This rally was driven by a potential demand for privacy coins, as the conflict between Russia and Ukraine potentially forced certain individuals to transfer their wealth into digital assets. Monero and Zcash could have benefited from this trend.

In addition, the U.S. administration, led by President Joe Biden, passed an executive order (EO) on cryptocurrencies. Celebrated by a majority of the crypto industry, the EO also contemplates the possible implementation of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) supported by the U.S. Federal Reserve (FED).

Still under exploration from U.S. entities, if the country decides to move forward with a CBDC, citizens could be subjected to more scrutiny, and the state could gain more control. Under this scenario, Zcash and Monero could become critical assets for privacy-seeking individuals.

The ZEC’s price rally could gain fresh momentum, as the Zcash Foundation announced its biggest mainnet update since 2020. Dubbed Network Upgrade (NU5), Matt Markewicz, an analyst at crypto research firm Messari, broke down the details via his Twitter account.

The analyst claims this update will improve Zcash’s privacy and scalability capabilities. This could provide a boost for ZEC’s fundamentals as the network advances towards the Halo 2 proving system, according to Markewicz.

Zcash will remove trusted setups, and proof composition, said the analyst while adding the following on the implementation of the Halo system:

Halo enables enhanced scalability and privacy by changing the underlying cryptographic primitives that power the system. End-users can easily verify large amounts of data by confirming a proof of proofs, like zero-knowledge inception.

Zcash Moves To Upgrade Network, The Ace In The Hole

Furthermore, said Markewicz, the network won’t require users to destroy data that could be used by bad actors. This is one of the steps to mint new ZEC, the analyst said.

Along with the upgrade, the developers in charge of maintaining ZEC are expected to, Markewicz said, shift to a “more product-centric focus. Thus, they will create more tools and resources to ease development on this network and will improve the user experience.

Perhaps the most bullish factor for Zcash and the price of ZEC it’s the potential migration to a Proof-of-Stake consensus and the implementation of components of the Cosmos infrastructure. The analyst speculates about the introduction of IBC, a protocol that allows communication between the different networks using it.

Related Reading | Monero And Zcash Take Off With 15% Gains, Here’s What May Have Spurred The Rally

This could mean the potential implementation of assets with Zcash’s privacy capabilities running on Terra, and other chains running on the Cosmos infrastructure. A new use case implies new users, and more adoption leading to possible new prices.

There are even rumblings of migrating to Proof of Stake by implementing components of the Cosmos stack. IBC? Interchain shielded assets? The multichain design space is still largely unexplored, but an IBC-compatible Zcash running on PoS would open up a world of new use cases.

— Matt Markewicz (@m_mark_0) March 18, 2022

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Monero And Zcash Take Off With 15% Gains, Here’s What May Have Spurred The Rally

Privacy coins, Zcash (ZEC) and Monero (XMR), have been outperforming larger cryptocurrencies in the last 24 hours. The sudden surge on the price of these cryptocurrencies seems to be responding to recent developments around the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and the signed of an executive order from the U.S. Joe Biden administration.

Related Reading | Monero (XMR) Price Slides As Canada Includes Crypto In Emergencies Act

At the time of writing, Zcash (ZEC) records a 11.7% profit trading at $142, while Monero (XMR) records a 15.5% profit trading at $195. These cryptocurrencies have been following the general sentiment in the crypto market flipping towards a more positive stands as Bitcoin breaks above $41,000.

FTX’s Privacy Index with moderate gains on the daily chart. Source: Tradingview
Zcash And Monero React To A FED Coin

As mentioned, the U.S. President Joe Biden has signed an executive order which has surprise for its positive approach to cryptocurrencies and digital assets. As the war between Russia and Ukraine ranges on, the International Community has quickly imposed financial sanctions of Putin, the Russian elite, and its banking system.

As Coin Center’s Executive Director Jerry Brito said, mainstream media have been pushing a negative narrative around cryptocurrencies. Classifying them as “dangerous”, and with the potential to allow Russia to evade sanctions. Fortunately, some U.S. government officials have also look at the other side of the coin.

The core message in this executive order, as Brito said, is a serious acknowledgment from the U.S. Federal Government of cryptocurrencies as legitimate assets. The crypto market seems to have gotten used to negative or nothing messages from the U.S., thus, why this news could have been translated into a relief rally.

Jake Chervinsky, Head of Policy at the Blockchain Association, commented the following on Biden’s executive order and why it has been perceived as bullish by market participants:

Anyone worried that President Biden’s executive order would spell doom & gloom for crypto can fully relax now. The main concern was that the EO might force rushed rulemaking or impose new & bad restrictions, but there’s nothing like that here. It’s about as good as we could ask.

In addition to the total surge in cryptocurrencies, privacy coins like Zcash and Monero seem to have benefited from the shift in narrative. The executive order also contemplates the creation of a U.S. Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).

This assets have been perceived as the oppositive of Bitcoin, Zcash, and Monero. Rather than give individuals power over their finances, they seem to provide governments with absolute control and oversight on the national currency. Thus, why some investors might have decided to increase their ZEC and XMR holdings.

POTUS: “My Administration places the highest urgency on research and development efforts into the potential design and deployment options of a United States CBDC”

FedCoin 🚨

Worth noting this entire executive order on digital assets is heavy on CBDCs, doesn’t mention Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/PuXtVI34hD

— Alex Gladstein 🌋 ⚡ (@gladstein) March 9, 2022

Privacy About To Gain More Relevance?

Other privacy coins have seen a similar rally with Dash (DASH) recording a 12.8% increase over the past day. Oasis Network (ROSE), Secret (SCRT), Horizen (ZEN), and Keep Network (KEEP) averaging a similar profit during the same period.

In low timeframes, data from Material Indicators suggest retail investors have been leading ZEC and XMR rallies. Investors with bid order of around $100 injected close to $1 billion in liquidity for the ZEC/USDT trading pair.

Related Reading | Monero (XMR) Readies For A Breakout As It Touches Important Milestone

The XMR/USDT trading pair has seen a similar story. Retail investors are also leading the rally in lo timeframes.

Retail Investors (yellow line on the chart) leading the rally above all other classes. Source: Material Indicators