What is Zcash (ZEC)?

Zcash is a cryptocurrency built for privacy. It has the same 21 million cap as Bitcoin and is mined in a similar way. What it adds is the option to hide the sender, the receiver and the amount of a payment.

Where it came from

Zcash launched on 28 October 2016. It was built by the Electric Coin Company and grew out of research into adding privacy to Bitcoin.

How it works

On Bitcoin, every transaction is public. Lesson 1 notes that cryptography there proves ownership and does not make payments secret.

Zcash has two kinds of address.

• Transparent addresses work like Bitcoin's. The sender, receiver and amount are visible to everyone.
• Shielded addresses encrypt all three.

Shielded payments rely on a kind of mathematical proof called a zk-SNARK. It lets the network check that a transaction is valid without seeing its details.

Privacy is optional. A payment between two transparent addresses is as public as a Bitcoin payment. In November 2025, a little over a quarter of the coins in circulation were held in shielded form.

An owner can also share a viewing key. It lets someone else, such as an accountant, see the transactions of a shielded address without being able to spend from it.

Supply

Zcash copies Bitcoin's design.

• The total is fixed at 21 million.
• New coins are created only as the reward for mining a block. A block arrives every 75 seconds.
• The reward is cut in half about every four years. A halving on 23 November 2024 cut it to 1.5625 ZEC. The next is due in 2028.

Not all of the reward goes to miners. Since an upgrade in November 2025, 8% goes to community grants and 12% to a fund controlled by coin holders.

What people use it for

People use Zcash for payments they want to keep private, and they hold and trade it like other coins.

Risks to know

• Exchanges may not carry it. Several large exchanges have removed or restricted privacy coins as regulators have increased scrutiny. That can make Zcash harder to buy and sell.
• Violent price swings. From late September to early November 2025 the price rose from the mid-$70s to more than $700, then fell about 30%.
• Privacy is not automatic. Only a payment from one shielded address to another hides the sender, the receiver and the amount.
• Records still matter. Private payments are still taxable where crypto is taxed. Lesson 59 covers record keeping.

Learn more

Lesson 22 explains keys and addresses, Lesson 5 covers Bitcoin's supply schedule, which Zcash follows, and Lesson 34 shows how public an ordinary blockchain is.