Winklevoss Brothers Bitcoin Exchange Adds Zcash, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash
The Gemini bitcoin exchange founded by Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss is adding support for Zcash, a privacy-focused cryptocurrency with a market valuation of over $1 billion.
Following approval from the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), Gemini will begin accepting deposits of Zcash on Saturday, May 19, at 9:30am EDT.
The regulated exchange that serves its existing customers in 48 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and the U.K. will begin its first day of trading Zcash on May 22 at 9:30am EDT.
In addition to being approved to custody and trade Zcash, the NYDFS has confirmed to Forbes that Gemini will also receive approvals for Bitcoin Cash, with a market value of $25 billion, and Litecoin, valued at $8.2 billion, though details about when these currencies might go live remain sparse.
In a letter from Cameron Winklevoss, the Gemini president explained that the addition of the new products was the result of working closely with the NYDFS.
He wrote:
Our approval makes Gemini the first licensed Zcash exchange in the world. It also makes the NYSDFS the first regulatory agency in the world to supervise Zcash.
Later in the letter, Winklevoss explained that part of the appeal of Zcash is a privacy-protecting feature that allows counterparties to engage in trade without knowing anything about each other. Called zk-snarks, the technology, which can be added to any number of blockchains, provides the same certainty as the bitcoin blockchain but doesn’t require that individuals using it know one another’s public addresses. The “zk” stands for “zero-knowledge.”
As a result, the cryptocurrency offers privacy to those in oppressed nations, criminals and privacy-focused individuals, drawing the attention of both supporters and detractors. In addition to Zcash having a $32.4 million daily trading volume, the zk-snark technology has been integrated into a number of open-source projects, most notably Quorum, originally developed by JPMorgan Chase & Co.
To provide such privacy, Zcash uses both unshielded addresses, which offer a lower degree of protection, and shielded addresses, which provide the full control. At launch, Gemini will support deposits from both addresses, but withdrawals will only be allowed using unshielded addresses.
“We are working to support withdrawals to shielded addresses in the future,” Winklevoss wrote.
All of the new cryptocurrencies being added by Gemini are derived from the same open-source bitcoin codebase, making them members of what Winklevoss calls the “Nakamoto Family Tree,” a nod to the cryptocurrency's pseudonymous creator.
Beyond those cryptocurrencies, the Gemini exchange also trades Ethereum, which has a market valuation of $74 billion. Collectively, the exchange is the 13th largest in the world and transacts roughly 1.65% of the total cryptocurrency market share, according to CryptoCoinCharts data.
Prior to granting Gemini the new license, the NYDFS granted other controversial BitLicenses, which cost more in legal fees than most startups can afford, to cryptocurrency firms Circle, Ripple, Coinbase, and BitFlyer.
NYDFS superintendent Maria Vullo described Gemini's addition of the new cryptocurrencies in a statement provided to Forbes:
This action continues New York’s longstanding commitment to innovation and leadership in the global marketplace. With smart and thorough regulatory oversight, the development and long-term growth of the industry will remain thriving.
Source :- Forbes