PRE LAUNCH UPDATES...
Announcing the Zcash Open Source Miner Challenge
Incentivizing the creation of open source miners will enable a wider community to mine for Zcash coins and take ownership of the network as a public good. While we expect a full range in size of Zcash miners to exist, the more individuals who run a miner (whether GPU or CPU) the stronger the network.
The Open Source Miner Challenge is live and accepting submissions until 27 October at 23:59 UTC. All details are now available on the Zcash Open Source Miner Challenge website; there you can also find the form to submit your entry.
Launching Sprout
The launch target date for the Zcash blockchain is set for October 28, 2016. This is when the first Zcash monetary units will come into existence. When the Zcash genesis block is launched, anyone in the world will be able to mine Zcash, and users will be able to send it to anyone in the world with the advantage of full zero-knowledge privacy. The interface will be a command-line tool on Linux, and will not include a graphical user interface, nor run on Windows or Mac OS at launch time without installing a virtual machine on their system like Virtual Box to run a supported version of Linux within. We will continue adding improvements in response to user demand following this initial release.
WHAT IS ZCASH?
Zcash offers total payment confidentiality, while still maintaining a decentralized network using a public blockchain. Unlike Bitcoin, Zcash transactions automatically hide the sender, recipient, and value of all transactions on the blockchain. Only those with the correct view key can see the contents. Users have complete control and can opt-in to provide others with their view key at their discretion.
TECHNOLOGY
Zcash is a decentralized and open-source cryptocurrency that offers privacy and selective transparency of transactions. Zcash payments are published on a public blockchain, but the sender, recipient, and amount of a transaction remain private.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
Since the contents of Zcash transactions are encrypted and private, the system uses a novel cryptographic method to verify payments.
Zcash uses a zero-knowledge proof construction called a zk-SNARK, developed by our team of experienced cryptographers. These constructions allow the network to maintain a secure ledger of balances without disclosing the parties or amounts involved. Instead of publicly demonstrating spend-authority and transaction values, the transaction metadata is encrypted and zk-SNARKs are used to prove that nobody is cheating or stealing.