Ever since ZCash launched late last year, their mind-boggling algorithm of proofing that something exists without actually revealing what it is (the so called zkSNARK) was making furors on the crypto world. As you may already know, although Bitcoin was touted as being private and untraceable, this is not entirely true. Bitcoin is more like cash and cash, to a certain extent, is traceable. But by using the zkSNARK (what a tricky name, right?) technology, one can really hide a transaction on the blockchain, making it completely private.
As part of their Byzantium release testing, Ethereum team announced they integrated this technology into the Ethereum transaction mechanism. What this means, in plain English, is that soon, once Byzantium reaches a stable level, we can have completely private transactions on the Ethereum network, just like we have them now in ZCash.
But zkSNARKs are computationally expensive, hence such a transaction will have a much higher price. Sources close to Coindesk, which broke the news, revealed that the price of such a transaction could be around 1,900,000 gas, whereas a "normal", not privatized transaction costs only 21,000 gas.
So the price of anonymity on the Ethereum network is basically 90x higher. Quite pricey, if you ask me...
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