Zcash: Bitcoin’s Privacy‑Focused Cousin

If Bitcoin is the pioneering eldest sibling of crypto, Zcash is the cousin who shares the same monetary DNA—just with a built‑in privacy switch. Both aim to be decentralized digital cash, but they make different tradeoffs about what’s public on chain.

Same Family Roots

- Scarce money

- Both cap supply at 21 million and release coins on a schedule via block rewards.

- Proof‑of‑Work security

- Miners secure the network and make attacks costly.

- UTXO model

- Both track coins as “unspent outputs,” like having multiple signed checks rather than one account balance.

- Open‑source ethos

- Transparent code, peer review, and community governance.

Where They Split

- Privacy by default vs. transparency by default

- Bitcoin: Transactions are public—addresses and amounts are visible. Privacy is possible, but it’s an add‑on and requires discipline.

- Zcash: Offers shielded transactions that encrypt sender, receiver, and amount using zk‑SNARKs. You can still send transparent transactions when you want Bitcoin‑style visibility.

- Selective disclosure

- Zcash supports “viewing keys” so you can share your transaction history with an auditor, accountant, or counterparty—without exposing it to the whole world. Bitcoin has no native equivalent.

- Address types

- Zcash has t‑addresses (transparent) and z‑addresses (shielded). Funds can move between them.

Why Zcash’s Privacy Matters

- Normal financial confidentiality

- Your salary, vendor list, and donations don’t need to be public to everyone forever.

- Safety and OPSEC

- Reduces doxxing/extortion risk for users in hostile environments.

- Business use and compliance

- Companies can keep supplier relationships private yet use viewing keys to prove what’s needed to who needs it.

Tradeoffs to Keep in Mind

- Ecosystem size

- Bitcoin leads in liquidity, integrations, and brand. Zcash is smaller but focused on privacy.

- Tooling and wallets

- BTC tooling is everywhere. Zcash shielded support exists but isn’t universal across all wallets/exchanges.

- Complexity

- Zcash adds advanced cryptography. It’s gotten fast and user‑friendly, but the protocol is more complex under the hood.

A Simple Mental Model

- Bitcoin = transparent cash with strong censorship resistance.

- Zcash = cash with a privacy switch and a share‑when‑needed window (viewing keys).

Both are decentralized, scarce, and permissionless. One is public by default; the other lets you choose what to reveal.