Zcash didn't start as just another cryptocurrency.
Its origins trace back to academic research into Zerocoin and Zerocash — pioneering work exploring how strong financial privacy could be added to cryptocurrency.
In January 2016, computer security pioneer and original cypherpunk Zooko Wilcox publicly announced the Zcash project.
But Zcash was never the work of one person.
Its foundations were developed by a group of cryptographers and computer scientists advancing zero-knowledge proof technology — cryptography that makes it possible to prove that information is valid without revealing the underlying private information.
That research ultimately evolved into Zcash.
Then, on October 28, 2016, the Zcash blockchain officially launched with its genesis block.
Zcash was live.What began as years of cryptographic research had become a permissionless monetary network designed to bring strong privacy to digital money.
Nearly a decade later, that original mission remains at the heart of Zcash:
Bitcoin-like scarcity.
Cryptographic privacy.
Financial freedom.