Episode Summary

Zcash: History, Privacy, and the Future of Web 3

Crypto Wednesday: Aztec co-founder Thomas Walton-Pocock hosts Zooko Wilcox, CEO of Electric Coin Company, to discuss Zcash, privacy, technical barriers, and innovation. Zcash, a decentralized, open-source cryptocurrency, is most identified by individuals for its built-in encryption which allows for private data in a public blockchain. Zcash's most important feature, according to Wilcox, is its dev fund—it's self-funding, which allows developers to continuously improve the protocol in order to prevent the currency from being undermined, weakened, vulnerable to capture, or steered in a direction for an individual's benefit. Some investors treat privacy, whether offered by Zcash or any other protocol, merely as an additional feature; however, Wilcox explains that because privacy is a fundamental aspect of its design, the Zcash protocol is stronger than other protocols that add privacy as a feature on top.