Why I am writing this article? Is it because I am a masternode hodler of Zcoin? Will the coin bring me to the moon so that I can buy a new Lambo? No, no, no. Even in this hopelessly bearish crypto market where everything is going down into the drain, I am still buying and hodling Zcoin. For me, the crypto market will recover just like the bull and bear cycles of the traditional stock market. The liquidity of the crypto market in general will improve as the market matures. The world of decentralized cryptocurrencies once released from the Pandora box will only get bigger because it takes the power of minting and coin supply from the powerful elites into the hands of the common people. I especially like Zcoin because of its intrinsic features. So let start with a brief history of Zcoin, its features and why I like the coin when compared to other privacy coins.
Zcoin history
The Zcoin cryptocurrency originated from Zerocoin protocol designed by Johns Hopkins University professor Matthew D. Green and his graduate students (Ian Miers and Christina Garman) in 2013. Together they released a paper named “Zerocoin: Anonymous Distributed E-Cash from Bitcoin” at 2013 IEEE Symphosium on Security. The aim is to create a protocol that performs untraceable transactions without relying on any third party service. Basically, Zerocoin protocol works by burning up an existing coin and mint a new one. This is much better than Bitcoin tumbler service which relies on mixing up transactions coming from other people. Beside, Bitcoin tumbler service is highly centralised. The original intention for the Zerocoin protocol is to be integrated into the Bitcoin protocol so the Bitcoin pseudonymous transactions will become anonymous. However, the Bitcoin community rejected Zerocoin protocol instead.
Then in the late 2014, Poramin Insom, a student in Masters in Security Informatics from Johns Hopkins University with Matthew D. Green as faculty member, wrote a paper on implementing the Zerocoin protocol into a cryptocurrency. The project to create a new cryptocurrency based on Zerocoin protocol was known as “Moneta”. After some improvements were done to the Zerocoin protocol, finally, on 28 September 2016, Zcoin, the first cryptocurrency to implement the Zerocoin protocol was released into the public.
Why I like Zcoin?
Zcoin uses the proof-of-work algorithm to verify its transaction. Now, of you may want to compare Zcash with Zcoin, thinking that Zcash is technologically superior than Zcoin. However, there is a tradeoff. Although Zcash can conceal the amount of money sent in each transaction and Zcoin does not; there is risk that Zcash coin supply maybe left unchecked. Zcoin also has an auditable supply feature to keep hyperinflation in check. In my opinion, hiding the amount of coins sent in each transaction does not add any value to the privacy of a coin. This is because when the sender and the receiver are hidden from the public, there is no way to trace the origin of the coin!
In November 2017, in the midst of the Bitcoin bull market, Zcoin released its masternode feature. Today, there are around 3,500 operational masternodes and I am one of the proud owners of Znode. Each Zcoin masternode requires 1,000 Zcoins. Each masternode can give a return of 17 to 25% per annum, which is quite high when compared to other masternode coins with good development and community support. In 2018, a Zcoin was integrated into the TOR network and released its own Electrum light wallet. There are now three mobile wallets that accept Zcoin: Coinomi, Edge Wallet, and Cobo wallet. Zcoin just recently partnered with Paytomat to enable merchants to easily adopt Zcoin.
What gets me more excited about Zcoin are the upcoming Merkle Tree Proof (MTP) and Dandelion. MTP allows mining with CPU and GPU to be profitable while remains resistant to ASIC mining. This is to make sure that Zcoin mining can be as decentralised as possible. Dandelion is another feature that keeps the network anonymity. Dandelion makes the process of tracing the source of transaction extremely difficult.
Price prediction
Now the fun part, what is my price prediction of the Zcoin? During the bull run in October 2017 to January 2018, some people wrote articles predicting Zcoin will become the top privacy coin in 2018, or it will reach US$ 250 dollars in 2018 . All these predictions during the Bull Run are overly optimistic. Zcoin price dropped 95% from US$ 170 in January 2018 to current price of US$ 9 in September 2018. So, I do not expect the price of Zcoin to go up back soon. But for one thing I am certain; Zcoin is here to stay. With listing on the top three crypto exchanges, it maintains a decent exchange volume of 150 to 250 bitcoins per day. The volume will go dramatically higher when the bull market returns. Zcoin currently is in the oversold position. So if you are practicing value investing like Warren Buffet, you should be buying and hodling this coin while there is blood on the street; provided that you can afford to lock up your coins until the bull market returns after a few years.
For me, Zcoin is worth at least US$ 500 to US$ 1000 because of its underlying advanced privacy technology. Another feature is great community support lead by Reuben Yap, a lawyer who turned into full time Zcoin COO (Chief Operating Officer). He is an honest person and has been trying very hard to make Zcoin a better coin for everyone. You can see his reply regarding the prospect of Zcoin in this reddit message. The team has enough cash reserve for another two years irrespective how Zcoin price performs. Despite Zcoin price making new bottom every day, the Zcoin team does not resort to using cash reserve to prop up the price. Obviously, propping up the price is only a temporary measure as there are too many sellers on the market that can eat up the buy order. Money is better used for the Zcoin development. Sooner or later, investors will find Zcoin as a reliable investment and a form of good privacy transaction protocol.
To join the Zcoin Telegram group, you can find it here:
One thing I forgot to tell you. The Telegram group is noob friendly!
Conclusion
Overall, you should have a look at Zcoin. It has an active team developing on the coin and great community support. These two features define a good coin. So be part of the Zcoin community today and thank me later!