Intro

A myriad of cryptocurrencies exists far to many to even keep track  due to the variety of choices every person's portfolio unique. This is why I decided to write this to let those whom read my content know just what I have in my  portfolio and why.  Everyone has their own investment strategy or preference when cryptocurrency is considered .  I'm starting a series that goes over what cryptocurrency I have & what blockchain ledger system each cryptocurrency is  based on. While also  explain why i choose to hodl them in my portfolio & the potential drawbacks for some.


Starting off with Proof of Work (POW) Zcash will be the first part of the what is in my crypto wallet series.  Given that Zcash and several other cryptocurrencies are a little more complex than others this article will address specifically Zcash.  This is due mostly to the security and privacy features unique to Zcash.

Privacy 

Those of you who follow my articles know that I stress the need for both Privacy and security. This is why I like Zcash it has a unique Privacy feature that other POW coins such as BTC lack. Zcash addresses are either private or transparent depending on weather the user wants the overall value of the transaction to be public. However they cooperate with auditing and law enforcement, but this level of protection known as a Z address keeps several important details encrypted against possible  thieves. So 2 Z addresses sending assets to one another the transaction would still appear on the blockchain ledger as having taken place and the fees that where paid. However the addresses transaction amount and the memo field are all encrypted and not publicly visible.



While some one who wishes to have the transaction publicly available uses a  Zcash  T address  or transparent address this is unencrypted and functions just like BTC.

The halving

Canopy if you are unaware is Zcash's 5th major network upgrade that coincides with Zcash halving. This is scheduled for November 18th activating when block 1046400 is mined. Since the halving is around 8 days from now i thought i would do a minor overview of Zcash and it's privacy features. the following link has all the details

Zcash official site


Pipeflare is a Zcash faucet & this is a shameless Segway into marketing in the form of: my referral link

Why i hodl Zcash

Privacy is not just a option it's essential.  Just look at your news feed every week there's something related to stolen Bitcoin.  This is due mostly to the value but also the transparency of the transaction high value transactions can possibly make you a target of cyber crime if you're public with pertinent details like address and amount. Proof of Work model is unique in that it creates a scarcity based on requisite computational effort that has to progress in length & difficulty with each   "Coin" mined. Just because they are difficult to produce does not mean that they are inherently valuable.  Bitcoin was and always will be the first there's a multitude of variations on the Proof of Work consensus model.

Not every variation is valuable enough to mine Dogecoin and Litecoin are both Proof of Work cryptocurrencies and neither are mathematically profitable to mine. However Zcash BCH  and ETH have all upgraded in various directions that have introduced features that are missing in Bitcoin.  It is their new functionality that Litecoin and several other derivatives lack Zcash and the encryption feature is unique compared to Bitcoin or Litecoin So i theorize it should hold value.