Learn more about the pros and cons of investing in ZCash that would enlighten you to know if it is a good idea to invest in ZCash.
ZCash is one of the primed assets that have the potential to transform your portfolio of investments. In this article, we are going to take a detailed look at why you might consider investing in ZCash, the pros and cons, and the essential facts to look out for before deciding on the crypto trading asset.
Before investing in ZCash, you should conduct a comprehensive study and get to know everything about the cryptocurrency. Investing in ZCash based on the fear of missing out (FOMO) on lucrative gains undoubtedly puts you in a precarious situation where you may lose your entire investment.
Firstly, ZCash is synonymous with the mainstream digital currencies you are used to. But, it offers unique features that are alien to cryptocurrencies that serve transactional purposes.
ZCash, unlike UNI, COMP, and AAVE which are used as governance tokens to manage the blockchain of their issuing authorities, serve a primary function of a transactional currency but in a private manner.
While such a unique feature presents you with a great opportunity to add up a thriving digital asset to your cryptocurrency portfolio, you must read fundamental and technical analysis news about the protocol and its novel token. This will put you in a better situation to get to know the pros and cons of investing in ZCash so that you do not only focus on the positives and ignore the negatives. This is because no crypto trading asset based on its price performance over a given period can certify a perfect status.
Contents:
- What is ZCash?
- The Pros of Investing in ZCash
- The CONS of Investing in Zcash
- How to Invest in ZEC / Where Can I Buy ZCash coin?
- Is Zcash a Good Investment?
- FAQs
What Is ZCash?
ZCash is a network that aims to offer more privacy than Bitcoin and provides users with the option of using private transactions, keeping transaction information private. In simple terms, ZCash can be defined as a decentralized cryptocurrency focused on anonymity and privacy. Launched in 2016 by entrepreneur Zooko Wilcox-O’Hearn, ZCash is managed by Denver-based Electric Coin Company.
ZCash effectively exists as four separate but interconnected things.
The ZCash Network - this is a digital payment network that facilitates transactions without any intermediaries in the form of traditional financial institutions, clearinghouses and insurance companies.
ZEC - this is the digital currency that works on the ZCash network.
Electric Coin Company - as inventors of ZCash, ECC builds and supports technology to provide people with greater accessibility to a fair and open currency regardless of demographic or location. Aside from ZCash, it is well-known for its world-class cryptography, professionalism, and engineering. It ensures that it delivers its products by adhering to all the necessary engagements, trademark protection and, responsible disclosure. It was formed in 2015.
ZCash Foundation - launched in 2017, this is a 501(c) (3) nonprofit that is focused on financial privacy and funded by stakeholders (who are termed as generous donors). The foundation helps with the continuous building and support of privacy infrastructure for the good of the public. The foundation primarily serves users of the ZCash protocol and blockchain.
The idea behind ZCash is to simplify how financial transactions can be made secretly. Although there are privacy coins such as Dash and Monero, ZCash has an edge when it comes to its feature of optional anonymity. With this, users of the cryptocurrency attain a level of privacy that is unavailable on Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Dogecoin that tags itself as pseudonymous cryptocurrencies.
ZCash offers an alternative payment platform that facilitates transactions that are instant, secure, private, and practically free due to its relatively lower transaction fees. Moreover, it doesn’t matter where you find yourself on the globe, the ZCash Network can be used to send and receive money in a trustless and seamless manner.
Ready to invest in ZCash?
ZCash has become successful on the back of seven founding scientists, some of whom came from Johns Hopkins University. They are Matthew Green, Ian Miers, Madars Virza, Eran Tromer, Eli Ben-Sasson, Christina Garman, and Alessandro Chiesa.
Just a couple of years after it was released, the largest digital asset management firm Grayscale through its associate Matthew Beck pointed out that ZCash could reach $60,000 in 2025. Since Grayscale holds several cryptocurrency Trusts, several investors (small and big) started asking questions as to whether ZCash is an asset they should look out for in the future.
Today, ZCash is involved in more than 4,900 transactions daily, scaling relatively faster than most competing blockchains which result in relatively lower fees. ZCash has an average transaction fee of $0.030279.
The development team of ZCash has forged great partnerships over the years. Notable among these is JP Morgan. On 22nd May 2017, at Consensus 2017 sponsored by Coindesk, it was revealed that JP Morgan has employed the services of Electronic Coin Company to integrate a new layer of privacy to the users of its enterprise-grade blockchain.
For several crypto and financial analysts, ZCash has the potential to surpass Dash (DASH) and Monero (XMR), and become the primary private coin of choice to settle millions of transactions globally.
Other blockchain enthusiasts and experts believe its all-star team of computer security specialists can help provide innovative solutions that could help the blockchain remain competitive for the years to come.
Due to its decentralized but centralized nature with regards to adhering to certain regulations such as anti-money laundering laws, many leaders in the centralized and decentralized finance space have opined that ZCash and its novel token ZEC are one of the few regulatory-friendly projects out there that may be able to survive a major crackdown.
So, to help inform you about the possibilities as well as pitfalls to watch out for, here are the pros and cons of investing in ZCash.
As an e-learning platform, we strive to provide in-depth fundamental analysis about cryptocurrencies to put you on a great path to decide on digital assets such as ZCash. If you want to know the pros and cons of investing in ZCash so that you can figure out if it is a great idea to invest in ZEC, you are on the right investment platform.
Crypto asset investing is highly volatile and unregulated in some EU countries. No consumer protection. Tax on profits may apply.
The Pros Of Investing In ZCash
What are the benefits of investing in ZCash?
Many crypto analysts and experts across tens of forecasting portals believe ZCash has a great future which makes it an attractive financial instrument for new and established traders. To understand the factors behind such projections, let us take a look at why ZEC is a good investment.
✅ ZCash is Highly Undervalued
Currently, ZEC has a trading price of $139.40. This price is 97% less than the all-time high price of $5,941.80 ZCash recorded on 29th October 2016.
During the coronavirus pandemic of 2020, especially, during March where the cryptocurrency market experienced a huge sell off, the crypto trading asset reached a new high low of $18.94. The primary competitors of ZCash in the “private coin” space are DASH and XRM.
At the time of writing, DASH had a trading price of $139.40 while Monero (XRM) traded for a coin at $221.86. Aside from the two, ZEC competes with major altcoin Ether (ETH) and digital gold Bitcoin (BTC). At its price, ZEC is currently trading at an insignificant amount when compared to the top 2 most popular and largest digital assets globally.
ZCash has forged essential partnerships, provides great innovative products, and has a secure platform that enables its users to go about their activities privately. Such a cryptocurrency should be commanding prices of at least $1,000. With a trading volume of $750 million, ZEC continues to see impressive investor interest that could rally its price in the future.
This is the primary reason why FX Leaders believe ZEC deserves to be trading for more than its current trading price.
According to analyst Skerdian Meta, ZCash could command a price of $650 to $850 in the next three years.
✅ ZCash Has a Trust Set Up By Leading Digital Asset Management Firm Globally
Grayscale is the largest digital asset management firm globally. It announced on 9th November 2017 that it has launched ZCash Investment Trust as its third investment vehicle after Bitcoin Investment Trust and Ethereum Classic Investment Trust. At the time, Grayscale pointed out that, “The investment objective of the Trust is for the shares to reflect the value of the ZEC held by the Trust.” Currently, there is $33.9 million in ZECs under management.
As of the latest report on 10th April 2021, the total assets under management by Grayscale are close to $50 million. There are several crypto trading assets out there but Grayscale decided to add ZCash one year after it was added to the decentralized finance space. This should communicate to you as a trader or investor the extensive analysis the firm performed weighing the rewards against the risks to be able to certify ZCash’s potential on the market.
Since Grayscale continues to hold ZCash and does not show any signs of selling, ZCash can therefore be forecasted as an attractive investment. But how can you certify an asset as a good investment due to a firm keeping its holdings?
Trading Education would like to introduce you to reserve risk analysis. Reserve Risk allows you to visualize the confidence amongst long-term holders of an asset relative to the price of the asset at a given moment in time. Normally, when the confidence in investors is high and the price is low, then there is an attractive risk/reward to investing in an asset. On the other hand, when confidence is low but the price of the asset is high, then the risk/reward is unattractive.
Now that you know what reserve risk is, Grayscale holding onto ZCash through the days of the pandemic where it reached new high lows up to June 2021 should alert you that the price is low but investor confidence is high. As per reserve risk analysis, ZCash is an attractive risk/reward investment that could produce outsized returns over time.
This is the primary reason why analysts at CoinPedia think ZCash is going to trade for a relatively better price in the future. In the short term, according to Elena R., in the long term, ZCash will be listed among the top 30 digital assets globally.
Aside from that, the Electric Coin Company and ZCash Foundation may settle on forming partnerships to strengthen its blockchain infrastructure. With this, the analyst estimates ZEC to command a price in the range of $600 to $800.
Read Also: Could Zcash Be A Millionaire-Maker?
✅ ZCash Has a Finite Supply Set for Scarcity Soon
One of the questions numerous traders and investors ask is how many ZEC coins are there in circulation? Overall, ZCash is likened to Bitcoin in terms of being regarded as a store of value due to its scarce mineable token supply. It has a total supply of 21 million coins.
As per information retrieved from CoinMarketCap, “The block subsidy is halved at regular intervals to slow down the issuance rate as the total supply of ZEC approaches its limit of 21 million.”
With 12.7 million ZEC mined, ZCash like other cryptocurrencies with a finite supply will see all coins mined. Once this has been done, as numerous crypto analysts point out, the real valuation of ZEC will be achieved.
It is not impossible but with major institutional investments or an announcement by a mainstream corporation adopting ZEC as an option of payment due to its relatively faster scaling times which results in relatively lower transaction costs, total coins could be mined in the not-too-distant future.
Once this has been done, the laws of economics will take hold of the digital currency. According to economicshelp.org, “If there is a scarcity of goods, the supply will be falling, and this causes the price to rise.” ZECs price will therefore rise to new price milestones through increased daily volume and reflect positively in its market capitalization.
Analyst at CryptoNewsZ foresees a spike in price from a possible scarcity of ZEC. According to the experts, based on analysis on a one-year ZCash forecast, ZEC could trade at a coin for $360 by the year’s end of 2022 based on a trader or investor employing a proper investment strategy.
Despite several crypto analysts and experts forecasting 2023 to be a bearish season for digital assets with a plummeting in the value of cryptocurrencies led by Bitcoin, CryptoNewsZ projects ZEC to hit the lowest possible price of $360 and the best possible price of $430 for the year.
In the long term, based on increased interest from investors, numerous partnerships that see an increment in the transaction counts of ZEC, and the possible upgrade of the protocol for smart contract applications, the experts believe ZCash will test a low of $420 and a high of $530 by the end of 2024.
How much will ZCash be worth in 2025? According to CryptoNewsz, a price correction could see ZEC trade for a low of $500 in the middle of the year and increase substantially to $580 on 31st December 2025.
✅ ZCash Has Been Flirting With Decentralized Finance
Many people have opined on social media platforms that the ZCash Foundation and Electric Coin Company should upgrade the protocol to see more DeFi users bring more activity to ZEC.
Some of them are ill-informed about Wrapped ZCash (WZEC) which has been available on Ethereum since 21st October 2020. WZEC became the first asset to be launched by Wrapped (a partnership between qualified custodian Anchorage & Ethereum tokenizers, Tokensoft. CMS Holdings provided over-the-counter (OTC) liquidity.
But what is wrapping? Wrapping is the act of taking a blockchain asset such as ZEC and issuing an equivalent representation on another blockchain such as Ethereum.
Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Zooko Wilcox-O’Hearn speaking of this progress said, “I’m thrilled that there is such interest, and that people can, and do, innovate and deploy extensions on top of Zcash without the Electric Coin Company’s knowledge or approval. I also agree that it’s great for people to have more alternatives to centralized exchanges (CEXs) and the way that CEXs have to comply with arbitrary demands from their banks.”
How does this impact the price of ZEC? Wrapped ZCash is scaled 1:1 with ZCash on the Ethereum Network which is held in custody by Anchorage. The Wrapped Tokens provide great liquidity to decentralized exchanges (DEX) and offer assets running on layer 1 blockchains the chance to flirt with decentralized finance. Decentralized exchanges such as Uniswap and Sushiswap which run on the Ethereum Network have a huge user base and compete with centralized brokerages and exchanges.
With the added role ZEC has aside from being used as a transactional currency, the increased activity will increase its daily use in settling transactions. In the long term, this could cause ZEC to trade at prices no one thought possible.
Digital Coin Price has high expectations for ZEC. According to the experts, ZCash can command a trading price of $194.27 by the close of 2022 and increase to $245.59 by the end of 2023. The portal that predicts accurate crypto market analysis and data, foresees ZCash trade for a coin at $258.04 by the year’s end of 2024, $342.36 (2025), and at the end of 2026, could command a price of $253.43.
In the long term, ZCash is forecasted to make more upgrades and form partnerships that will bring innovation to its platform. This is the primary reason why Digital Coin Price expects the crypto trading asset to have trading prices of $456.58 by the end of 2027 and $452.05 at the end of 2028. A 40% return on investment could befall you by the end of 2022.
Check Out: Five Most Successful DeFi Assets
✅ ZCash is highly Secured
Although it shares numerous similarities with Bitcoin since it uses its source code, ZCash is different in certain aspects. It uses the zk-SNARK zero-knowledge proof technology. This allows nodes on the network to verify transactions without revealing any sensitive information about those transactions.
This is done through the security of the long-standing SHA-256 proof of work algorithm employed by Bitcoin and Ethereum 1.0 network. ZCash has not been associated with incidents of hacking and continues to function efficiently. It must be noted that ZCash’s POW mechanism is a revamped version called the EQUIHASH MINING PROTOCOL. This makes it relatively faster than Bitcoin’s blockchain with the same algorithm.
This fast processing time is what Coin Price Forecast foresees would see ZCash integrate with more online retail networks. The predictions answers questions such as how much will ZCash be worth by the end of 2022, how much will ZCash be worth in 2023, how much will ZCash be worth by the end of 2025 and, what will ZCash be worth in 2030?
According to the experts, ZEC could have a trading price of $260 at the end of 2022. In mid-year 2023, ZEC is forecasted to have a trading price of $250 and end the year at $270. ZCash is predicted to trade for a coin at $317 (2024), $377 (2025) and $427 by the end of 2026.
In the long term, Coin Price Forecast projects ZEC to have average prices of $497 (2027), $565 (2028), $633 (2029), $613 (2030) and $612 by the end of 2032.
Read More: 15 Reasons Why You Should Buy Zcash Today
The CONS Of Investing In Zcash
What are the pitfalls of investing in ZCash?
Although ZEC has a great future as per the numerous pros backed by price predictions by analysts and experts, investing in ZCash without assessing the negatives leaves you with irrecoverable losses at the end of a given period. Since no digital asset is perfect, let us take an in-depth look at the cons of investing in ZCash.
❌ Shielded Transactions Are Not All that Private
Shielded transactions leverage the technology called zero-knowledge succinct non-interactive arguments of knowledge (zk-SNARKS). Since ZCash relies on a public immutable blockchain network, zk-SNARKS enables completely anonymous transactions to be sent.
Ordinarily, like all public blockchains, the transaction is recorded on the ledger. Fortunately, the amount of money sent and the addresses of the sender and receiver are not revealed to the public. Since there is an option to reveal such data for auditing and regulatory compliance, shielded transactions cannot be confirmed as absolutely private. To give you a great way to understand, the cryptocurrency exchange GEMINI is being used as a thesis to help you conclude.
As per data retrieved from Crypto Briefing, “Transactions between shielded addresses are obfuscated and can be considered private. But all transactions into and out of Gemini are recorded and reported to regulators, when necessary, meaning that shielded addresses won’t improve customer privacy by all that much.”
This is because ZCash is fully compliant with Anti-Money Laundering/Combating the Financing of Terrorism measures set by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). Such adherence to centralized authority is what has seen numerous question marks raised about ZCash’s decentralized status.
This has contributed to the relatively smaller price written next to ZEC on numerous cryptocurrency exchanges. Going forward, the lack of absolute privacy could force the current users of ZEC in facilitating transfers to consider other options that could prove beneficial to their anonymous causes.
❌ Halving Has Cut Mining Rewards Into Two
In November 2020, ZCash completed its Canopy Upgrade. The Canopy Upgrade reduces miner-block rewards by half. Additionally, Canopy eliminates Founder’s Reward and allocates those rewards to a development fund. As an unsophisticated trader or investor, you must know that miner rewards play an essential role in driving the price of digital assets.
This is the main reason why thousands of people join mining pools to be able to profit from the rewards set forth by developers for their cryptocurrencies. Before the upgrade, the miner block reward was 6.25 ZEC.
This has been reduced to 3.125 ZEC. With new crypto projects on the horizon, thousands of miners have turned to other cryptocurrencies. On 10th June 2021, there were 10,389 coins in the market. As of 12th June 2021, there were 10,410 cryptos. This means that in the space of 2 days, 21 cryptos were added to the saturated market of decentralized finance.
With miners having at least 10,000 options to choose from, this explains the lack of patronization of ZCash’s protocol and the relatively smaller number of transactions ZEC continues to be involved in daily. In the long term, if rewards are not improved to increase miner participants which result in discussions on social media platforms, ZCash’s popularity would gradually die down and its trading price would normalize.
❌ Suspicion on its Utility as a Privacy Coin
ZCash’s biggest strength in the long term may turn out to be its biggest drawback. Since it is known as a privacy coin, it is not impossible, but it takes a great deal of time, energy, and research to be able to trace transactions. This makes it difficult to know if few groups of people are using the anonymous coin to go about criminal activities. Despite the efforts of authorities to make it adhere to regulatory compliance, it is not easy to trace the route a ZCash coin travels within short periods.
Alphabay is one of the dark marketplaces online. There are constant whispers that the platform has contemplated accepting ZEC as an option of payment. With questions marks around Alphabay as a criminal enterprise, its association with ZCash could harm the digital currency in the future.
What’s more, the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation, popularly known as Europol, has flagged ZCash and rival Monero along with parent crypto Bitcoin as digital currencies that are used in internet-based crimes.
This has been made possible due to its purpose as transactional currencies in a decentralized finance environment. Millions of people believe in statements released by an arm of the European Union since it’s a centralized authority with great credibility.
The Electric Coin Company (ECC) and the ZCash Foundation should ensure its project steers clear of being flagged or blacklisted so as not to hurt the chances of its crypto trading asset. If they do not, then investors should be wary about the chances of ZEC in the market.
❌ ZCash is Limited to CPU Mining
ZCash is a unique protocol that does not adhere to the features other crypto projects are used to. Based on the experience of its computer security specialists, the blockchain’s accessibility in terms of mining was designed for Linux users.
This makes ZCash limited to Central Processing Unit (CPU) mining. As per Crypto Vantage, “While there is no restriction on using it on Windows or MAC, Central Processing Unit mining is not profitable with these mining options. Since ZCash uses BTCs source code, it means its mining will require Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICS).
This accounts for its 6 to 26 transactions per second being processed by the blockchain. In the future, ZCash must be opened to other algorithms such as Ouroboros of Cardano or the proof-of-stake (POS) algorithm that can see it scale more while maintaining its privacy status.
At the moment, there is inaccessibility of mining and the results of such mining activities have also been reduced, throwing miner interest in the balance. Failing to address such petty issues does not bode well for the currency, its trade volume, and market capitalization.
❌ Rivalry from High Transaction Count Coins
In the privacy coin space, once you mention ZCash, the other names that follow are Dash (DASH) and Monero (XRM). DASH and XRM command relatively higher prices than ZEC. Aside from this, they are used to facilitate more transactions than ZEC daily.
Evidently, as per data retrieved from BitInfoCharts, ZEC has been involved in 5,000 transactions per day and Monero has been involved in 27,000 within the same period. The evidence is clear as day and night. Monero processed more than 5 times the transaction of ZEC.
As a trader or investor, you can see activity on XMR and DASH cannot be compared to ZEC. This means that several organizations have integrated the two digital currencies as an option of payments with their online stores. It is not impossible, but the team behind ZEC must make certain upgrades such as smart contract applications to enable more liquidity to be poured into the cryptocurrency. Without that, it would continue to be considered as the 3rd cryptocurrency of choice for daily users who prefer to go about their transactions privately.
How To Invest In ZEC / Where Can I Buy ZCash Coin?
For you to start investing in ZEC, you must first register with an online exchange or brokerage. An exchange is an online trading platform that enables you to buy, sell and hold cryptocurrencies. Due to the controversies and suspicions on privacy coins, as an e-learning organization, it is our responsibility to guide you to the right exchange. This is the main reason why after our research we have settled on eToro as the right online platform that can meet your trading and investing needs.
To start investing in ZCash (ZEC) easily and quickly, follow the steps below.
Firstly, SIGN UP FOR AN ETORO ACCOUNT. Input your details (full name, email & residential address, and phone number).
Secondly, VERIFY YOUR ACCOUNT. The account creation process takes less than 24 hours to complete. As part of the Knowing Your Customer (KYC) phase, eToro will like to confirm the identity of the person who wants to hold an account with them. As a result, you would be asked to upload any government-issued identification card that confirms your details and as well as your signature.
Thirdly, you MUST DEPOSIT FUNDS. Without money, you cannot invest in ZEC. With payment options such as PayPal, Skrill, VISA, and MASTERCARD among others, you can upload money in the form of United States Dollars, Euro, or Great Britain Pounds.
Lastly, NAVIGATE TO THE ZEC PAGE. Based on the amount of money you have set up for testing digital assets, you can buy several ZECs. The transaction will be processed and ZCash coins will be added to your account.
Your Capital Is At Risk! Kindly ensure that investing in ZEC or other digital assets is not a sure way to a consistent flow of passive income. Cryptocurrency investments are highly risky and could deplete your financial resources in a short period. At Trading Education, we would continue to preach diversification of investments into other digital assets plus less-volatile assets such as stocks, bonds, bills, metals, and commodities. This will prevent you from losing your capital.
Crypto asset investing is highly volatile and unregulated in some EU countries. No consumer protection. Tax on profits may apply.
Is Zcash A Good Investment?
ZCash is a good investment according to Wallet Investor. The experts estimate ZCash to reach a price of $422.86 in one year and a price of $1,719.95 in 5 years. You should know that most investments come down to the assessment of two factors which are risks and rewards. In other words, do the potential rewards of investing in ZCash outweigh the possible consequences of the risks?
ZCash certainly has some risk factors such as not being the privacy coin with the most transaction counts daily. The development team behind the project has cut off miner rewards in half and ZEC has been flagged as a coin with criminal links. Aside from that, ZCash is still a long way from catching up with the main rivals of the market. What’s more, it is not the most popular technology or coin for cryptocurrency traders and blockchain purists.
Don't Miss: Zcash Price Prediction Forecast
Have you considered investing in ZCash?
On the other hand, ZCash continues to make strides in decentralized finance through Wrapped ZCash (WZEC). It is highly undervalued and has a favourable reserve risk ratio that confirms it as an attractive investment in the long term. Its current trading price around $139 serves as a low barrier of entry for novice traders and investors. Additionally, it also provides a great opportunity for sophisticated traders and investors to include another digital asset in its portfolio of investments.
To put it simply, ZCash is a low-risk investment with lots of potential rewards for investors. You should use the thesis provided in this highly researched article to support independent research conducted to help you act on the cryptocurrency.
The real question then is, does investing in ZCash work? For investors who bought ZEC on 1st January 2021, a return of 223.20% has been realized year-to-date. Perhaps, buying ZEC now could result in gains you never thought possible.
Now you have been enlightened as to the pros and cons of investing in ZCash. If you are feeling inspired based on the information provided to start investing in ZEC, kindly head to eToro and begin your trading journey.
eToro – Best Broker To Buy Zcash
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Crypto asset investing is highly volatile and unregulated in some EU countries. No consumer protection. Tax on profits may apply.
FAQs
Is it possible to use ZCash without the internet?
NO! You can't use ZCash without the internet. You can send and receive funds without any intermediaries through the internet.
Is it possible to mine ZCash?
Yes, you can mine ZCash through solo mining (just you with your computer equipment) or pool mining (with a group of miners).
What Will ZCash Be Worth by 2030?
Coin Price Forecast predicts ZCash to be worth $613 by the year’s end of 2030.