In the Zcash blockchain, at block 1,046,400, the block reward has decreased from 6.25 ZEC to 3.125 ZEC. Also launched the Canopy update, which changed the distribution of block mining rewards.
The Zcash network emerged on October 28, 2016 as a fork of the Bitcoin blockchain. Zcash aims to provide enhanced user privacy with the zk-SNARK zero knowledge proof technology developed by the Electric Coin Company (ECC).
Along with the halving of the miner reward four years after the introduction of Zcash, a major update to Canopy was launched. It provides a new model for the distribution of rewards for mining blocks. Miners will continue to receive 80% of the reward. 8% will start going to the Independent Developer Grants Fund, 7% to the Electric Coin Company, and 5% will go to the Zcash Foundation.
Previously, the remaining 20% of the remuneration was distributed between ECC, the Zcash Foundation, as well as between the founders and investors who took part in the creation of Zcash. The founders of the project received the “lion’s share” of remuneration – 14.2%, which caused a lot of controversy. Therefore, the change affected the founders and employees of ECC, because they will no longer receive the award. At the same time, the share intended for the Zcash Foundation has been slightly increased. According to the Zcash management, the involvement of external developers is necessary to ensure integrity, greater decentralization and further development of the protocol.
Co-founder and head of Hong Kong-based Kenetic Capital, Jehan Chu, called Zcash “confidential bitcoin.” Chu believes that the Zcash halving, which took place for the first time in the network’s history, was not only a landmark event. This will allow Zcash to gain more market space, pushing other privacy challengers such as Monero. The limited issue of Zcash of 21 million coins is fueling investor interest in this cryptocurrency, while central banks of different countries are forced to print new money to support the economy. Messari analyst Ryan Watkins also believes that Zcash and BTC are interesting because their release schedule is well-defined and predictable.
Recall that in July, the Heartwood hard fork was activated on the Zcash blockchain, which ensures the confidentiality of mining, and in September the Zcash developers presented the code for a new version of the Halo 2 zero knowledge proof.
