What is Zclassic?
Zclassic is a decentralized and open source cryptocurrency created to offer optimal privacy and selective transparency to users. In their website, Zclassic development team markets it as a fair and impartial coin that provides users with optimal value and privacy.
Zclassic was forked from Zcash in 2016 by Rhett Creighton. Creighton was concerned that the 20% of the native Zcash coins (ZEC) that went to founders after mining compromised the whole idea of decentralization. He removed the 20% founder’s reward (about 22 lines on the Zcash’s code) to create a new coin referred to as Zclassic (ZCL). Therefore, Zclassic is a replica of Zcash minus the founders’ reward.
Like Bitcoin, Zclassic has a total of 21 million coins that will only exist in its network. Besides, it uses proof of work consensus protocol and equihash hashing algorithm.
In the white paper, Creighton pointed out that the primary goal of Zclassic is remaining as similar as possible to Zcash but to ensure that all the rewards from mining go to miners. Though this could look like a great idea, it also has a downside because there is limited cash to support development. This could translate to very poor experience.
- A closer look at Zclassic price history
The price of Zclassic (ZCL) in the markets can be traced back to November 2016 after Creighton forked Zcash and released the coin into the market. Zclassic did not have a problem of initial distribution because it was distributed through an airdrop to all ZEC holders.
Immediately after hitting the market on November 10th, 2016, the price of ZCL was $5.27. Then, it dropped by about 800% to $0.56 and remained below $0.6 until February 2017. In May 2017, the value of ZCL rose to $8.6 before falling to $1.7 by mid-2017.
Between mid-November and January 7th2018, the value of ZCL shot up to unprecedented levels of $235. This growth resulted from Creighton’s announcement that he was going to team with another ZCL developer to revitalize the coin. He also released a manifesto on Zclassic pointing that he planned to merge Zclassic with another Bitcoin fork.
NOTE: The suggestion to merge Zclassic with Bitcoin Private (another coin) did not go well with developers. Creighton was accused of taking advantage of the blockchain ecosystem and was kicked out of the Bitcoin private project.
In February 2018, the value of ZCL dropped steadily to hit a low of $88.88 before climbing to $169 on March 18th, 2018. After the second peak, the price of ZCL crashed in days hitting a low of $7.8 on March 6th, 2018 and sank further to $4.6 in 11th April 2018.
The price continued on a downtrend in the remaining part of 2018 to hit a low of $1.43 by the close of November 2018. This is lower than the point when ZCL entered the market. It will be interesting to see the direction that Zclassic will take after the community is increasingly becoming concerned about Creighton’s love for forks.
What is the problem that Zclassic solves?
The blockchain technology has been evolving at a rather fast rate. However, issues keep emerging at every step. The following are the main issues that Zclassic solves:
- Centralization of resources in crypto networks
As new blockchain networks hit the market, it is easy for the larger community to fail reading through the finer details of operations. However, even with the impressive design of Zcash network, one cryptographic expert, Rhett Creighton, was quick to note that a lot of resources were being directed to the founders as opposed to miners.
At Zcash, 20% of the miners’ rewards are directed at rewarding the founders. This means that 20% of the coins that will be mined about 4 years after launch would go to founders. It also implies that the founders will have an upper hand in the decisions made about the blockchain.
Rhett Creighton felt that this model was going against the original principal of decentralization as espoused by Satoshi Nakamoto. However, concerns have been raised about simply scrapping the rewards because the network could end missing funds for development.
- Lack of privacy in blockchain systems
One of the main challenges that have dogged the blockchain networks in the globe today is lack of privacy. The primary goal of creating decentralized networks was to ensure that people could send funds without worrying about third-party seizures. However, this has become a mirage as technology evolves making it easy to pull individual details of people in various networks. We demonstrate this using the largest network, Bitcoin.
When Bitcoin was created in 2009, people joining it thought that they could easily run transactions without worrying that third parties could know about them. However, you can no longer claim that transactions are secret when operating on the Bitcoin network.
The Bitcoin network uses pseudonyms that only hide the user’s name. However, other details such as IP addresses are not hidden. This implies that transactions from a specific location, home, computer, and address can be filtered to know about a specific user.
Third parties can also carry transaction graph analysis to uncover hidden transactions. This means tracing multiple transactions directed to a specific address. If one of the senders transacting with a specific address is known, it will be easy to uncover others.
Lack of privacy in top networks such as Bitcoin has resulted in migrations to other coins such as Zcash and Zclassic that put a lot of weight on anonymity.
- The high cost of sending value in the crypto networks
If you send funds through a conventional financial institution such as a bank, the cost is high. Banks and credit card companies are designed with a profit based model. Therefore, they always look at avenues to increase the transaction fee as a way of optimizing value.
Remember that the transaction charges are also targeted at helping to help the institutions meet costs such as wages and rent. The Zclassic founder felt that people were paying too much to send funds but rarely got value for services. In some cases, transactions take up to 4 days because conventional financial service providers have to comply with anti-money laundering (AML) and know your customer (KYC) requirements.
How does Zclassic solve the problem?
To address the above issues, Zclassic founder and entire development team adopted a raft of measures that also targeted to position the coin strategically amidst fast-growing competition. The team was especially focused on presenting itself as a better option than the immediate competitor, Zcash.
- Zclassic did away with the 20% founder’s rewards
Rhett Creighton forked the Zcash code by clearing away the lines that effected 20% founders’ reward. This implies that miners working on the Zclassic system take the entire reward for mining new blocks. In the first four years, the miners’ reward is 12.5 ZLC. This reward will half after every four years.
The improved rewards to miners imply that there will be more nodes supporting and securing the Zclassic system. However, this could also mean a potential challenge when the miners’ rewards halves after every four years. The same miners that Rhett Creighton wanted to impress could opt for other coins with more rewards.
The development team is also likely to suffer from poor motivation because of limited funds available to drive their operations. Unless Rhett Creighton and the development team address the issue, the chances are that Zclassic could get overtaken by others for poor user experience.
- Zero-knowledge proof technology
Like Zcash, Zclassic employs encryption technology referred to as zero-knowledge proof to guarantee users of optimal anonymity. This technology is a method of authenticating transactions without exchanging passwords. Therefore, an attacker cannot simply target hacking your system to acquire a password and pull out personal details.
In Zclassic, the zero-knowledge protocol allows one party (prover) to prove to another party (verifier) that he knows a specific value (call it X), without giving other info apart from the fact that he knows the value of X. The basic principle of the technology application in Zclassic is that other details apart from knowing the value being transferred are trivial.
Using the technology, people Zclassic system are assured that when they relay transactions, there is no way they can be followed back. Even if it is a trader who has sold items to a client, there is no method that can be used to follow the buyer.
- Complete decentralization
The problem of centralization in the financial system has made cryptographic experts look for alternatives that can help to pull down the cost of transactions. Zclassic is a completely decentralized network. This means that it relies on nodes spread on its system to store data, confirm transactions, and secure it.
Complete decentralization implies that when you send funds, they are relayed on a peer2peer basis. This model implies that the transactions are completed faster and are cheaper. Indeed, it does not matter whether you are sending funds from one continent to another. The transaction will be instant. The only thing that you will need is to have both the sender and receiver in the same network.
What makes Zclassic better than it’s competitors?
When Zclassic was created, it wadded into a fast-evolving industry. In about ten years from 2009 when Bitcoin was launched, more than 1600 have entered the market. Here are the main things that make Zclassic better than competitors.
- Zclassic is a completely anonymous coin. This means that users can send and receive funds without worrying of getting discovered by third parties.
- The Zclassic system provides users with a cheaper and faster platform for sending value across the globe.
- As a completely decentralized system, the Zclassic network provides users with total freedom of operations. This implies that unlike the conventional systems that remain closed in weekends and holidays, the Zclassic system is always open to users.
- Zclassic is one of the secure coins in the market. By the close of November 2018, no hacking attack had been reported in its network. This is a demonstration that its core code is strong and the development team committed to keeping it as secure as possible.
- The cryptocurrency platform is led by a tech team that is capable of crafting unique resolutions to the industry. This is one of the reasons why the Zclassic community is optimistic that ZCL will become the ultimate coin in the crypto niche.
How can Zclassic’s be categorized?
Zclassic can be categorized as a completely decentralized and private coin. The platform relies on nodes spread on the network without favoring any party including the founders when decisions about the coin are being made. Besides, the application of zero-knowledge protocol has made it possible for users to operate in total anonymity.
What is Zclassic’s vision on security?
The Zclassic’s vision on security is to make the platform the platform the most secure and reliable system in the niche. The development team built on the already tested and proven Zcash system and enhanced the following features.
- Use of advanced encryption
- The application of the zero-knowledge protocol
- Zclassic team progressively reviews and updates the platform to clear vulnerabilities
Examples of Zclassic use cases/ applications
To know the effectiveness of a cryptocurrency, one of the best methods is checking its applications. When Rhett Creighton forked Zclassic from Zcash, he targeted at increasing the use cases because more people could make direct purchases without worrying of getting discovered by third parties such as authorities. Here are the main use cases of Zclassic.
- You can use ZCL to trade in the markets that list it. Good examples include Cryptopia, Bittrex, and Safe Satoshi.
- Like other coins such as Bitcoin, ZCL can be used to buy goods and services from stores that accept it. Note that even in those stores that do not support Zclassic, it is still possible to make a purchase by converting the token to the supported coin.
- Zclassic is a reliable method of sending value across the globe on a peer2peer basis.
- If you want to save funds anonymously, you can use ZCL. The application of zero-knowledge proof implies that even government authorities cannot know about your transactions.
- Zclassic native coins can be used to pay for government services in countries that accept the coin. Good examples include Arizona and Singapore.
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https://zclassic.org/pdfs/whitepaper.pdf