Zcash – The privacy solution we need, and the Bitcoin little brother you probably only just heard about.

Zcash (ZEC) is the crypto asset that most consistently mirrors broader market sentiment at this time in history, acting like a high-beta version of Bitcoin with a privacy edge that aligns with Satoshi Nakamoto’s original vision. While "alt season" has most resulted in sideways trading for most assets, Zcash has soared and lifted many privacy coins with it.

Let's take a deeper dive into what it is, why we need solutions like it, and why we should be paying attention to it.

We'll leave the original (albeit intriguiging) reddit conspiracies and time-traveller posts from 2017 aside {along with the nudges from the Illuminati Card Game and Altered Carbon's notorious 1 ZEC= 7 BTC prediction}.

What is Zcash?

1. Bitcoin’s “little brother” with better privacy

Zcash started in 2016 as a hard fork of Bitcoin’s code. It kept Bitcoin’s 21-million-coin cap, 10-minute blocks, and proof-of-work mining, but added zero-knowledge proofs (zk-SNARKs). These let you prove a transaction is valid without revealing sender, receiver, or amount. Bitcoin’s ledger is a public spreadsheet; Zcash offers an optional “shielded” mode that hides everything. Satoshi’s whitepaper promised “privacy… by keeping public keys anonymous.”

Bitcoin never delivered that—every address is traceable forever. Zcash fixes the gap. When the market loves Bitcoin’s narrative of “digital gold” and “censorship resistance,” Zcash rides the same wave—only louder because it actually delivers the privacy Bitcoin promised.

2. Market-beta on steroids

Look at any bull or bear cycle since 2017:

• 2017 ICO mania → ZEC pumped harder than BTC.
• 2021 DeFi/NFT summer → ZEC followed BTC’s parabola.
• 2022 FTX collapse → ZEC crashed in lockstep.

Data from CoinGecko shows ZEC/BTC correlation above 0.85 over 5-year windows. It’s not a stablecoin or niche token—it’s Bitcoin with a privacy multiplier. When sentiment turns risk-on, capital flows from BTC into “BTC-plus” plays; Zcash is the clearest one.

3. Tiny, fixed supply of 21 million coins, same as Bitcoin.

But Bitcoin has 19.8 M in circulation; Zcash has only ~16.2 M because of its slower block rewards and the 20 % “Founders’ Reward” that ended in 2020. That leaves 25% fewer liquid coins relative to max supply.

Scarcity amplifies price swings—exactly what you want in a sentiment barometer.

4. Privacy is the macro tailwind

Governments now demand KYC on every on-ramp. Chain-analysis firms tag 90 % of Bitcoin addresses. CBDCs are coming with built-in surveillance. In that world, optional, unbreakable privacy becomes a premium feature. Zcash isn’t just another coin; it’s the only top-50 asset that lets you transact like cash—zero metadata leakage.

When whistleblowers, activists, or ordinary people in oppressive regimes need to move value, ZEC is the go-to. That real-world demand spikes every time a new travel rule, MiCA clause, or CBDC pilot hits the news. Those spikes show up in price before Bitcoin feels it, because Bitcoin can’t serve the same use case.

5. Network effects without the noise

Zcash never chased hype. No ICO, no pre-mine beyond the transparent Founders’ Reward, no VC dump schedules. The Electric Coin Company bootstrapped upgrades (Sapling, Blossom, Canopy, NU5) that cut shielded tx fees from dollars to cents. Light-client wallets like Zashi and Unstoppable now make privacy one tap away. Adoption is quiet but sticky—dark-pool exchanges, payroll providers in high-risk countries, and even some nation-state reserves reportedly hold ZEC for sanctions evasion.

Bottom line

Zcash = Bitcoin’s code + Satoshi’s privacy promise + 25 % tighter supply + macro tailwind from global surveillance.

When the market loves “digital gold,” ZEC moons. When it fears regulation, ZEC still has a moat Bitcoin lost years ago. That combination makes Zcash the cleanest sentiment gauge in crypto—volatile, scarce, and fundamentally aligned with why Bitcoin was invented in the first place.

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I hope you enjoyed this little write-up, and i'm hoping to hear your thoughts and get a discussion going, especially contrarian opinions as that is where alot of value is derived.

Thank you for reading!

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Damian Lalonde-Pulcini