ZenCash, the privacy coin for borderless, decentralized communications and transactions, has today announced its collaboration with IOHK, a leading blockchain research, and development company, to promote private and secure transactions for people globally. ZenCash and IOHK will collaborate on research and development projects, including the creation of a protocol-level treasury model and a joint study on blockchain scalability. IOHK will also assist ZenCash in developing a core protocol upgrade to its blockchain, with a prototype expected by the second quarter of 2018. One of the solutions being evaluated is Spectre, a next-generation alternative to blockchain with unlimited scalability and near-instant transactions.

The partnership will enable ZenCash to implement a custom version of the IOHK reference treasury model, which IOHK has been developing in collaboration with Professor Bingsheng Zhang from Lancaster University. The model will ensure efficient allocation of decentralized resources and promote community-driven governance, and will also be integrated into the Cardano blockchain in the coming months.

These joint research projects will facilitate borderless, high-volume, and rapid transactions across the ZenCash network, as well as establish the necessary infrastructure for global usability. The research projects will be led by Dr. Roman Oliynykov, a cryptographer, IT researcher and lecturer, and IOHK research fellow.

The partnership builds on the December 2017 launch of secure nodes on the ZenCash blockchain, which introduced the world’s first end-to-end encrypted cryptocurrency network. Node operators, who run secure nodes on Zen’s network, receive 3.5% of mining rewards. They are also subject to standards that will ensure the reliability and long-term sustainability of the network as secure nodes are integrated.

ZenCash has set a cap of 21 million total tokens that can be created in the system solely by mining, in lieu of a pre-mine or a token crowdsale. In addition, ZenCash is Treasury-funded, with 8.5% of mining rewards allocated to support project development. ZenCash also has wallets available that implement its advanced private transaction and messaging capabilities.