The evolution of cryptocurrencies has brought different coins along with it. These coins have been seen to be the solution to the flaws akin to Bitcoin (BTC) at different levels as developers work towards ensuring a cryptocurrency backed world. Such is the story of different altcoins and in this case the story of Z Classic.

Z Classic is a relatively new altcoin which made its way to the market during the fourth quarter of 2017. However, it derives its origin from its predecessor: Z Cash (ZEC). As such let us first assess Z Cash before we move on to Z Classic (ZCL).

Prior to Z Classic

As previously alluded to, altcoins ensure to eliminate the flaws within the cryptocurrency ecosystem. The main flaw of Z Cash that the developers thought of fixing was on security. Their view of the cryptocurrency system was one where privacy and security were atop the blockchain fundamentals.

Therefore, despite all the transactions being recorded on the main blockchain, they created a coin which would ensure that key details were kept silent. Such are the sender’s or the recipient’s address or the transaction amounts. The network’s failure to disclose such key information would serve the individuals or institutions conducting transactions within the network by ensuring to upheld at all times their privacy and the privacy of their information. Hence, in order for the developers to achieve it through a form of cryptography, they dubbed zk-Snark.

Such advancement had quickly led Z Cash into some unforeseen trouble in the market.

Z Cash was launched in 2016. Back then, the coin had attracted a lot of investment from a large pool of investors. Due to its high demand, some investors had paid up to 300 BTC in exchange for a single ZEC. And this was a special case in the history of cryptocurrencies. In fact, it was among the first hyperinflation stories within the cryptocurrency space.

However, during the first year of trading, the coin’s price eventually fell; from $4,293 – over 6 BTC, to $65.1 – 0.0484 BTC. Despite this disadvantage for the pioneer investors in Z Cash, many had deemed the correction necessary; such hyperinflation would have impacted the market negatively in the long run. Hence, as at February 24, the coin was trading at $402.

Morphosis

However, Z Cash had one main flaw: a compensation model unlike Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. The miners for Z Cash had to give up about 20% of their reward as a fee. This fee was meant to go to a fund: The Z Cash developer fund.

Although this was a good idea and common among altcoins, it didn’t auger well within the Z Cash ecosystem. As such, this brought about change and to the now known coin, Z Classic.

Z Classic is a result of a hard fork on Z Cash. The fork aimed to ensure that miners of the new Z Classic coin received the full reward accruing to them. In their view, ‘pro fork’ developers based their argument on the fact that the 20% fee system would have had negative ramifications on the future of Z Cash.

As with all forks, Z Classic still bears the characteristics of its predecessor. Having its transactions recorded on the main blockchain system while the key aspects of the information on the transaction such as who was transacting with whom and for how long is kept secret (through the Snark cryptography technology). This was achieved through the destruction of the secret key which is input by the user to commence a transaction.

Z Classic continued to employ the proof of work consensus mechanism akin to Z Cash. With the coin being minable, miners were therefore required to use either AMD or NVIDIA chips to mine the coin.

Therefore, Z Classic brought more to the table than its predecessor especially to miners of the coin. However, miners weren’t the only individuals who benefited from the fork.

Z Classic: Rise and Rise

The main beneficiaries of Z Classic were the initial investors in the project. At inception, early investors had the opportunity to buy the coin at about $4.548 – .00631 BTC – per Z Classic. Such a bargain on the coin brought along an incredible payoff for these investors. This was despite there being no information of an initial coin offering from their development team.

As of 23rd February 2018, Z Classic was trading at $138.3 – .0138 BTC – per Z Classic which signified an upside of over 3,019% for the investors. While significant upsides are not uncommon in the cryptocurrency space, such a high upside speaks to the value investors expect to derive from holding the cryptocurrency. Furthermore, with more and more people demanding it to carry out transactions, it is becoming clearer by the day that this trend is going no other way but up.

Currently, the coin is available for purchase on four exchanges: Bittrex, Cryptopia, CoinExchnage and Trade Satoshi and can be stored in the Z Classic full node desktop wallet available here or on the paper wallet also available here.

The Future

Two things are expected from Z Classic this year. Firstly, its entry into the Electrum wallet, which is currently under a test, and secondly, the fork on the cryptocurrency. While the former brings good news to its holders, guaranteeing the safety of their assets, the latter may send jitters to them.

However, such a fork won’t probably have a severe impact on the operations of Z Classic. As previously stated, the trajectory Z Classic has forged for itself and the same one which it is following seems to only head one way: up and up.