Any crypto-addict or even a quotidian trader of the crypto world must have heard of the upcoming new project called Zcash Classic, or simply, Zclassic.

ZClassic (ZCL) — is the hard fork of ZCash, that uses the same technology but doesn’t provide 20% reward from each block to the team of developers. It also avoids the artificial complicating of mining the first blocks. The blockchain itself, along with Bitcoin, has become the basis for the hard fork Bitcoin Private.

Zcash is considered one of the biggest crypto projects so far. It’s a project which, in the long run, aims to be a replacement for the famous Bitcoin. To understand Zcash Classic, we first need to understand Zcash.

What is Zcash?

Unlike bitcoin, Zcash ensures the provision of more privacy and security in each of its transactions. Every detail, from every transaction, is recorded and surveyed over its own blockchain and is available to all individuals on the domain. But, little details such as the sender’s address, recipient’s address and the amount transferred remains private. The content is encrypted using an advanced cryptographic technique called the ‘Snark’. These progressive techniques ensure no data on the secure ledger is given out and all transactions are valid.

The distinctive difference between Zcash and the Zclassic comes with the 20% reward for the founders. Zcash is organized in a way that 20% of the supply mined in the first four years goes to the founders as a reward and the rest of the 80% goes to the miners.

ZClassic, an Implementation of Zcash

Zcash Classic, or Zclassic, is an implementation of the Zcash chain. It is a fair and open source cryptocurrency coin. It is a fork of the Zcash and is based on the same technology.

The founder of ZClassic (ZCL) is Rhett Creighton, one of the ZCash developers, who disagreed with his partner Zooko Wikcox on the issue of the team’s reward: according to Creighton, the commission of 20% valid in ZCash, violated the rights of miners for a reasonable reward and hence was removed from the new version; Zclassic, which went live as a new cryptocurrency on November 6th, 2016. The impetus of ZClassic is to remain similar to ZCash in the context of the technology but to never accept any rewards for the founders or any other fee that is divided among a small group of people chosen or assigned by anyone.

When Zcash was introduced, it was very difficult for the long-term investors to break into the market at any given rate. The soft start introduced hyperinflation and prices were artificially floated to ridiculous heights. In the first day of trading, there was a limit of around 11 Zcash coins between all the miners, investors and exchanges. It was a recipe for disaster as some people paid over 3000 BTC for one Zcash coin!

There seems to be plenty of room in the crypto world for both parties to co-exist. Even Zooko had become a fan by the quickfire attention that Zclassic gathered. He considers it to be an alternative to Zcash, if the latter somehow disappears from the grid. There is a general notion that there are now two dedicated entities working toward a common goal, that is to ensure digital transaction privacy.

What brought about the existence of Zclassic was the immense hype throughout the scene over the launch of Zcash which was coupled with every major exchange listing it on its launch. It had great investor demand and little supply, so it was very obvious to see ridiculous prices and it was unappreciated how smart investors could not participate in such a great project.

If you bought early you would destroy your portfolio with hyperinflation. The only people that would benefit were those who operate large mining farms and those who invested in the Zcash company.

In that circumspect, the creation of Zclassic offered the community an equal chance to invest in the project. Zclassic offered a decentralized coin with no top-investors or company behind it. In essence, Zclassic was created the way bitcoin came out.

Zclassic Stats and Facts

Max supply: 21,000,000 ZCL

Circulating Supply: 4,815,950 ZCL (At the time of writing)

Algorithm: Equihash

Proof type: PoW

Launch date: 06/11/2016

The official ticker symbol for the ZClassic token: ZCL

Token type: ERC20

ZClassic is fair and impartial, no censorship and no governing body.

In a time when your life is under constant surveillance, Zclassic brings complete financial anonymity.

Zero-knowledge proving scheme is a decentralized and open-source technology that offers privacy and selective transparency of transactions.

ZClassic has no founders tax compared to ZCash. All mining rewards in Zclassic go directly to the miners, while in Zcash the founders take 20% of the rewards for the first 4 years leading to 10% control of the entire monetary supply.

No Slow Start: ZClassic eliminated the slow start of 20,000 blocks that Zcash introduced.

Trusted Parameters: Zclassic is using the same trusted parameters Zcash uses.

Recent Developments

The Zclassic team released a new Electrum wallet in January, which was the missing piece of the puzzle. It was authored by Duke Leto, core developer of HUSH, who had already implemented this wallet for their token.

Rhett Creighton also announced Bitcoin Private earlier this year, which many people regard as ‘a fork of a fork of a fork’. This is because Bitcoin Private was announced as a co-fork/fork-merge of the Bitcoin and Zclassic.

ZCL’s Bizarre Rise and Fall

Zclassic benefited a lot with the announcement of Bitcoin Private. It was stationed in single digits at the start of the year and had been there for a long time but went from $7 in January to $200+ a month later. It then came back to the same valuation of $7 by the first week of March.

The drastic dip in price is difficult to account for, but it is believed that although Bitcoin was also providing a 1:1 split of Bitcoin Private, clearly ZCL was the better deal at single-digit prices. This caused a mad rush as people rapidly bought up all the Zclassic tokens they could in preparation for the drop, causing a record-shattering all-time high of over $200.

Once the hike took place, the price tumbled back down to $7 in what looks to be one of the most interesting charts ever.

Where to Buy, Mine and Store Zclassic

ZCL is traded mainly on Bittrex and C-Cex exchanges. As a result of distinguished reduction in the market cap and trade volume, Bittrex is the top liquidity option at the moment. Cryptopia is second in liquidity but should be used at your own risk as users are reporting transactions being stuck and/or slowed down.

Zcash carries a variety of mining pools that are available and despite the chaos with the price drop earlier in the year, it remains to be a top mineable equihash coin.

Some of the top pools include minez.zone, suprnova, and zclmine.pro (0% fees) while there is a full node and electrum wallet for Windows, Mac, and Linux, as well as a paper wallet for storage.

Final Word

The slogan that Zclassic has envisaged with, in its journey is: ”Zclassic is financial freedom”. It is a perfect example of cloning a coin, removing the development budget and turning it into a community driven-free for all.

It may look appealing to the interested parties and investors, but no development budget and no quota for the founders mean that there will always be a lack of development and ultimately a rough user experience. The problem of lack of stable and secure wallet options may also arise. This would be the biggest critique of the Zclassic, however, many feel that projects should be completely volunteer-funded by the community.

Despite a turbulent experience, Zclassic still stands. With upset investors and the upheaval of Bitcoin Private, it’s status sure has taken undue hits. With the announcement of Bitcoin Private, Creighton and a new team are coming in to bring their virtues into the initiative. In more ways than one, this could be considered as a victory for Zclassic, as the path it has paved for true decentralization is being ever more realized now with the pouring support for Bitcoin Private from the community. Zclassic is not completely left out in the cold, it continues the journey. As always, only time will tell us the truth but for now, Zclassic is still here.