Zooko Wilcox, the founder of Zcash, has joined Shielded Labs with the aim of expediting the transition of Zcash to a hybrid proof-of-stake (PoS) system. In a blog post dated August 10, Wilcox, now the head of product at Shielded Labs, emphasized the need for Zcash to evolve beyond its current proof-of-work (PoW) model after eight years of use.
Wilcox highlighted that while PoW mining has exerted downward pressure on Zcash’s price, this should diminish as the rate of new ZEC coin creation slows. Key improvements on the agenda include the implementation of the Zcash Sustainability Fund and the upgrade to “Crosslink”, a hybrid PoW and PoS protocol. He stressed the importance of implementing these upgrades swiftly while ensuring Zcash’s high safety standards.
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The proposed upgrade aims to benefit Zcash holders by enabling staking, enhancing finality to prevent rollback attacks, reducing transaction times, and facilitating safer cross-network bridges. Despite these advancements, Wilcox did not provide detailed technical specifications or a timeline for the upgrade.
The Electric Coin Company (ECC), which has been behind Zcash’s development, first mentioned PoS interoperability in 2021. On August 8, the ECC announced Wilcox’s transition to Shielded Labs, an independent Swiss organization dedicated to Zcash. The announcement was well-received by the Zcash community, which also saw generous contributions from notable figures like Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss and Vitalik Buterin.
The funds will support Shielded Labs in expanding its efforts and collaborating with ECC on the Crosslink development. Launched in 2016 as a privacy-focused currency similar to Bitcoin, Zcash has seen its price struggle, particularly after being delisted from several major exchanges in 2023 due to regulatory pressures. As of now, ZEC is trading just above $41, reflecting a 40% increase over the past week but still down 98% from its 2016 all-time high of $3,191, according to CoinGecko.
Cre: Cointelegraph
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