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- Zcash is planning a hybrid evolution to drive sustainability and price growth.
- Gemini co-founder Tyler Winklevoss has validated the project.
The Gemini co-founder and CEO Tyler Winklevoss recently placed Zcash in the spotlight with his endorsement post on X. He commented on a post from “Zooko,” the Head of Product at Shielded Labs. The Gemini CEO acknowledged that Zcash is among the most important and underrated projects in crypto at the moment.
This validation from Tyler Winklevoss is significant for Zcash, which is ranked the 53rd largest cryptocurrency by market cap. The Winklevoss brother shared an update that he supports Shielded Labs in its quest to develop the Zcash protocol.
The Zcash Evolutionary Plans
Zcash started about eight years ago as a Proof-of-Work (PoW) protocol. The blockchain has close design ties with Bitcoin but focuses more on privacy and decentralization. Thus far, Zooko highlighted in his recent article on Medium how the PoW model had placed downward pressure on price.
With the second halving coming later in November, about three-quarters of all ZEC will be in distribution. Furthermore, Shielded Labs is now working on an important transition for the blockchain. These next steps are embodied in two major events: the Zcash Sustainability Fund and Crosslink.
Shielded Labs will establish the Zcash Sustainability Fund to keep the ZEC supply cap at 21 million. The Crosslink move will enable the switch to a dual model with part PoW and part Proof-of-Stake (PoS). The startup hopes to achieve this hybrid model in partnership with innovators at the Electric Coin Company.
As noted in our earlier post, Zcash has faced strains from top exchanges like Binance due to its privacy-centric nature. This hybrid model will reboot its outlook first by reducing the excessive creation of ZEC, which might positively impact price growth. The PoS consensus aspect of the protocol is essential for sustainability and community reward. As a Proof-of-Stake protocol, HODLers of ZEC can stake their tokens and get rewarded.
In describing the added benefits of Crosslink, Zooko noted that it will offer a dual defense layer with dual PoS and PoW implementations. With these next steps, Zcash will arguably have better finality and provide suitable improvements to make the coin’s use cheaper and faster.
Copying The Right Model
Evolution is not uncommon in the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Zcash is one of many mainstream PoW protocols that plot an ambitious pathway toward integrating PoS. As mentioned in our report, Ethereum pioneered this transition PoS through The Merge event of 2022.
While Ethereum took many months to achieve the transition, Zcash is eying a swift transition. According to Zooko, the goal is to unleash this update speedily to keep a track record of excellent safety.
Ultimately, Zcash might benefit from price growth like Ethereum did post-PoS upgrade. At the time of writing, the coin is up by 0.32%, $41.14, with a weekly growth of 44%.
Given the Winklevoss validation and the projected growth trend, now might be a good time to acquire ZEC for long-term growth.
