• ZCASH is at the level of $142.5 with 14.91% in 24 hours and 54.66% gain from last week.
• ZEC coin uses zK Snarks technology which shields the transaction and reduces the computational work
• Zcash uses “commitment” instead of UTXO, which is popularly used in Bitcoin to determine whether transactions are spendable.

What Is zK SNARKS?

zK- Snarks is basically an abbreviated form of Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Argument of knowledge. It is used to shield the transaction between sender and receiver without revealing much knowledge about both parties. Even the receivers know less about sender’s data. Transactions are verified within a few milliseconds and within a few hundred bytes, unlike the other coins.

Why Is zK SNARKS Required?

We all have heard people saying that crypto coins are used for illegal activity. The illegal intentions and activities monitored on blockchain ecosystem should face legal authorities, but what if tables turn around? What if the government tracks your every transaction and uses it to their gain? Coins like Bitcoin are also traceable, which satisfies the need for the entire shielded transaction. Zk snark is the step in that direction. It shields the transaction of Zcash and makes them untraceable.

How Does zk SNARKs Work?

There is communication between prover and verifier in the initial level to set up an initial string. When the Initial string is setup a transaction validity function is created. The transaction validity function is now broken down to an arithmetic function which is similar to boolean circuits.

The next step is to create an RICS(Rank 1 constraint system) to check whether each value proceeds as planned. For example, your mathematical function is (x+y)*z*k, now what RICS does is to check whether every variable is going as designed.

Now in zK SNARKs if the prover knows in advance which branch the verifier will check, he can input invalid constraints in the branches and make other variables unacceptable.

CONFUSED? Let’s take a numeric example for understanding how the encryption is processed in zk SNARKs. Suppose you want to add two numbers lets say ”3+4”, but you don’t know how to do it. So you turn to your friend for help, but you don’t want your friend to know the numbers. You encrypt them in as ”3=45″ and ”4=60” by multiplying 3 and 4 by ”15”. Your friend does the addition and sends you back the result as ”105”.You divide 105 by 15 and decrypt the number as 7. This is a basic idea used in zK SNARKs for encrypting the confidential data which is taken as “3” and ”4” in the example. It is also called Homomorphic Hiding (HH). The higher levels, numbers are hidden on E(G)=k: where E(G) is an N-degree polynomial. It uses prime numbers to encrypt by the method of A mod N, Quadratic Arithmetic Program or logarithmic values. 

How Are Transactions Processed in Zcash?

If you have done transactions in the past through bitcoin, then you might be aware that it determines whether a transaction is spendable or not by tracking unspent transactions(UTXO). What makes ZCASH unique is “Commitment”. It is a shielded equivalent of UTXO and to spend it you need a “nullifier” generated from the hash output of the previous transaction. The commitment produced is recorded in every node, and all the nullifiers can than be quickly produced using it.

What If The Noise Generator Is Caught Red-Handed?

The community gave concern for this laggard and came up with a mechanism to generate a key for each transaction that miners and verifiers could verify with less computation power.  

Conclusion

As everything has two aspects, the same goes for Zcash. ZEC protocol can be used for illegal activity due to its encrypted techniques and shielding from unwanted eyes. Technology has been boon and evil. It depends upon the hand which it had gone through. Zcash is like the same; It can mark a new era in the blockchain industry’s privacy.