Pairing ZCash Anonymity With Ethereum Smart Contracts - First Successful Test
Ever since ZCash launched late last year, their mind-boggling algorithm of proofing that something exists without actually revealing what it is (the so called zkSNARK) was making furors on the crypto world. As you may already know, although Bitcoin was touted as being private and untraceable, this is not entirely true. Bitcoin is more like cash and cash, to a certain extent, is traceable. But by using the zkSNARK (what a tricky name, right?) technology, one can really hide a transaction on the blockchain, making it completely private.
As part of their Byzantium release testing, Ethereum team announced they integrated this technology into the Ethereum transaction mechanism. What this means, in plain English, is that soon, once Byzantium reaches a stable level, we can have completely private transactions on the Ethereum network, just like we have them now in ZCash.
But zkSNARKs are computationally expensive, hence such a transaction will have a much higher price. Sources close to Coindesk, which broke the news, revealed that the price of such a transaction could be around 1,900,000 gas, whereas a "normal", not privatized transaction costs only 21,000 gas.
So the price of anonymity on the Ethereum network is basically 90x higher. Quite pricey, if you ask me...
I'm a serial entrepreneur, blogger and ultrarunner. You can find me mainly on my blog at Dragos Roua where I write about productivity, business, relationships and running. Here on Steemit you may stay updated by following me @dragosroua.
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90x is too higher for anonymity, unless you are dealing with illegal stuff.
Good information.If Ethereum gained anonymity using zksnarks, wouldn't that reduce the unique value proposition of zcash? I'm a little confused about why the makers of zcash are helping Ethereum do this.
I don't think they are specifically helping them, zkSNARK is an open technology, anyone can implement it.
@dragosroua,
This is the 1st time I heard about private transactions! Yeah it looks an interesting topic to me! I will check this out! Thanks for sharing such useful information with us!
Cheers~
Gotta mine that ZEC to get more transaction fees now!
@dragosroua - Oh my goodness, if this implementation happens ETH price will go up too Sir. Lovely information you shared Sir.
+W+ [UpVoted & ReSteemed]
amigo #resteemia at your service
private transactions, hope this feature will be added to steem too ;) valuable info @dragosroua
ReSteemia
'UpVoted ReSteemed Commented'
Do you think this will influence ethereum's price more than the usual fluctuations of the market?
after all of part it launched called Zcash, nice title, i like it.
Interesting that Ethereum now sees the value in private transactions. I think any open ledger is not an especially good idea for use by corporations + businesses, but also individuals, as financial privacy is very important. No one wants to show exactly what they are spending if it can be helped!
This is why I am bullish on anon-coins, although in my opinion the best tech is Monero!
Very good article. Nice to see I'm not the only one who thinks like this. The real risk lies in the fact that the market is so irrational. I really advice people to take a look at: https://www.coincheckup.com I'm really enthusiastic about this site, they let you analyze every single coin out there. On: https://www.coincheckup.com/coins/Zcash#analysis To see the: Zcash Detailed report.