ZEC (Zcash) was launched on October 28, 2016, and belongs to the category of privacy coins in the cryptocurrency market.
ZEC is the first blockchain system to use a zero-knowledge proof mechanism, which provides complete payment confidentiality while still maintaining a decentralized network on a public blockchain.
Similar to BTC, ZEC has a total supply of 21 million. However, unlike BTC, transactions on ZEC automatically hide the sender, receiver, and amount on the blockchain, and only those with keys can see the content of transactions. Users have full control over their keys and can choose to provide them to others to view the information.
ZEC can be seen as a branch of BTC, as it retains the original BTC model and is based on modifications to a version of the Bitcoin code.