Zcash is regarded as an underdog compared to Bitcoin. But what are the odds it will ever become more popular than the competitor?

Will Zcash Become More Popular Than Bitcoin?

The market of crypto develops at an extremely fast pace, and the listing changes are dynamic as well. Many different reasons impact those processes, but serious changes are possible when some project offers completely new possibilities for investors. 

Nevertheless, Bitcoin holds market leadership since its launching in 2009. Meanwhile, Zcash has many similarities with BTC, yet offers real anonymity to its investors along with other unique features. Is ZEC better than BTC and is it worth swapping ZEC to BTC? Read in this article. 

Bitcoin: Overview

Bitcoin was founded in 2009 by an anonymous called Satoshi Nakamoto. It remains unknown whether it was a person or a group of people, but BTC remains the first-ever launched cryptocurrency on the market. It is also the most popular crypto in the world. There are around 83 million Bitcoin users worldwide in 2022. 

BTC was the first solution for direct peer-to-peer transactions without middlemen such as banks or other financial institutions. The project has introduced a network that is administered by thousands of counterparts instead of the centralized system that existed before. BTC can be mined and uses the Proof-of-Work consensus model.

Bitcoin is not only the most popular coin but also has the highest capitalization estimated at around $402 billion as of July 2022. The total number of ever-mined coins cannot exceed 21 million. Currently, 91% are already in circulation. The price fluctuates around $20 thousand per coin during the market downturn in the mid-2022. The all-time high of the BTC price was recorded in November 2021— $67,5 thousand per coin back then. 

The BTC price, like any other crypto, is mainly impacted by the market combination of supply and demand. Still, there are a few other important factors:

• Cost of production
• Regulation demands 
• Political/economic events
• Media coverage 

ZCash: Overview

When Bitcoin was introduced, anonymity was one of the biggest advantages it was supposed to offer. It means that every transaction had to be untraceable and impersonal. However, both sender and receiver’s wallet addresses are recorded on the blockchain. Consequently, the transfer information is transparent, and everyone can access it. Instead, Zcash encrypts transactions, giving investors the possibility to stay anonymous and enjoy the advantages of a decentralized digital currency. Today, ZEC has similarities with BTC technically but offers advanced privacy. 

ZEC ranks 52 on the crypto market with a market capitalization of around $896 million. Its circulation supply is 14,8 million out of 21 million in total. The price is fluctuating around

$60 per coin as of July 2022. Zcash reached its ATH after its launch in October 2016 ($1,624 per coin). Currently, ZEC is in a neutral position, but with the upturn of the market, it might enter a bullish trend. 

Advantages Zcash Has over Bitcoin

As stated before, when it comes to BTC vs ZEC comparison, the main Zcash advantage remains anonymity. It uses “Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Argument of Knowledge” or simpler Zk-SNARKS. It allows users to document transactions on the Zcash blockchain without revealing the information. Yet, there is a possibility to reveal it in certain cases, like court decisions. 

Another advantage of Zcash over Bitcoin is a much simpler and cheaper mining process due to the Equihash algorithm it uses. You can mine ZEC by using a basic setup such as CPUs or GPUs. 

Finally, there is a discussion of bringing into the Zcash system smart contracts that are similar to those that Ethereum uses. If so, ZEC can immediately gain many new investors, which will rocket its price. So, even though BTC has its first-to-market advantage, ZEC might have a much bigger potential in the future.

Final Take

Bitcoin has been a leading cryptocurrency since its launch, and any other crypto did not manage to outperform it. Hence, the possibility that Zcash will do it is questionable. However, ZEC has already shown its superiority in terms of privacy. So, with further technical improvements, it can at least get very close to the popularity of BTC, especially among those traders, who want to stay anonymous. 

Consequently, if you are confident in ZEC’s future and value your privacy, you should swap BTC to ZEC by using anonymous crypto exchanges.