When I started learning about ZCash, I never thought I would be interested in an altcoin based on it, but here we are, with me analyzing YCash. However, when switching wallet clients, I got a wallet that supported both cryptocurrencies (YEC and ZEC), and I thought “why not give it a try?” And here we are…
Although ZCash emerged as a simple proposal, taking advantage of what Bitcoin has to offer and adding some very specific update patches, mainly involved with encryption and transaction privacy, something highly praised by YCash developers, who they took advantage of the model and technology later. However, some things ended up displeasing the developers:
- The initial ZCash model allocated, during the first four years, 10% of the total supply of tokens to the founders to finance development, and 90% to the open market. However, in mid-2020, a new fund was created, meaning that 20% of the total supply of cryptocurrencies produced from that moment onwards went to developers. Despite the proposal having a certain basis, these developers did not like this change, considering it a kind of theft;
- In 2018, ASICs for ZCash mining emerged. YCash developers, before the fork, considered this complete nonsense, as it prevented the average user from mining a unit of ZCash alone at home.
With these items in mind, YCash's initial proposal emerged, to, broadly speaking, maintain what was working in ZCash, correct the two problems above and free itself from the decision-making coming from the Electric Coin Company and the ZCash Foundation. As those who had ZEC until the moment of the fork received the same nominal amount of YEC tokens, those who believed in the project simply did not move the funds or even bought more, and those who did not believe could simply ignore, sell, donate or burn the tokens.
However, its fate ended up being the same as Bitcoin Cash, being relegated to the shadow of its precursor. Even so, its historical objectives and the trajectory taken from the Genesis block to the present day make it one of my favorite coins of negligible value, and a project that intrigues me to this day. You can get some of it for free here, in fact.
If you want to understand more about cryptocurrency, you can read more here, but I plan on bringing more content about this network in the future.