Cryptocurrency ZCash (ZEC) needs to abandon the Proof-of-Work consensus algorithm in favour of the more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly Proof-of-Stake. That was the suggestion made by Zuko Wilcox, the founder and head of the Electric Coin Company (ECC) behind the development of the project.
Wilcox called the PoS algorithm not only more efficient but also more reliable than PoW. Speaking to Forbes, he noted:
"I think Proof-of-Work suffers from some security gaps, as demonstrated by the 51% attacks. I think Proof-of-Stake can provide a higher level of security at a lower cost."
He explained that in PoW-based systems, users have a very modest set of tools to defend against attacks. PoS-based networks, by contrast, allow an attacker to be identified and their tokens blocked, allowing the rest of the blockchain to operate as normal.
Wilcox stressed that his proposal is not related to environmental concerns, although PoS-based cryptocurrency mining is less damaging to the environment. The developer suggested updating ZCash because he believes the algorithm is generally more efficient.
He also noted that the PoS concept is already proven and the mechanism "is no longer experimental". The head of ECC cited the Algorand, Cardano and Tezos blockchains as examples.
Wilcox highlighted the main benefits of ZCash moving to Proof-of-Stake:
"I believe that ZCash's move to PoS offers many meaningful improvements in terms of the utility, security and decentralisation of the network, as well as for the utility and demand for the ZEC coin itself," Wilcox concluded.
The privacy-oriented cryptocurrency ZCash is ranked #72 by CoinGecko with a market capitalization of ~$1.29 billion. At the time of writing, ZEC is priced at $113.
As a reminder, a Halo Arc fork is planned for October 1, 2021 on the ZCash network, which includes consensus node updates, an ECC wallet prototype and a development kit.
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