The Privacy-Friendly Altcoin Zcash (ZEC) Goes Live On Coinbase.com

The latest crypto news show that the privacy-friendly cryptocurrency named Zcash (ZEC) is officially listed on Coinbase Pro. Last week, Coinbase announced the support for the altcoin on Coinbase.com and on the crypto exchange’s Android and iOS apps, enabling users to buy, sell, send, receive or store ZEC throughout the company’s platforms and services.

Currently, Zcash support is available to customers in most of the jurisdictions. Only users from the state of New York and United Kingdom cannot access it. According to the announcement, other jurisdictions may later be added.

What’s interesting is that after the price rose, Zcash defied the so-called “Coinbase Effect” by falling 17% in a single day on November 30th. However, the Coinbase statement reads that it would offer partial support for shielded transactions until such time as local regulations allow for full implementation of transaction shielding.

An excerpt from the statement reads:

“In both cases, the unencrypted/transparent version of the protocol allows third parties to see metadata associated with the communication or transaction, while the encrypted/shielded version protects this information. Initially, customers can send ZEC to Coinbase from both transparent and shielded addresses, but only send off Coinbase to transparent addresses. In the future, we’ll explore support for sending ZEC to shielded addresses in locations where it complies with local laws.”

The founder of Zcash, Zooko Wilcox, expressed his optimism about the Coinbase listing and the privacy enhancements created by Zcash in spite of the many arguments to the contrary. In a tweet, he said:

“As the industry matures, we believe privacy protections will be mandated by most exchanges, governments and other financial institutions, leading to the broad adoption of Zcash.”