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Who created Zcash?

Zcash was invented by a group of scientists and brought to life by Electric Coin Co. and Zooko Wilcox, a computer security specialist and original cypherpunk.

In 2013, a group of scientists got together to solve Bitcoin’s biggest problem: privacy. Their original solution was Zerocoin, a proposed privacy extension to Bitcoin, but they quickly pivoted and recruited additional scientists to build a standalone protocol known today as Zcash. The Zerocoin Electric Coin Company (now Electric Coin Co.) was formed in 2015 to create the protocol, and Zcash was launched in October 2016. The Zcash Foundation was formed in 2017 to further support Zcash, and in 2020, Zcash Open Major Grants (ZOMG) launched to fund independent teams contributing to the Zcash ecosystem. ZOMG was renamed Zcash Community Grants (ZCG) in February 2022.

  • History, Privacy, Zcash 101
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