Zcash completes the first fork Ycash, what does this mean?

The privacy coin Zcash will generate a new blockchain network called Ycash in about 5 hours.

It will be the first blockchain that is similar to the Zcash codebase but runs on a separate network and is a de facto competitor to Zcash.

(CoinDesk Chinese Note: Originally written at UTC time on July 18th at 22:10, Zcash has now completed the fork at a block height of 570,000, the latest block is being generated in real time)

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The news was first announced in April, and the work was led by Zcash's longtime supporter Howard Loo. Lok described in the Zcash forum that Ycash is a pre-emptive move to prevent such future community decisions: funding the developer in the Zcash system called "Founder's Reward" to overtake it 10% of the total supply of Zcash previously promised.

Luo wrote in a forum post, "Ycash is also launched to fulfill the promise that the Zcash founder award will always be limited to 2.1 million tokens – we are worried that the founder award will expire from now until 2020 In the previous period, we will face more and more pressure."

Since then, the key leader in the Zcash community, such as founder, Zoko Wilcox, has publicly expressed support for Lo's plans, including opposing some incentives for founders and possibly causing Ycash to be backwards backwards (backwards) -incompatible) Network adjustment for Zcash.

Often, a network split of this nature actually adds value to the cryptocurrency held by the user. This is because users can redeem the same amount of tokens on the new blockchain for free.

“From a speculator's perspective, network fragmentation often represents attractive investment opportunities,” said former CoinDesk market analyst and current cryptocurrency trader Sam Ouimet. “New entry funds usually buy the cryptocurrency that is being forked to ensure ownership of the new token.”

Of course, the value of these new tokens, called YECs, on the Ycash network may be much lower than the ZECs. If the blockchain fork that derived the new cryptocurrency in the past is used as an indicator, the price of the token will often be shocked and then rebound after the fork.

Take Bitcoin Cash (BCH) as an example. Bitcoin , the world's most popular cryptocurrency , was forked on August 1, 2017. In just four months, the market value of the fork currency bitcoin cash reached an all-time high of $69 billion, while the price of a single bitcoin cash was about $4,000.

Since then, the market has cooled significantly, but Bitcoin cash is still one of the five cryptocurrencies with the highest listing value in the world. Although it experienced network fragmentation in November last year, it suffered a hypothetical 51% attack in May this year.

Therefore, for Zcash, a blockchain network with a market value of $700 million, Ycash, which will be generated at 3:00 am on July 19th at UTC, or the emergence of a new source of return on investment.

But in order for users to properly use their newly held YEC, they must ensure that they control their private key and wallet address. Alternatively, users can ensure that their ZEC-enabled exchange supports Zcash/Ycash's network fork.

Currency exchanges, OKex, Coinbase and Firecoin have not confirmed support for the upcoming Ycash.

A spokesperson for the currency told CoinDesk that the currency will evaluate the “community feedback” around the new token to decide whether to support the new token.

What does this mean for ZEC holders?

If you are a ZEC holder, one of the best ways to ensure that you get a new YEC token is to download the ZEC wallet, Lo said to CoinDesk.

“In order to get the Ycash token, you need to store Zcash in a wallet that allows you to export the private key at the fork,” Lo explained. “One possible way to get a YEC token is to store your ZEC in your wallet while downloading the ZEC wallet and ensuring a fork.”

Some cryptocurrency exchanges have publicly announced that they will manage user private keys to support network fragmentation and ensure that once the new forked YECs are generated, they are equal to the amount of ZECs. These transactions include but are not limited to SafeTrade, BigONE, Hoo and Citex.

However, for all Zcash users who deposit tokens on exchanges that do not support this fork, Lo said that downloading the ZEC wallet not only ensures that the user can get YEC, but also creates the actual Zcash network. "ancillary benefits"

“A ZEC wallet is a Zcash full node, and now suddenly, out of interest in getting Ycash, these Zcash users who have not operated full nodes have started to operate the full node,” Luo said.

Even so, Josh Cincinnati, executive director of the Zcash Foundation, said the management of these private keys would be an adventurous move.

Cincinnati told CoinDesk:

"You may end up operating your private key on a computer connected to the Internet, and there may be some vulnerabilities on this computer. This is a tail risk. This is unlikely, but anytime, when you Changing someone's security model can be risky to the user."

Therefore, Cincinnati said that no matter how "friendly" the intention is, the "split, fork or any such thing" of the blockchain is always accompanied by risks, which users should pay attention to.
 
Where to watch

For users who want to watch the fork process in real time, the cryptocurrency website CoinGecko sets up a public countdown always and token price tracking table. In addition, the cryptocurrency exchange SafeTrade and the blockchain analysis website BitFly also support the Ycash blockchain browser, which allows users to track the block in real time.

Currency search: Bitcoin search engine www.btcsearch.com

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