Zcash Founder Joins Shield Labs, Pushes For Hybrid PoS Update
Privacy coin Zcash founder Zoko Wilcox is looking to accelerate the evolution of the protocol into a hybrid proof-of-stake system after joining Shield Labs.
In the year In a blog post on August 10, Zcash founder and now the new head of product at Shield Labs, Zoko Wilcox, said that after eight years of using proof-of-concept mining, the privacy currency should upgrade to a hybrid proof-of-stake system.
The PoW agreement and the creation of new ZEC coins have put downward pressure on the price, he said, “but this is expected to ease as the rate of new coin creation slows.”
Two major upcoming improvements are the implementation of the Zcash Perpetual Fund and the upgrade to “Crosslink”, a proof-of-work and proof-of-stake protocol.
“We want to deploy this as soon as possible while maintaining Zcash's excellent security history,” he said.
Benefits from the upgrade include enabling throttling for ZEC holders, providing end-users with protection against backdoor attacks, reducing transaction times, and allowing more secure two-way bridging to other networks.
However, Wilcox did not comment on the technical details or give a timetable for the update. The Electric Coin Company (ECC), the company behind the development of Zcash, has mentioned PoS interoperability for the first time in 2021.
Meanwhile, in an Aug. 8 post on X, ECC announced that ZCO has moved to Shield Labs, an independent Switzerland-based startup, to support Zcash.
“This news is a win for the Zcash community, and we look forward to collaborating with Shielded Labs on Zcash hybrid PoW/PoS.”
Shield Labs announced that it has received generous donations from Zcash owners and supporters, including Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss and Vitalik Buterin.
The funding will help the organization expand its initiatives and prioritize the development and implementation of CrossLink in partnership with the ECC, he said.
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Zcash was launched in 2015. Similar to Bitcoin (BTC), a privacy-focused payment currency forked in 2016.
Zoko Wilcox stepped down as ECC CEO in December, replacing Josh Swihart.
In the year The price of ZEC has failed to gain momentum since 2023, when it was canceled by several large centralized crypto exchanges following regulatory pressure.
ZEC was trading at a little over $41 at the time of writing, having gained 40% in the past week.
However, the privacy coin has lost 98% since its peak of $3,191 in 2016, according to CoinGecko.
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