- In order to verify that a transaction occurred, Zcash uses zero-knowledge proofs.
- Electric Coin Company maintains he wasn’t compensated in any way for his work.
Reports claim that Edward Snowden, the well-known whistleblower for the National Security Agency, was instrumental in the 2016 debut of Zcash. The Zcash blockchain was launched by Snowden, Zooko Wilcox, Peter Todd, Peter Van Valkenburgh, and two others, including Peter Van Valkenburgh of Coin Center. Each of the six parties gets a fragment of the private key required to produce the coin as part of a procedure known as “trusted setup.” The pseudonym “John Dobbertin” has been identified as the sixth participant.
The ritual culminated with the destruction of the keys. Anybody with access to this key can create counterfeit Zcash as per Electric Coin Company SVP Josh Swihart. In order to prevent counterfeiting, the key needed to be created by six separate people, and if any of them were honest and destroyed their share of the key, it would be secure.
Bitcoin Privacy-focused Alternative
A leaked video of Snowden from Zcash Media, in which he outlines the necessity for a Bitcoin privacy-focused alternative, was the source of the first reporting from Forbes.
In order to verify that a transaction occurred, Zcash uses zero-knowledge proofs, a kind of cryptography that does not need anybody to know the specifics of the transaction. Exiled in Russia since 2013, Snowden was accused by the U.S. government in 2013 of espionage after his leak of NSA surveillance information to the media. Snowden went to Russia for refuge before the U.S. government could detain him. He has become a permanent resident.
Even though he was involved with Zcash, Snowden is said to have been more interested in the privacy currency than in the money—and the Electric Coin Company maintains he wasn’t compensated in any way for his work.
