Zcash Founder Zooko Wilcox Pushes for Hybrid Proof-of-Stake Upgrade

After joining Shielded Labs, Zooko Wilcox, the creator of privacy currency Zcash, is speeding efforts to shift the protocol to a hybrid proof-of-stake (PoS) system. Wilcox, now Shielded Labs’ head of product, underlined in a blog post on Aug. 10 the necessity of Zcash in moving from its eight-year dependence on proof-of- work (PoW) mining to a hybrid PoW/PoS protocol.

Although efficient in the past, Wilcox pointed out that the ongoing production of new coins has caused the present PoW consensus process to impose downward pressure on the price of the currency. He thinks this pressure will lessen when the suggested improvement slows down the pace of new currency generation. The update seeks to apply “Crosslink,” a hybrid system combining PoW and PoS, and the Zcash Sustainability Fund.

Benefits and Community Support for the Upgrade

Several advantages are predicted from the switch to a hybrid system: it will allow ZEC holders to stake their currencies, provide transaction finality that guards against rollback attacks, shorten transaction times, and enable safer two-way bridges to other networks. Wilcox did not, however, provide comprehensive technical details or an upgrade schedule.

Prominent Zcash supporters like Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss and Vitalik Buterin have supported Shielded Labs, the company Wilcox joined. These grants will support Shielded Labs’ projects and its cooperation with Electric Coin Company (ECC) to give the Crosslink protocol top priority.

Notwithstanding these advances, Zcash’s price has suffered; at the time of writing, it traded little over $41. Launched in 2016 and split from Bitcoin, the privacy currency has had difficulties including being delisted from many big exchanges in 2023 under regulatory pressure. Although ZEC rose 40% over last week, it is still 98% behind its all-time high of $3,191.

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