How To Buy Zcash ZEC? Best Exchanges And Wallets Reviewed

In this age of cryptocurrencies, everyone wants a piece of the pie. If you look at the charts you will see the cryptocurrency market is a billion dollar market now. Some cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum etc have more market cap than a lot of popular companies.

Some people buy a cryptocurrency because they like the idea of it and want to see it grow. Usually, these people stick to the cryptocurrencies for a long time. But there are some others who like trading cryptocurrencies on a daily basis to make the most of the ups and downs.

In this article, I am going to show you how to buy Zcash, a very popular cryptocurrency. I will also review some of the best wallets for storing Zcash.

Article Updated In 2018

WHAT IS Zcash ZEC?

Zcash is an open source peer to peer digital currency. It uses the same blockchain technology as Bitcoin but Zcash provides better security than Bitcoin.

The founder and CEO of Zcash Zooko Wilcox-O’Hearn created Zcash or Zerocash in 2016.

The project was originally called Zerocoin. The main goal of Zerocoin was to provide anonymity to Bitcoin’s blockchain. Zcash trades with the ticker ZEC.

FEATURES OF Zcash

• Fixed Supply – Just like Bitcoin, Zcash also has a fixed supply of ZEC units. The fixed amount is 21 million. Out of this 21 million ZEC, 2.8 million are already in circulation.
• New PoW Algorithm – Zcash uses a new Proof of Work algorithm called Equihash. Unlike SHA-256 of Bitcoin, Zcash’s Equihash algorithm is more memory intensive. So the hash rate mainly depends on the amount of RAM a device has instead of raw computing power. This is why there are no ASIC miners for Equihash. The best way to mine Zcash is still using a GPU rig, preferably a Nvidia rig.
• Better Privacy – Zcash protocol has the ability to use zero-knowledge proofs or zk-SNARK to verify transactions. Using zk-SNARK I can prove to you that the transaction happened without giving you sensitive details like my wallet address, recipient’s address as well as the amount transferred. This is why there are two types of addresses on Zcash – T-address and Z-address. T-addresses or transparent addresses are similar to Bitcoin addresses. But on the other hand, Z-addresses or zero addresses are anonymous addresses.

Currently, Zcash has a market capitalization of $1.4 billion and a single ZEC costs about $489. Famous Bitcoin investor and virtual millionaire Roger Ver and the creator of the blockchain technology Nick Szabo are a few famous personalities who recommend investing in Zcash.

HOW TO BUY Zcash?

Now that you know what Zcash is, it’s time to know how to buy some. I have listed down two popular methods to buy Zcash.

HOW TO BUY Zcash WITH FIAT CURRENCIES?

There are a handful of cryptocurrency exchanges that allow users to buy Zcash directly with fiat currencies like USD, EUR etc. I suggest using Bitfinex or CEX.IO for buying Zcash with fiat currencies.

In this post, I am only going to show you how to use CEX.IO but the process is fairly similar on the other platforms too. CEX.IO currently only supports USD, EUR, and GBP for directly buying Zcash.

HOW TO BUY Zcash ON CEX.IO

• First of all, you need to create an account on CEX. Create an account on CEX by visiting this link: Cex.io
• After you have registered on the platform you are free to deposit funds to start buying Zcash. The basic account allows you to only deposit $300 per day. And you can deposit only using your VISA or MasterCard. But if you become a verified member then these restrictions will be lifted.
• Now that you have funded your account it’s time to visit the market. Click on Market Data from the top menu.
• The market page will load the BTC/USD market by default. So you need to change it to the ZEC/USD or your preferred pair by clicking the appropriate ticker from the left side list.
• Under the market charts, you will see the option to buy Zcash. Enter the amount of ZEC you want as well as the price you want to offer per ZEC.
• As soon as you click on the buy button the order will be accepted if you have enough balance on your account.
• The ZEC will be credited to your account as soon as the market finds a sell order matching your requirements.

HOW TO EXCHANGE TO Zcash?

The second method of buying Zcash is exchanging a cryptocurrency to Zcash.

To follow this method you already need to have a cryptocurrency like BTC, ETH etc.

THE BASIC WAY TO EXCHANGE

The easiest way to exchange any other cryptocurrency to Zcash is by using a service like Changelly, Shapeshift or Coinswitch. In this article, I am only going to show how to do this using Changelly.

HOW TO BUY Zcash USING CHANGELLY

• First of all, let’s head over to the Changelly website.
• On the landing page select the original cryptocurrency and enter the amount.
• After that select Zcash from the right side dropdown and Changelly will show you an estimation of how many ZEC you will get.
• Now click on the green “Exchange!” button.
• Changelly will prompt you to login or signup. Proceed by supplying your email address or logging in using your social media profiles.
• After signing up Changelly will confirm the amounts. Click on the Next button.
• On the next page, you will need to enter your Zcash wallet address. Then proceed to the next page.
• After that Changelly will generate a unique a deposit address for you. Copy this address and send your funds to this address. Please note that BTC, BCH, ETH transactions take a bit longer than XRP, IOTA transactions.
• Once Changelly receives the fund from you. It will redirect to another page.
• Changelly will find the best exchange rate and convert your funds to Zcash after a 0.5% fee.
• You will get the funds in your account within 15 minutes or so. But in some cases, it may take a bit longer.

THE ADVANCE WAY TO EXCHANGE

If you are quite familiar with the process of trading cryptocurrencies then using a proper exchange site is the best way to do it.

You can exchange to Zcash on various popular cryptocurrency exchanges like Binance, Bittrex, HitBTC, Kraken etc.

In this post, I am only going to show you the process of exchanging on Binance. Because Binance is one of my favorite exchanges when it comes to trading altcoins.

HOW TO BUY Zcash ON BINANCE

• First of all, you need to create an account on Binance. Please navigate to this URL: Binance.com
• After you have registered yourself on the exchange and verified your email, you are ready to start trading.
• But before you trade you need to add some funds. Please note that Binance doesn’t support any kind of fiat currencies, so you can only deposit cryptocurrencies. Some of the accepted cryptocurrencies are Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple, USD Tether etc. I recommend BTC or ETH for the sheer amount of cryptocurrencies you can buy with these two.
  • To deposit, you need to login to your Binance account and click on Funds.
  • The funds dropdown will reveal the “Deposits and Withdrawals” item. Click on this to navigate to the deposits page.
  • Now you will see a list of cryptocurrencies that Binance supports. Choose one of them and click on the deposit button next to it.
  • Upon clicking the deposit button a popup will appear and you will be prompted with a deposit address.
  • Now send the amount in the current cryptocurrency to the deposit address. For deposit, Binance has zero fees.
  • And you’re done!
• Once you have funded your Binance trading profile, you need to navigate to the exchange page. I recommend using the Basic trading page as it is easier on the eyes.
• On the right-hand side, you will see a list of cryptocurrencies you can buy with BTC, ETH, USDT or BNB. Choose the cryptocurrency of your choice and it will reveal the list of altcoins you can trade with it.
• Now choose ZEC/BTC pair from that list or any other pair of your choice like ZEC/BNB.
• Under the candlesticks chart, you will see the option to buy Zcash.
• There are two main ways that you can buy it –
  • If you buy using the Market option, then you will only need to enter the amount of ZEC you need. You also have the option to choose whether you want to buy 25%, 50%, 75% or 100% of the amount of ZEC available at the best market price. Click on Buy after entering the amount. And if you had sufficient balance your order will go through.
  • You can also buy using the Limit option as it introduces a lot of control. You can bid your own price for each unit and the amount.
• For both cases, I suggest using BNB or Binance Tokens to take care of the fees. Binance charges 0.1% per order for trading. But if you use BNB then this charge will get halved making it 0.05%. But for that, you will need to buy some BNB at first.

Zcash WALLET RECOMMENDATION

I suggest using a hardware wallet for holding Zcash. You can use a hardware wallet like Ledger Nano S or a Trezor for this purpose.

Hardware wallets are extremely secure and generally, they are tamper proof.

Plus the private key never leaves your hardware wallet. So there is zero chance of getting hacked. But there is a drawback of using a hardware wallets with Zcash. Currently, no hardware wallet supports the Z-address of Zcash.

So if you just want to invest in Zcash for long-term and don’t care about anonymous transactions, then use a hardware wallet.

But if you want to use the zero address functionality of Zcash then you need to install the Zcash desktop wallet. I have listed the download addresses down below.

FINAL WORDS

Zcash is a very promising project. There are a few other altcoins that use Equihash just like Zcash. But still, Zcash belongs to a class of its own.

Actually, it is one of the first cryptocurrencies that implemented the zk-SNARK protocol.

Now Ethereum is also trying to implement this feature to their blockchain to make transactions anonymous. But do keep in mind the cryptocurrency market is extremely volatile. So it’s your duty to make educated decisions.