I want to start by saying that I am not aiming to analyze the technology of Zcash, but instead, I'm looking to analyze the price relative to the rest of the market, as I think there could be some great price potential here.
Initially, I never took much interest in Zcash, as there was nobody really telling me about it, and it didn't really seem necessary. I've heard of people mining it, but the number of people shilling or even mentioning this coin is pretty low, considering the market cap is pretty high compared to the competition.
Zcash's claim to fame is their privacy feature, but these are becoming very common, and it doesn't really do anything to stick out. However, if we look at other coins with a similar goal, we already see a few that have a higher market cap. Monero seems to be everybody's favorite, and Dash is quite a bit higher than Zcash as well. However, Bytecoin (which I never even knew about until today) has a higher valuation, while Verge currently sits just one spot behind Zcash, despite almost no publicity until McAfee worked his magic late last year.
This is not to say that every privacy focused coin should have the same valuation, but it does seem to be a very trendy thing, and Zcash has been pretty immune to the extremely massive price fluctuations, both good and bad, involved with this type of hype. While all crypto is volatile, Zcash's volatility is closer to that of something much more stable, such as Bitcoin, than other coins outside of the top 20. To call Zcash or Bitcoin stable isn't necessarily accurate, but relative to the rest of the market, they both held fairly strong through this last crash.
This "stability" puts it in a category with the other top coins, which all seem to have not only been around for a decent amount of time, but also have market caps in the billion club. While I don't think being a top coin will keep you in the top for long, it does give a bit of a sense of security, at least for the short term.
One unique thing about Zcash, like I said, is its lack of hype. Most coins that are hovering around this stability level generally have massive communities that shill their coin, but I have yet to see any real push to get anybody to buy Zcash. While this could be seen as a bad thing, I think this is generally a good sign that we don't associate a coin with a group of obnoxious fanboys who bring up their investment whenever they get a chance. Also, if there ever is a more active community that decides to spread the word a little more, that will add to the publicity. Ultimately, I think this coin has one of the higher market cap to shill ratios, which seems like a good start.
Again, we have a lot of privacy coins, but I do think the consensus is that a lot of people want them, and given the publicity, it's possible that Zcash can absorb a lot of the money that is going to its competitors if it can gain a little traction. While people have many options, those who desire privacy tend to flock to Monero, and for good reason. However, as we see a new batch of uneducated investors coming in the following months, we may see people go for the coin with the most hype, as we've seen the last few months with Verge. Again, I am not saying which coin is better, as I'm not convinced at all that it's Zcash, but if the new masses flock to it, the technology won't matter as much if we're thinking about price.
I wrote an article fairly recently about Bitcoin Cash, and how, while I'm not sold on it as the Bitcoin alternative necessarily, or even prefer it over Bitcoin, I thought it would have a much higher price increase potential because of the mindset of newer investors. Since I wrote that article, which was less than a month ago, it has gone up about 170% and I think it will continue to climb as we open the floodgates.
This is not to say that my investment picks are great, as I've mad some bad picks as well, but ultimately trying to get people to shift their thinking, allowing themselves to get into the mind of a newer investor. Almost all educated people in the crypto community prefer Bitcoin over Bitcoin Cash, and they also hate Ripple, yet I think we can anticipate where a lot of the new money is going to go, and we can look at recent history for some of those trends. While I haven't invested in Ripple because it isn't what I envision for an ideal crypto future, I think Zcash could be great for the future, and I can see why it would hold a large market share.
So, why would people flock to Zcash over anything else? Accessibility.
Zcash is available on every major exchange I can think of, and is accessible with wallets like Exodus or Jaxx and can be utilized with a Ledger or Trezor hardware wallet as well. I recently heard Circle added Zcash as well, and it ultimately seems like a coin that is going to be very easy to get for anybody taking a second look at any other coins besides Bitcoin or Ethereum.
While I'm not familiar enough with the technology to know if this coin deserves more hype, I know that if it gets a little push, this is going to be one that the masses will be able to get on very easily. While I can't say that it will ever reach its previous all time high, I think it has a better chance than most to soar a lot higher than it has been these past few months. Even if it doesn't, it seems like a relatively stable coin to park some gains in, with a very big upside if it ever gets traction.
I'm bullish, are you?
