There is a lot of anticipation for the upcoming Zcash launch. If you don't know what Zcash is please check http://z.cash for more information. In short, Z cash employs something known as Zero Knowdledge proofs which using some novel cryptography allows people to transfer value to one another without anyone knowing how much value was transferred, who sent it or who received it; creating a truly digital version of cash. This has huge implications in regards to the future of crypto currency and has had many individuals eagerly waiting its release for some time.
What you also may not know about Zcash is it will be mined using a new algorithm known as Equihash, which is ASIC resistant and currently no public Zcash GPU miners exist. A total of 21 million Zcash will be distributed following the same timeline as Bitcoin. There will also be no premine, meaning early adopters will only be able to acquire Zcash at launch via CPU mining. CPU mining sounds great, but also has a large drawback. In the event a coin can only ever be mined via CPU, people who employ Botnets will be at much higher advantage. GPU mining needs special equipment, but it allows for a more fair launch.
Granted the amount of hype behind the release of this coin their has been a lot of discussion recently on what the best means will be to mine Zcash. The GPU vs CPU discussion is in full debate and there are already multiple parties working on creating a GPU miner prior to launch. One party in particular has already successfully built a GPU miner, but plans to sell this privately to the highest bidder. I've spoken with two parties working on creating a GPU miner and they've offered to work together and release a GPU miner to interested parties prior to the launch of Zcash if enough funds to exceeds private offers can be crowdfunded.
If you are interested in participating in this crowdfund please visit the Zcash forum and make a post disclosing your interest on this thread:
https://forum.z.cash/t/crowdfund-gpu-miner/1324
Yours Truly,
@coinartist