• By the end of 2019 Zcash users will be at liberty to choose their node software of choice
• The new partnership will enable Parity to add expertise for their upcoming interoperability solution dubbed Polkadot

The technical partnership between non-profit Zcash Foundation and Ethereum focused startup Parity Technologies aims to build a consensus compatible Zcash node. The Zcash software node they plan to create will be the first one that isn’t built or managed by the Zerocoin Electric Company (ZEC).

Decentralization coming to Zcash

The announcement by Zcash Foundation on Tuesday, October 30th, is the clearest sign so far that non-profit organization intends to prioritize decentralization, especially now that the privacy coin project has been in the hands of ZEC led by Zooko Wilcox. According to the announcement, by the end of 2019 Zcash users will be at liberty to choose their software of choice; both options will be almost identical – initially.

To facilitate the shift, Zcash Foundation is using four engineers to develop and manage the open-source projects while Parity Technologies will have two engineers whose core business will be the development of the new Zcash node, according to Parity CTO Frederick Harrysson.

Both organizations appreciate the significance of the highest-level of financial privacy and they believe the only security to that kind of fundamental freedom can only be availed through a “cryptocurrency built around zero-knowledge proofs.” Zcash Foundation Executive Director Josh Cincinnati stated:

“Technologies that prioritize privacy allow all people to transact without fear of censorship or reprisal, […] an independent node implementation provides more options for Zcash miners and users, which promotes healthy decentralization of the cryptocurrency protocol as it matures.”

They will write the new Zcash node using the Rust Programing language and will become the go-to alternative client after Zcash Company’s zcashd, which is the only software currently running Zcash. Parity has experience building multiple client implementations like it has done for Ethereum and Bitcoin, and is expected to deliver a fast and reliable implementation for Zcash.

Long term maintenance reverts to Zcash Foundation

Once Parity successfully finishes implementing the node and syncs it to the MainNet, the company will hand over the responsibility for long-term code maintenance to Zcash Foundation. Parity CTO Fredrik Harrysson stated:

“Our technical collaboration with the Zcash Foundation will bolster the cryptocurrency as a tool for financial privacy. We’re excited to leverage the time and expertise that we’ve already invested in Parity Bitcoin, while familiarizing our engineers with zero-knowledge cryptography and building a foundation for a Polkadot Zcash bridge.”

Apart from fostering options for Zcash users, the new partnership will enable Parity to add expertise for their upcoming interoperability solution dubbed Polkadot, which has been designed to facilitate transactions across and between different blockchains. Harrysson stated:

“We want to launch Polkadot with a ZCash bridge from day one […] we believe that ZCash has some big feature sets to add to this interoperability.”