specification

References

Zcash

Zcash does not have a rigorous specification or whitepaper yet. We're working on it. In the meantime, here are the key background references and our in-progress specification:

Bitcoin Developer Reference:

https://bitcoin.org/en/developer-reference

Zcash is based off of Bitcoin, so much of the underlying consensus protocol is the same.

Zerocash:

http://zerocash-project.org/paper

Zcash is based on a research paper Zerocash, and integrates that work into a Bitcoin-like consensus protocol.

Zcash Protocol (in progress):

https://github.com/Electric-Coin-Company/zips/blob/master/protocol/protocol.pdf

The details of how to integrate the Zerocash research results into a Bitcoin consensus protocol are crucial to overall usability, security, and performance. This specification is still very much a work in progress.