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Zcash was invented as a way to provide a higher level of privacy to users that want to trade cryptocurrency.
The genesis block of Zcash was mined on Oct. 28 , 2016. The network is secured using a proof-of-work mining algorithm, which means that miners compete against each other through the usage of processing power in order to produce a new block on the chain. The first one to produce the block gets awarded with a network standard block reward. For Zcash, a block reward of 3.125 ZEC comes into circulation every 75 seconds — this amount will be cut in half every four years in block halvings, until all 21 million ZEC are in circulation.
In the mining process, application-specific computers need to compete to find a solution to a difficult math problem that is pre-defined by the Equihash hashing algorithm. To mine Zcash, GPUs and ASICs are used; however, the rising hash rate and network difficulty means that GPU mining of Zcash is not recommended, and ASIC mining is more realistic.
You can potentially build a solid Zcash mining rig on your own; however, if you do not have that much disposable income for mining, you can also look for Zcash cloud mining alternatives. Zcash solo mining, like Bitcoin mining, has become prohibitively expensive in recent years, ASICs or not, due to the rising network hash rate.
