Ycash (YEC) | SafeTrade

Market	Price	24h Change	24h Volume (USD)
YEC/BTC	0.00000401	+23.77%	0.88
YEC/ETH	0.0003613	+0.00%	---
YEC/USDT	0.37379	-4.16%	552.18

Ycash (YEC) is a privacy-focused Layer 1 digital currency based on the Zcash codebase, with a shared blockchain history through block 570,000 before launching as an independent network on July 18, 2019. The network uses Proof of Work and supports both transparent and shielded transactions.

Ycash is designed around private digital payments, permissionless mining, and a fixed 21 million YEC supply. Its privacy functionality is derived from Zcash, while its monetary policy and mining approach were modified to emphasize broader participation through commodity hardware.

Project Background

Ycash is a standalone Layer 1 blockchain derived from Zcash and, ultimately, the Bitcoin codebase. The first 570,000 blocks of Ycash share the historical blockchain record of Zcash, after which Ycash continued as its own network. Ycash uses Proof of Work consensus and the Equihash(192,7) mining algorithm, with mining designed to remain accessible using commodity GPUs.

Ycash supports both transparent and shielded transactions. Shielded transactions use zero-knowledge cryptography derived from the Zcash privacy architecture to conceal transaction participants and amounts from public blockchain observers. The network has a 2 MB block size limit and a target block spacing of approximately 1.25 minutes.

The native asset is YEC. YEC is used for payments, transfers, mining rewards, and participation in the Ycash ecosystem. The network also supports shielded wallets and related infrastructure, including YWallet and YecWallet. Ycash can additionally be represented on other networks through Wry (WRY), a separate wrapped asset backed by YEC held out of circulation by the Ycash Foundation.

History

Ycash was announced in April 2019 as a planned fork of the Zcash blockchain. The network launched at Zcash block height 570,000 on July 18, 2019. At the fork, holders controlling Zcash private keys were able to access the corresponding Ycash balances on the new chain.

At launch, Ycash modified Zcash's Founders Reward structure by reducing the allocation rate to 5% and directing the resulting Ycash Development Fund allocation to the nonprofit Ycash Foundation. The project also established a long-term objective of maintaining a 21 million YEC supply cap while pursuing Proof of Work mining accessible through commodity hardware.

The first Ycash block reward halving occurred at block height 850,000 in November 2020. Subsequent network upgrades incorporated selected Zcash protocol improvements, including Blossom, Heartwood, and portions of Canopy. At block height 2,280,000, the second block reward halving took effect, after which the 5% Ycash Development Fund contribution became optional for miners.

In April 2026, Ycash released ycashd v4.5.0. The release included a security fix inherited from Zcash, experimental RPC tooling for cross-chain atomic swaps, and native Apple Silicon build support. YecWallet v4.5.0 was also released with the updated ycashd version and a modernized Qt 6 build environment.

Tokenomics and Emissions

Ycash has a fixed maximum supply of 21 million YEC. The current Ycash fact sheet lists approximately 13.6 million YEC in supply and a current block reward of 1.5625 YEC.

New YEC enters circulation through Proof of Work mining. The original Ycash monetary design allocated 5% of block rewards to the Ycash Development Fund while directing the remaining reward to miners. Following the second halving at block height 2,280,000, the Development Fund contribution became optional, allowing miners to receive 100% of the block reward.

The first block reward halving occurred at block height 850,000 in November 2020. The second halving occurred at block height 2,280,000. Ycash's founding principles established the 21 million YEC supply cap and a maximum 700,000 YEC effective allocation for the Ycash Development Fund based on the portion of the original Zcash Founders Reward that remained unvested at the time of the Ycash fork.

Ycash is a native Layer 1 asset and does not require a token contract for its primary YEC currency.

Roadmap

Ycash does not currently publish a dated, milestone-based roadmap on its official website. Current development is reflected through ongoing software releases, wallet updates, developer repositories, and network maintenance.

The latest ycashd v4.5.0 release introduced experimental atomic swap functionality through dedicated RPC commands, security improvements to block validation, and native Apple Silicon build support. The Ycash development ecosystem also includes YWallet, YecWallet, StratumPool, libyec, lightwalletd, and other supporting repositories.

Future development is coordinated through the Ycash Foundation and its open-source contributor community, with ongoing work focused on maintaining the network, wallets, mining infrastructure, privacy functionality, and supporting ecosystem software.