Zcash ZEC

Commentary versus actual token vesting

Zcash launched on 28 October 2016 with a circulating supply of zero — there was no premine and no pre-launch allocation, and every ZEC in existence has been issued through proof-of-work block rewards. Issuance began under a 20,000-block "slow start" period of roughly 34 days, during which the block subsidy ramped linearly from near zero to the full 12.5 ZEC, at an implied rate of 0.000625 ZEC per block of height. The project has not published a day-1 circulating supply figure. The nearest first-party datapoints are ECC's statement that the first ~500 blocks generated only 78 ZEC, and that supply stood at approximately 1,900 ZEC as at 31 October 2016, around three days after launch. Applying the slow-start rate to the first 24 hours gives approximately 104 ZEC at the target 2.5-minute block time, though ECC records that early blocks arrived materially faster than target, which would place the true day-1 figure higher — in the region of 225 to 315 ZEC. On any of these bases, day-1 circulating supply was under 0.002% of the 21 million ZEC monetary base. Zcash has a fixed 21,000,000 ZEC monetary base issued entirely through proof-of-work block rewards, so TGE, cliff and lock-up terminology does not map to its structure. At launch the base split 90% to Miners and 10% to the Founders' Reward, the latter breaking down into four subgroups that reconcile to the full 10%: Investors at 1.65%, Founders, employees and advisors at 5.72%, Strategic reserve at 1.19% and the Zcash Foundation at 1.44% — with second-round investors receiving their portion over the first year, other founders over the first four, and the whole stream terminating at the first halving. Issuance then moved through the Canopy-era development fund streams defined in ZIP 214, with exact block-reward percentages and block-height start and end points. Under the current NU6.1 era, block rewards are split 80% to Miners, 8% to Zcash Community Grants and 12% to the Coinholder-Controlled Fund / lockbox, each with stated activation heights. Every group releases per block for as long as its funding period runs.