Zcash
Zcash is considered the very first completely anonymous coin. Its development began in 2014, but the project saw the light only in 2016. The popularity came to the ecosystem immediately for the reason that when making payments, you can hide absolutely all information about yourself and the transfer. The user decides whether he wants to make his operation public or keep all information hidden. Plus, the system does not store data about user keys anywhere and takes care of their data security. Together, these options are the main differences between ZEC and other cryptocurrencies.
Coins are mined based on Equihash using the Proof-Of-Work algorithm: the same one that is used to get bitcoins. The similarity is not accidental because the platform operates on the same basic code that was created by the founder of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto.
However, power consumption in the case of Zetcash is many times less. Special computing programs solve complex mathematical problems, forming new digital coins. The more memory available, the better the performance of the installation.
Another difference is the absence of the "book" principle, which would store all the information about data transmission chains.
Transactions are also processed faster, in 15 minutes or less, and three confirmation steps are required to complete the transaction.