New privacy blockchain Namada proposes first-ever shielded airdrop to Zcash

Namada, a new proof-of-stake L1 blockchain that offers interchain asset-agnostic privacy, has proposed a strategic alliance with privacy-focused blockchain Zcash. The price of the native token ZEC rose more than 7% to trade around $42 following the Zcash news.

As part of the collaboration, Namada will airdrop its native coin NAM to Zcash holders. Other key aspects of the proposal include a grants pool and a bridge between Namada and Zcash, Christopher Goes, a member of the Anoma Foundation said.

Zooko Wilcox, the CEO of Electronic Coin Company (ECC) that created Zcash, noted via a statement on Twitter that Anoma’s proposal does not just offer to connect Ethereum and Cosmos to Zcash. It also seeks to significantly “contribute to the sustainability of the Zcash project.”

Namada eyes airdrop for ZEC holders

The proposal submitted to the Zcash community on Wednesday indicates that Anoma wants to “give kudos” to Zcash holders. Explaining the strategic alliance and airdrop, Goes, a former developer of Zcash, noted:

“Namada couldn’t have come into existence without the technical contributions and socio-economic programme of the Zcash community, and we would like to give material thanks back to the Zcash community in addition to verbal credit.”

Existing ZEC holders are encouraged to give feedback on the proposal, which Goes says is viewed as a “bit of retroactive public goods funding directly to folks who have financially supported Zcash development in the past by holding & using the asset.”

Notably, NAM is set to be the first-ever airdrop directly offered to shielded ZEC holders, a group of Zcash users who elect to have transactions remain private. In this airdrop, such users will have the opportunity to claim their NAM anonymously.

While a snapshot date for the airdrop will be announced soon, Goes said Zcashers should not worry about it as they are not required to do anything in advance. However, ZEC holders in the transparent transactions category might want to shift to shielded ZEC as this group will receive “slightly more” zcash than their transparent counterparts.

What is Namada?

Namada is an upcoming PoS layer-1 blockchain being developed by Anoma, an ecosystem by Switzerland-based non-profit The Anoma Foundation. It is a privacy-focused blockchain that features multi-chain support for shielded transfers across any interoperable cryptocurrency.

As such, the chain is designed to interoperate with any fast-finality chain via interoperability protocol IBC (Inter Blockchain Communication.) The NAM network also interoperates with Ethereum, with this possible through a trustless two-way bridge.

Initially, the privacy-platform will support any assets within the Ethereum and Cosmos ecosystems.

One of the major benefits of bridging Zcash and Namada will be the access to a “proof-of-stake as-a-service” capability (Zcash is a proof-of-work blockchain).

With this, ZEC holders can use their coins for private payments on Namada – being able to send and pay fees in ZEC in a PoS ecosystem without having to acquire other assets. In this way, Zcash users will tap into the value that comes with the fast-finality Byzantine fault tolerance (BFT) consensus system. Users will also have access to possible shielded set rewards.

According to The Anoma Foundation, the Namada genesis block is planned for Spring 2023.