Miners process transactions and receive fees from users (supply-side fees).

Zcash is a distributed ledger for transfer and store of value (a blockchain). Zcash was founded by Matthew Green, Ian Miers, Christina Garman and launched in 2016.

ZEC holders own and govern the protocol. They currently do not take a cut of the total transaction fees paid by users (revenue). Zcash’s investors include Fenbushi Capital, Pantera Capital, Digital Currency Group, etc.

governance

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Blockchains (L1)

Zcash

# Zcash Maximum token supply Methodology

## 1. Overview

The Zcash maximum token supply metric represents the theoretical maximum number of ZEC tokens that can ever be created according to the Zcash protocol specification. This is a static value of 21,000,000 ZEC that is hardcoded in the protocol design, similar to Bitcoin's maximum supply limit. The metric provides a fundamental economic parameter used to calculate supply-based ratios and understand the token's scarcity model.

## 2. Data sources

This metric relies on protocol-level economic parameters rather than dynamic blockchain data:

- **Zcash protocol specification**: The maximum supply limit of 21,000,000 ZEC is defined in the core protocol design
- **Network launch information**: The Zcash mainnet launch date of October 28, 2016, establishing when this maximum supply became relevant
- **Token Terminal configuration**: Internal configuration parameters for metric standardization and metadata

## 3. Step-by-step calculation

### Component A: Protocol parameter definition
- **Purpose**: Define the hardcoded maximum supply value from the Zcash protocol specification
- **Logic**: The maximum supply is set as a constant value of 21,000,000 ZEC tokens, which represents the absolute ceiling of tokens that can ever exist according to the protocol's monetary policy. This value is paired with the network launch timestamp of October 28, 2016, at 00:00:00 UTC
- **Key fields**: The `token_supply_maximum` field contains the static value, `timestamp` marks the protocol launch date, and `timestamp_grain` indicates daily granularity

### Component B: Metric standardization
- **Purpose**: Apply Token Terminal's standard metric formatting and metadata structure
- **Logic**: The `finalize_metric_token_supply_maximum` macro processes the basic supply data to add standardized metadata fields, project identification as 'zcash', and implements proper time series handling. The fill-forward strategy ensures this constant value is available for all time periods from the launch date onward
- **Key fields**: The macro adds project identifiers, metric type classifications, and time series metadata while preserving the core `token_supply_maximum` value

### Final aggregation
- **Combining components**: No aggregation is needed since this is a single static value defined by the protocol
- **Currency conversion**: Not applicable as this represents token count, not monetary value
- **Time aggregation**: The fill-forward strategy propagates this single value across all daily time periods from the launch date onward
- **Final calculation**: The final metric value is simply the protocol-defined constant of 21,000,000 ZEC tokens, formatted with appropriate metadata and time series structure

*This methodology was automatically generated by Token Terminal's methodology analyzer.*

Maximum number of tokens that can exist under the current token economics.

ZcashZEC

Maximum token supply

Maximum token supply

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