Cryptocurrency Privacy: Evolving... Zerocash (ZEC, ZCL, ZEN) vs All Other Coin

[jamesd at echeque.com (James A. Donald)]

On 05/10/2017 20:30, George Violaris wrote:
> In short my question is, how does zero knowledge proof compare to ring 
> signatures employed i.e. by Monero?

A proof is created that previous transactions equivalent in value were 
marked as consumed, without revealing which ones.

Generating this proof is inconveniently slow, and the data that has to 
be stored is inconveniently on the fat side, but verifying it is 
reasonably fast.

I don't have accurate information as to the costs of doing it this way, 
but they seem to be non trivial.  Proof generation is particularly 
expensive, but this cost is carried only by the parties directly 
benefiting, not by the entire blockchain, thus is incentive compatible.