Breaking Zcash: Blockchain and the Art of Security Theater

The cameras were rolling as Bitcoin Core developer Peter Todd set fire to the computer he’d just used to help bring Zcash to life.
Wearing a gas mask he’d purchased at a local shop near Valemount, British Columbia, he burned the components with a propane torch until they turned almost completely black. His intention was to prevent anyone from ever recovering their contents.
Todd then bagged up the torched components, and drove in a rented car from the sparsely populated setting of the ceremony to the small town of Kamloops, better known for its pulp mill than for being one of the birthplaces of a new cryptocurrency.
The burn ceremony was the final step of a weeks-long process to be described in detail in an upcoming post on Todd’s blog. (Todd was just one of six people around the world conducting their own unique version of the ceremony).

This post was published at Coin Desk on November 14, 2016.