eCash (XEC) has emerged as a promising contender in the realm of digital currencies, boasting a unique approach that aims to revolutionize transactions in the digital space. Developed on the principles of decentralization and liberty, eCash presents itself as a formidable player in the cryptocurrency landscape and is on a mission to provide a viable alternative to the looming Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC). This review delves into eCash’s features, potential, and the one drawback we could find.
What Is eCash (XEC)?
eCash is a layer-1 proof-of-work (PoW) blockchain, with a cryptocurrency (XEC) poised to be a feasible electronic cash network to pay for goods and services in everyday situations. eCash resulted from a fork of Bitcoin Cash (BCH), itself a fork of Bitcoin (BTC). The eCash Team, known as Bitcoin ABC, were the founders and lead maintainers of the BCH network, until they forked away, receiving the interim name of  Bitcoin Cash ABC (BCHA) before they rebranded to eCash on July 1, 2021. Upon rebranding, eCash denominated all BCHA coins to XEC at a ratio of one to one million. This means if you held 1 BCHA before the rebrand, you would now hold 1,000,000 XEC in your wallet. This change is purely cosmetic, with the comma moving from 8 decimals down to 2 decimals. No new coins were issued in this process.
eCash offers fast and efficient transactions with low fees compared to traditional banking systems and other cryptocurrencies. The development team focuses on three main improvements to achieve its goal of being an effective P2P cash system:
- Scaling transaction throughput from 100 transactions per second (TPS) to 5,000,000 TPS.
- Reducing transaction finality time to near-instant confirmation times.
- Extending the protocol and establishing fork-free upgrades.
The development team leverages cutting-edge technology to make eCash the most secure, scalable, and agile network in the crypto space. Some of the upgrades the eCash team is working on are discussed below.
Avalanche Integration
eCash combines Bitcoin’s PoW consensus with Avalanche, a revolutionary proof-of-stake (PoS) protocol that enables instant transactions, enhanced security, and fork-free upgrades. The integration of Avalanche, not to be mistaken for the blockchain Avalanche (AVAX), is at the heart of eCash’s scaling efforts and will enable nodes to communicate in real-time and settle transactions within two seconds (Pre-Consensus). It will also make the network more agile and future-proof in many ways, for example, allowing for subnets - eCash’s version of what people refer to as sidechains – to be created on top of eCash by anyone, allowing for innovative features to be tried and tested in a fast-moving, permissionless approach, without bloating the base layer. Two subnets are already in planning by the eCash team itself: an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and a Zero-Knowledge subnet (ZK). An EVM-subnet would bring more powerful smart contracts to eCash and also make it interoperable with other smart chains, giving users the ability to bridge assets onto eCash to benefit from its low fees. A ZK-subnet would give users optional privacy at the same level as top privacy coins.
Chronik Indexer
The Chronik project integrates an indexer directly into the node software, resulting in more straightforward logic that reduces workload. As a standalone version, the indexer can be used by many other Bitcoin-like networks (UTXO-chains), such as BTC, LTC, DOGE, and others. This tool provides an overall more efficient and robust service for any network that uses it as a standalone version but works even better integrated right into the eCash node, making eCash its first-class citizen. Chronik empowers developers and services building on top of eCash. With Chronik live today, they can just run their Bitcoin ABC node and activate the needed indexing functions and not worry about any separate toolings.
Aliases
The Cashtab.com app development team is beta testing the upcoming Aliases feature, allowing users to bind user handlers in the ‘userhandle.xec’ format to their eCash addresses. As a user, you will be able to buy and sell these user handels, similar to Ethereum’s namespaces (ENS).
Staking Rewards
eCash is the only Bitcoin implementation offering staking rewards. Stakers participate in the Avalanche consensus system, enabling eCash to be a fast and secure electronic cash system. eCash Avalanche participants must run dedicated high-availability nodes to provide good service quality. In exchange for providing this valuable service to the network, eCash stakers can earn rewards. By running a high-quality Bitcoin ABC node and a valid stake proof, users can receive about 14% annual percentage yield (APY) while retaining complete control of their coins. Of course, the APY value might vary depending on how many XEC coins are staked. Please click here for more information on staking. requirements.
Benefits of eCash (XEC)
eCash users enjoy a trustless network since it borrows several aspects from Bitcoin. However, many more benefits like higher security, speed, and extensibility are unlocked due to eCash’s technological innovations, which aim to reduce several long standing problems with Bitcoin. We can summarize the key benefits as follows:
- Streamlined Upgrades: eCash’s Avalanche integration eliminates the need for hard-fork upgrades. Instead, future network upgrades will be commenced in a more elegant approach.
- Privacy: eCash’s non-custodial functionalities and low-fee environment allows for a viable use of coin-mixing tools. Serving a larger user base, the anonymity set will also increase, further enhancing privacy aspects. A Zero-Knowledge subnet allows for bulletproof opt-in privacy, while keeping the main chain transparent, remaining compliant despite stricter regulations.
- Low fees: Compared to other digital cash systems, eCash offers significantly reduced fees. And they are guaranteed to be low forever, even with a significantly higher exchange rate of the coin.
- Near-instant confirmation times: eCash transactions from wallet to wallet are already instant, but its transaction finality within three seconds leveraging the Avalanche protocol means no more waiting for exchange deposits as well.
- Scalability: The eCash network will use mass parallelization and a multi-layered structure, allowing the network to expand from 100 TPS to 5,000,000 TPS capacity without compromising functionality.
- Staking: Users can earn rewards by running a node with staked XEC tokens, helping to protect the network while assuring a low-risk income stream.
- Subnets: The network will be more welcoming to innovation overall, allowing developers to run subnets on top of eCash with changed rules and new features, gaining the ability to try out new things without having to tinker on the main protocol. Two subnets planned by the eCash team are an Ethereum virtual machine (EVM) and a Zero-Knowledge (ZK) subnet.
eCash (XEC) as an Investment
XEC is the primary cryptocurrency of the eCash network. This advanced crypto asset can effectively be used for remittances worldwide and for payments both online and offline. It is also used to pay for smart contract execution and network fees. Staking nodes get rewards in XEC for their contribution to securing the network. Several crypto exchanges, including LetsExchange.io, list XEC for trading.
Where to Store XEC
eCash is compatible with several major wallets. To store and manage your XEC holding, you can use one of the following official eCash wallets:
- Cashtab (web),
- Electrum ABC (desktop),
- RaiPay (mobile),
- ViaWallet (mobile),
- AbcPay (mobile),
- Arctic Wallet (mobile/desktop),
- Unstoppable Wallet (mobile),
- Stack (mobile),
- Satochip (hardware),
- D’CENT (hardware),
- Ballet (hardware).
As there are quite a few phishing scams out in the wild, we recommend always verifying if apps and services are listed on e.cash/wallets and scorecard.cash before using them.
eCash (XEC) Overview
As of March 5, 2024, XEC was the 75th most valuable cryptocurrency by market capitalization, according to CoinMarketCap. The table below summarizes other relevant data for this date.
According to CoinMarketCap, XEC hit the trading market in July 2021 at $0.000025. This cryptocurrency performed well after its launch, reaching its all-time high of $0.00059 on November 10. After such an impressive hike, the XEC price steadily dropped, closing 2021 at about $0.0001. As with many other cryptocurrencies, the bear market of 2022 affected XEC. By the middle of 2022, XEC traded at about $0.0003, ending that year at a little over $0.00002.
In 2023, there were few price moves. However, by the end of last year, XEC had almost doubled its price, trading at approximately $0.00004. This year, XEC has shown signs of recovery. This cryptocurrency has doubled its price in the last month. As of March 5, 2024, XEC traded at $0.000064. Is this the beginning of a new bullish trend for XEC? Let us take a look at a few price predictions.
eCash (XEC) Price Prediction
According to PricePrediction, XEC will trade at a maximum of $0.0001 this year. DigitalCoinPrice is slightly more optimistic, predicting a maximum XEC price in 2024 of $0.00014, a +119% growth compared to the current trading price of $0.000064. DigitalCoinPrice indicates that the XEC price will continue to expand in the following years, reaching a maximum of $0.00016 in 2025 and $0.00023 in 2026. Hence, investing in XEC at the current trading price could yield +150% and +259% returns in 2025 and 2026, respectively.
In the long run, XEC has excellent perspectives. PricePrediction expects XEC to trade at a maximum of $0.001 in 2030 and $0.0015 in 2031. Therefore, an XEC investment at the current $0.000064 could grow by +1,462% and +2,244% in 2030 and 2031, respectively.
Our Verdict
After surveying all the technical features of eCash, we have no doubt it will succeed in being adopted as a digital cash system for everyday transactions. The near-instant confirmation times this network can achieve and its impressive scalability make eCash suitable for retail payments. Drawbacks? In terms of developments and technology, we did not find anything that we can consider a drawback. However, eCash is still lacking a fully matured ecosystem, since it forked away from the one it had on BCH. The project will have to prove itself on the adoption front, but its fundamentals and trajectory make us think this will be only a matter of time.
Regarding XEC as an investment, this coin might be a profitable long-term investment. XEC may reach a new all-time high price in a few years. Moreover, you can stake your XEC holding to have an income stream. Hence, there are good reasons to consider adding this cryptocurrency to your investment portfolio.
Disclaimer
Please keep in mind that the above information is based exclusively on our observations and is provided for informational purposes only. It doesn’t constitute any kind of financial advice nor represents an official forecast. Cryptocurrency is a highly volatile asset; you invest in it at your own risk.