ZCASH is the first open, permissionless cryptocurrency that can fully protect the privacy of transactions using zero-knowledge cryptography.The Zerocoin Electric Coin Company (ZECC) aims to set a new standard for privacy through the use of groundbreaking cryptography.
In an open and programmable financial system, privacy is the only way to ensure fungibility and guarantee that cryptocurrency can be interchangeable as a fluid medium of exchange for users. Companies need the protection of privacy along their supply chain in order to conduct their business, especially in the context of public blockchains. In addition, we believe that personal privacy is necessary for core human values like dignity, intimacy, and morality.
ETHEREUM is a decentralized platform that runs smart contracts: applications that run exactly as programmed without any possibility of downtime, censorship, fraud or third party interference.
These apps run on a custom built blockchain, an enormously powerful shared global infrastructure that can move value around and represent the ownership of property. This enables developers to create markets, store registries of debts or promises, move funds in accordance with instructions given long in the past (like a will or a futures contract) and many other things that have not been invented yet, all without a middle man or counterparty risk.
The project was bootstrapped via an ether pre-sale during August 2014 by fans all around the world. It is developed by the Ethereum Foundation, a Swiss nonprofit, with contributions from great minds across the globe.
I think nowadays altcoin mining become faded. Since mining is not a good solution for scaling up the altcoin. The altcoin is going to change from POW to POs. And there are more and more ICO with fixed amount of tokens. So the future of mining is not so optimistic...