The Bitcoin-compatible and the Zen API’s are two approaches that are able to integrate a service or product with Zen. The former, having an API that is almost identical to Bitcoin Core, makes it more convenient for deployments. Maintenance of privacy is not an issue with this approach; the downside of this approach is that services can only send or receive to/from T-address (usability). The latter, on the other hand, can be simpler for most use-cases especially if new integrations are being developed. Also, the services that use this same approach can send to- and receive from- both Z-address and T-address.
Zen then, will/can be used as a service to support both Z-address and multisig. Bitcoin API, however, can service multisig alone if required.
Designation
Features to Support
Level
Description
Transparent Transactions
Transparent Multi-Sig
Private Transactions
Encrypted Memos
1
Bitcoin-compatible
Bitcoin API
Bitcoin API
2
Zen
Bitcoin API / Zen Payment API
Bitcoin API
Zen Payment API
Zen Payment API
BITCOIN API (JSON-RPC)
Backwards compatible with Bitcoin-Core 0.11.2. Minor modifications to JSON output e.g. vjoin.
Recommended for: time to market for existing Bitcoin applications, familiarity with Bitcoin, multi-sig.
Zen Payment API
For sending both transparent and private payments. Extends the existing Bitcoin API with new commands.
Recommended for: new applications which do not need multisig support, private transactions, encrypted memo field.
PRIVATE TRANSACTION PERFORMANCE
On a quad-core benchmark server, generating a private transaction consumes ~2.2 GB of memory and ~30 seconds of compute time. On a 32-core Amazon EC2 server, compute time is around ~15 seconds.
