Alyssa Hertig (@AlyssaHertig) | Published on January 29, 2017 at 17:15 GMT

The blockchain world can feel unfriendly and uncollaborative at times, with supporters of competing technologies often criticizing each other professionally (and personally).

But, it isn't all competition. Progress on incorporating Zcash's anonymity into ethereum serves as a reminder that there's more going on than just Twitter and Reddit in-fighting, and further, that there's an ongoing, fragmented effort to make major blockchain networks more compatible.

So far, the two blockchain networks have at least three publicly-known, semi-official projects. (Some smaller examples are that ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin is an advisor to Zcash, and that Zcash creator Zooko Wilcox went so far as to put a heart in the title of his Devcon presentation).

Zcash CTO Nathan Wilcox described the projects as the inevitable result of an organic interaction between developers in the cryptocurrency space.

He explained that, in his view, many cryptocurrencies offer unique value.

"These systems can adapt and adopt improvements from the others, but there are always going to be trade-offs that distinguish them," he said, using bitcoin, ethereum and Zcash as examples.

On a sociological level, the sentiment bucks the trend toward blockchain "maximalism", or the idea that the technology is a winner-take-all competition.

Wilcox said he believes that it's better for everyone if it's easy Go here to get complete article