Bitcoin is known to be a good coin but with a greater deficiency, that is you can not carry out any transactions in privacy but using the same code like bitcoin Zcash provide solution to this deficiency that is why Zcash is known for its privacy and anonymity. Zcash was developed by Zook and on the Roadmap of Zcash coin it emphasize its operability and scalability.
There is a greater inter relationship between Zcash and Zec coin, while Zcash is the platform the coin for the platform is Zec.
Although blockchain is generally believed to be transparent and opened but when it comes to making financial datas available publicly it can be so controversial, that is why in Zcash ecosystem there is zero knowledge proof where by be you institutions or individuals can read and understand the information that Zcash is sending but will not be able to see the private datas.
Zcash is being traded on major exchanges like Gemini, Binance Huobi etc. When it comes to mining it uses pow and can be mine with cpu or gpu but it is better if it is mine with high performance graphics card like Nvidia.