Arborist Call #100 | R&D Summary

Core Stack Updates from the ZF, ECC, and Zingo Labs. Research and Implementation updates from QEDIT and Shielded Labs

May 05, 2025

The Zcash Arborist Calls are bi-weekly protocol development meetings focused on tracking upcoming protocol deployment logistics, consensus node implementation issues, and protocol research.

This summary focuses on the last call that took place on 05/01/2025

The ECC team has been hard at work improving Zallet:

Better help documentation.
ZeWIF integration in progress

Zallet is becoming a powerful tool for privacy-focused users.

Behind the scenes, Daira Emma & Str4d are deep in the trenches reviewing QEDIT’s ZSA PRs.

Zcash Shielded Assets are coming — and they’re worth the wait

The future of private DeFi is being built now.

Zaino Dev Update

JSON-RPC server is in PR and almost merged.
Restate service backend lading next week
Milestone 3 nearly done = funding unlocked + full steam ahead.

One of the key Zallet blockers?
Zaino wasn’t building block ranges properly. That’s changing.

After milestone 3 wraps, the team is diving into deep-level fixes to make Zaino fully compatible.

Progress on Zaino = progress for Zallet and beyond. With backend improvements and milestone 3 wrapping up, the focus shifts to crushing bugs, improving compatibility, and powering Zcash’s next-gen tooling.

Marek - Heads-up for Zebra node operators:

Zebra v2.3 is coming soon!

Breaking change: The RPC endpoint will no longer be enabled by default in Docker images. You’ll need to manually enable it in your config.

Also: Lots of bugs fixes.

Pacu shared updates:

With Zcashd Deprecation in motion.
JSON-RPC via Zaino nearly landed.
Work starting on (formerly) Nighhawk Explorer Support for Zaino + Zebra Expect breakages, but it’s GO time.

Heads up Devs: A read-only spreadsheet is live tracking RPCs impacted by zcashd deprecation.

It includes support insights for:

Block explorers.
Mining Pools
Wallets + Exchanges

Check it.

If you’re not on it, reach out!

Zcashd is sunsetting.

RPC are being surveyed across the ecosystem — block explorers, mining pools, wallets.

If your infra depends on RPCs, review the checklit or risk breakage.

It’s not too late, but it’s definitely not early.

Migration Tip: it is possible to move from a fully-synced zcashd to zebrad without re-syncing from stratch.

Str4d has a working prototype tool puling block data directly from zcashd.

Discuss + contribute here → ZF PR #9472.

New in Zallet: OpenRPC support!

This exposes an introspectable JSON-RPC schema, helping devs understand the live interface more easily than digging through code. Perfect for debugging.