Zcash Shielded News | Vol.36
Quick Survey, Big Impact!, Zebra is 6 years old, ZCG Election - Candidate Call, ''Trading Paint'' - ECC Update & More.
Zcash Shielded News is a community article format based on the weekly Zcash Ecosystem Digest Newsletter.
Providing insight on current events and informing the community about important news in the Zcash ecosystem.
Check out the best Highlights below
The Zashi team has been working hard to make Zashi simple, friendly, and easy to use. Since its launch, the app has seen steady improvements and updates aimed at creating a better experience for everyone.
Now, the team is looking ahead and they’d love to hear from the community. 💬
To help guide the development of future features, they’re collecting feedback on how people use Zashi and how it can be improved.
If you have thoughts on Zashi, how you use ZEC, or features you’d like to see in the app, take a few minutes to fill out the survey:
→ https://form.jotform.com/Electriccoin/zashi-survey-whats-next
It won’t take long and your input will help shape what’s next!
If you missed recent updates, with Zashi you can:
Buy ZEC in-app with Coinbase — US users can pay with a debit card, no Coinbase account needed.
Spend shielded ZEC at thousands of merchants via Flexa integration.
Securely store shielded ZEC with the open-source Keystone wallet.
Onboard crypto newcomers with Zashi — secure and simple for first-timers.
Send encrypted messages through shielded ZEC transactions using the memo field.
Tell us about your experience using Zashi. 🙂
Time flies! 🚀
Last Tuesday (the 17th), the Zcash Foundation celebrated Zebra, the full node implementation that’s been evolving since its creation in 2019.
Everyone knows that zcashd is the original Zcash node, written in C++. And while C++ played a vital role in both Bitcoin and Zcash’s origins, the Zcash Foundation had a bold idea:
What if we built a full node in Rust?
That’s how Zebra was born — and it brought several key advantages to the Zcash ecosystem compared to zcashd, including:
Memory Safety
Modern Language Features
Concurrency and Asynchronous Design
Clean, Modular Architecture
Improved Developer Experience & Tooling
Security and Auditability
Long-Term Maintainability & more.
In short, Zebrad strengthens Zcash by providing a secure, modern, and modular full node implementation. It increases network resilience, improves developer efficiency, and paves the way for future innovation, such as compatibility with Zcash Shielded Assets (ZSAs) and faster synchronization — compared to zcashd —making it easier for new node operators to join the network around the world.
Curious about the future of zcashd and the upcoming Zcash Z3 initiative?
Check out the weekly updates by Pacu on the Zcash Community Forum.
Thinking about running a Zebra full node?
If you do, you’re truly a Zcasher 💛
👉 Check this link and follow the instructions.
You’ll find both a CLI version and the Windows Launcher (download → sync → done.)
If you need anything, the community is ready to help you → discord.gg/zcash
🎉 Happy Birthday, Zebrad! 🎉
2 weeks ago, we published the background information of the candidates for ZCG.
Last Wednesday, FPF posted the recording of the call on their channel, where they answered questions from the community.
Introduction
Which projects were funded that should not have been and which deserving projects were left unfunded?
How do you use Zcash?
What innovations do you think Zcash should prioritize?
Do you support a shielded only future for Zcash?
what other projects are you following or interested in?
Each candidate gave a different response with unique points. If you’re interested, we’ve put together 5 clips with all the individual answers in this thread.
🕗 The poll will close on June 30th, at 20:00 UTC.
📩 ZCAP members should check their mailbox for instructions on how to vote. In the past, Helios emails have sometimes been flagged as spam, so if you can’t find the instructions please check your Spam folder.
This week, Josh shared major progress on Zashi, including a new swap feature using NEAR Intents that lets users easily swap shielded ZEC to SOL. It’s fast, intuitive, and feels like “magic.”
He also previewed a new “Pay” feature, allowing users to send an exact amount with fees and slippage handled automatically, launching by end of July.
Coming soon: Maya DEX integration, giving Zashi users more swap options, and potential support for stablecoins ahead of Zcash Shielded Assets (ZSAs).
Josh also highlighted the upcoming Z|ECC Summit (week of July 8), where 10 Zcash-aligned orgs — including NEAR — will plan Zcash’s next 18 months. (We will be there)
Zcash is entering a new era: better UX, wider access, and stronger collaboration.
Read more → Trading Paint: Update on Zcash
Zashi
Progress Made ✔️
Released Zashi 2.0.4 – bug fixes and minor improvements
Swap & Pay with NEAR – in development for Android & iOS
✅ First working iOS version shipped for internal testing 🚀
Upcoming ⏭️
Continued Swap & Pay with NEAR development + bug fixes
Ongoing Android SDK migration (deadline end of month)
Started implementing Tor opt-in/opt-out feature
🍎 │ IOS Analytics:
📈Unique Installs: 8.45k (prev. 8.34k)
⬇️Total Downloads: 10.2k (prev. 10k)
⭐AppStore Rating: 4.9*
🤖 │ Android Analytics:
📈Total Install Base: 3.78k(prev. 3.85k)
⬇️Total Installs (incl. Open Beta): 19.5k (prev.19.5k)
⭐PlayStore Rating: 4.383* (prev. 4.373)
🦓 | Zcash Core
Progress made ✔️
Started P2SH support work for NU6.1 lockbox distributions
Designed and began a feature deprecation framework for Zallet, including config prep for an upcoming alpha release
Collaborated with Zingo engineers on improving Zaino API design for Zallet
Improved chain tip handling in Zallet
Released zcash_client_sqlite 0.16.3 & 0.17.1 to fix a bug with transparent coinbase outputs
Discovered and fixed a bug in zcashd RPC related to Orchard handling during Zallet testing
Merged multiple outstanding pull requests across the ECC stack
Continued development of full-block scanning in zcash_client_backend
Upcoming ⏭️
Complete the integration of zcashd wallet.dat import into zallet.
Add transparent output information to z_listunspent in zallet
Zallet alpha release!
🌐 | Other
Josh held the monthly PGP for Crypto briefing & attended Reserve Protocol’s Monetarium 2 conference.
ECC finalized the Z|ECC Summit agenda and session leads.
Community sessions will run Tuesday and Wednesday, with ECC team planning on Monday and Thursday.
The format includes open time for informal conversations. Content and outcomes will be shared after the summit.
Other Highlights:
Events happening this week: