Zcash Shielded News | Vol.39

NYM now accepts shielded ZEC Payments, Binance Removes ZEC Monitoring Tag, ZCG Meeting Minutes 7/7/25, Zebra 2.4.0 Release - ZF, Z | ECC Summit, Zcash Z3 Updates | July 11 & more

ZecHub

Jul 16, 2025

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!

A few months after the launch of NymVPN and some behind-the-scenes development and coordination, you can now finally purchase the VPN using ZEC.

1337bytes launched a grant worth $21,000 to create an application that would help fix, update, and document the BTCPay plugin for Zcash Sapling (a major milestone). NYM also collaborated with BTCPay developers (Nicolas Dorier) and community contributors, including 1337bytes and Hahn, the creator of Ywallet. Once the plugin was completed, the NYM team began testing and successfully finalized the integration.

How does it works?

This is the first real-world use of Shielded ZEC via BTCPayServer, enabling fully private crypto payments. Shielded ZEC payments use Sapling addresses and Sapling viewing keys, so NymVPN can only detect that a valid payment arrived, without publically revealing who sent it, or how much was transferred.

Access nym.com/vpn and click NYM VPN
Select your desired plan
Write down your seed phrases (this will be your login).
Select ‘Pay with BTCPayServer’
Open your wallet’s QR code and scan the link

Once that’s done, download the application (if you haven't done it yet), log in with your seed phrases, and your VPN will be ready to use.

Why is this important?

NymVPN runs on Nym’s Mixnet, a decentralized infrastructure made up of independent nodes that route your traffic through multiple layers of encryption. These nodes are operated by people around the world, not controlled by any central authority.

You can purchase NymVPN using Shielded ZEC, ensuring your privacy remains fully protected even during the payment process. In short, you’re getting decentralization, true privacy, and a constantly evolving product — all crucial elements for the kind of future we’re building.

If you have any questions about usability, feel free to send us a message or contact the NYM team, they’ll be available to help you.

After a long battle over the potential delisting of ZEC from Binance, including the creation of TEX addresses and other key developments, Binance has finally removed the monitoring tag from Zcash on the exchange.

This move shows that Binance now sees Zcash as a healthy project, with solid trading volume, strong security, and an active community.

Privacy coins are often treated unfairly by exchanges due to regulatory pressure, but Binance’s decision proves that projects like Zcash can exist alongside compliance. It also sets a good example for other platforms to follow.

In short, removing the monitoring tag is a public sign of trust in Zcash. It confirms the project’s legitimacy, and helps pave the way for wider adoption and integration in regulated environments.

Zoom-out: Even with this win, ZEC adoption can’t slow down. We recently integrated with Maya Protocol and are actively looking for new exchanges and ways to expand ZEC’s use. If you have a project we should focus on, let us know!

Attendance:

Artkor
DecentralistDan
GGuy
Jason
Zerodartz
Alex (FPF Resource, Notetaker)

Centi & ZSAs ❓

Centi wants $350K to integrate Zcash and a CHF-backed stablecoin into its regulated payment platform, used by 25K+ users and 500+ merchants in Europe and Africa. The project aims to bring private, compliant crypto payments to the real world. Waiting on additional feedback before voting.

Privacy Executive Roundtable Roundable ❓

Iron Fish Foundation is asking for $51K to run a 6-month virtual roundtable series with top fintech and crypto leaders to promote adoption of Zcash Shielded Assets like private USDC. The program includes live demos, expert talks, public updates, and funds up to 5 PoC integrations. ZCG will request more info before voting.

Myaza: Spend Crypto Across Africa ❌

zealcodes requested $101K to integrate Zcash into a multi-currency wallet with features like virtual cards, bill pay, and fiat swaps, targeting 100K users in Nigeria, Kenya, and Ghana. ZCG unanimously rejected the proposal, saying it’s not aligned with current priorities. Rejected.

QEDIT: Legal & Compliance Risks ❓

QEDIT is asking for $95K to hire legal experts to ensure Zcash Shielded Assets (ZSAs) meet regulatory standards. Funds will cover legal review of their technical plans and help guide compliance. ZCG is requesting more details before voting.

Multifactor: MFKDF2 ❓

The proposer is requesting $39K to develop MFKDF2, an open-source tool that adds multi-factor authentication (like TOTP and YubiKeys) to crypto key generation. It aims to improve wallet security and usability, enabling non-custodial wallets that feel like custodial ones. Too early to vote.

Shielded Integration for Cross-Chain Non-Custodial ❓

This $48K proposal aims to integrate Zcash into SolanaBlender and StealthXMR, enabling private, non-custodial ZEC ⇄ SOL and ZEC ⇄ XMR swaps. The goal is to boost ZEC’s privacy and utility in cross-chain DeFi. ZCG says it’s too early to vote.

🔗 Full Notes

This Zebra release includes a major database upgrade that can’t be undone so backing up your old data (v26/) is recommended. The upgrade may take hours on smaller machines, during which Zebra stays online but some RPC data might be incomplete.

It also removes old tools (zebra-scan, zebra-grpc), fixes a bug in Regtest coinbase rules, and corrects a field used in RPCs (cm_u), which may require app updates.

New features include support for TEX address validation, shielded mining setup, mempool updates via gRPC, and richer RPC data (like pool balances). The update also improves performance, adds new RPC methods, and moves to IPv6 by default.

🔗 Zebra 2.4.0 Release - Zcash Foundation

Undoubtedly the ECC Summit event was one of the best community experience of this year that took place of 7-10 July, in Prague, Czech Republic.

This event brought together key players from the Zcash ecosystem under the Chatam House Rule to enable open dialogue. Josh opened the event with a call to action: Live in Truth, Build the Parallel Polis, and Ship What Matters, Fast inspired by Czech resistante to authoritarianism.

The message centered on accelerating progress, aligning efforts, and building unstoppable private money, also emphasizing growing unity within the Zcash ecosystem and previewed upcoming roadmap updates and changes to the Network Upgrade process (NU6.1, NU7 & NU8).

We had the chance to speak with community members and organizations, as well as record interviews with attendees during the breaks (which will be published soon). We also gained new insights into the progress of Project Tachyon, the Z3 stack + deprecation of Zcashd, the results of the Zashi community surveys, a hands on workshop around Zashi’s new features, and more!

We learned a lot from some of the brightest crypto minds in the space, which also left us wanting more for the next event.

There’s strong alignment among the team members to build a better future.

Stay tuned for more updates!

🔗 Read the full update here.

After the Z|ECC Summit in Prague, where teams aligned on a roadmap to retire zcashd, ECC is set to publish an official timeline soon. Outreach efforts are being reworked to boost engagement around Zallet’s Alpha launch, with a new strategy rolling out next week.

The Zebra team made key technical progress, including new RPC support and Prometheus integration for better monitoring. ZingoLabs is finalizing its chain state service and planning to request more funding to stay on track. Zallet is preparing for a closed Alpha, aiming to modernize Zcash’s infrastructure while easing migration.

Testers and developers are invited to get involved. Zallet is ready for hands-on contributions. Work on Zcash Explorer support is ongoing, with a testnet version live and improvements in progress.

🔗 Read more

Other Highlights

PGP for Crypto returns September 17th - Paul Brigner
PGP* is taking a summer break in July and August. The PGP team will return on September 17, with the DC Privacy Summit following on October 16. Early registration is recommended: https://lu.ma/pgpforcrypto
Zcash & Citrea | Learning about ZK Rollups & ZK
We sat down with the Citrea team to explore the usability of ZK Rollups on Citrea and ZK Proofs on Zcash.
Representing our side was Nate Wilcox from Shielded Labs and Zcash, and from Citrea, core developer Talip joined the discussion.
It was an insightful conversation - if you’re curious about scalability and related topics, we highly recommend giving it a listen.

Events happening this week: