Zcash Shielded News | Vol.57
Shielded Labs - Phillip is joining as an engineer, New developer joins Project Tachyon, Z | ECC Summit - Applications Open, ECC Updates & 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!
Fact of the Week💡
A record 25% of circulating ZEC is now held in shielded addresses, signalling that privacy isn’t just a feature, it’s increasingly a default mode of use.
📩 IN TODAY’S EDITION
🛡️ Shielded Labs - Phillip is joining team as engineer
• Phillip, previously contributing to Tenderlink, is now joining Shielded Labs to support wallet development and staking interface work.
👨💻 New developer joins Tachyon
• c-node, ex-Celestia engineer, is now part of the Tachyon team, bringing expertise in proof systems and circuits to help scale private Zcash transactions.
👥 Z | ECC Summit - Applications Open
• The next Z|ECC Summit takes place Jan 12–15 in California, with community days on Jan 13–14. Space is limited and applications are now open.
👥 Zcash Community Grants Meeting Minutes 11/10/25
• The latest ZCG meeting covered approvals for Zcash Nigeria, discussions on ZSA-related proposals, and evaluations of new ecosystem grant requests.
🌐 The Room | ECC Updates
• ECC highlights ecosystem progress, including Zashi improvements, cross-team coordination, and growing developer interest in privacy-focused infrastructure.
🦓 Arborist Call - Quick Update About The Zcash Protocol
• Zebra 3.0.0 release, ZSA testnet advances with full issuance flows, and Crosslink continues toward a Q1 staking prototype & more. 
Last week, Phillip jumped in to help implement Tenderlink, Shielded Labs’ lightweight Rust-based version of the Tendermint consensus protocol. His work alongside Sam and Andrew improved stability, reduced network overhead, resolved block re-sync issues, and helped the team move away from upstream dependencies.
Before joining Shielded Labs, Phillip was a networking engineer at All Out Games, leading network programming for their online social platform. He also collaborated on WhiteBox, a live timeline debugger, where he contributed major UI, performance, and infrastructure improvements.
With Phillip onboard, Shielded Labs now has eight full-time contributors 🎉, plus Spectre supporting operations part-time. The team continues to build momentum across all core projects and is excited for what lies ahead.
Welcome aboard, Phillip. We (ZecHub) and the community are happy to have you with us on this mission.
Project Tachyon is one of the most anticipated protocol upgrades coming to Zcash in the near future. Currently led by Sean Bowe, Tachyon has drawn increasing attention across the broader crypto community and continues to grow in momentum.
To further accelerate development, c-node (@colludingnode) announced last week that he is joining the Tachyon team, bringing his expertise in proof systems and circuits to help advance the mission of delivering “unstoppable private money at planetary scale.” Prior to this, he spent over three years at Celestia as a Merkle tree botanist & 2D square gardener.
Why is this important?
Tachyon provides a path to massive Zcash scalability while preserving strong privacy.
c-node’s arrival strengthens the engineering team and boosts development capacity.
Welcome to Zcash, c-node. We’re excited for what’s ahead! :)
ECC is at full steam! Just a few months after the Prague edition, the next Z|ECC Summit is already on the way.
If you don't know, the Z|ECC Summit brings together Zcash community contributors and ECC team members for workshops and sessions focused on roadmap planning, protocol development, and expanding Zcash adoption.
The next edition will take place January 12–15 in California, with community participation welcomed on January 13 and 14. There is no cost to attend, though attendees are responsible for their own travel and accommodation.
Space is very limited and reserved for active community members and partners. Those interested in participating are encouraged to submit an application, and if you’re not fully up to date on what’s happening in the ecosystem, we recommend doing your own research, as the discussions are quite technical and important.
ECC has already received more than double the number of applications for the available spots. If you’re thinking about attending, submit your application by tomorrow (Friday).
In this video, Josh (ECC’s CEO) shares more details about the Z | ECC Summit. ☝️
Onward!
Participants 👥
Alex (FPF, notetaker)
Open Grants 🔓
🔹 Zcash React Native | $79,200
Goal: Develop zcash-rn, a full React Native SDK for building shielded mobile apps.
ZCG Feedback: Useful idea, but there is no current developer demand. Could be revisited later.
Status: Rejected ❌
🔹Zcash Extension to Ethereum | $250,000
Goal: Build a confidential, non-custodial ZEC→Ethereum bridge using ZK proofs and a confidential ERC-20 (wZEC).
ZCG Feedback:
Concerns about feasibility, lack of team, and unclear value of a standalone bridge.
Suggestion that the applicant explore the ecosystem further and potentially collaborate on other projects.
Status: Rejected ❌
🔹Zcatch: Zcash Explorer & Services | $20,700
Goal: Build a next-gen Zcash explorer with future ZSA support, analytics, and indexing tools.
ZCG Feedback:
Too early; unclear value in funding another explorer.
Ecosystem already has several options; may revisit once ZSAs launch.
Status: Rejected ❌
🔹Zcash Shielded Payments Toolkit | $24,500 (MVP)
Goal: Enable websites (WordPress, Ghost, etc.) to accept shielded ZEC tips and donations using WebZjs and FV keys.
ZCG Feedback:
Browser-based shielded ops are not considered safe.
No clear community demand.
Status: Rejected ❌
🔹ZEC-NAM Shielded Airdrop Protocol | $150,000
Goal: Build a privacy-preserving cross-chain airdrop mechanism for ZEC→Namada using ZK proofs and nullifiers.
ZCG Feedback:
Interest from ZCG; team asked to expand UI/UX beyond CLI.
May reuse prior Zcash balance-proof work; more scoping in progress.
Status: Open ⏳
🔹Zcash Nigeria (Nov–Dec) | $6,400
Goal: Continue education, outreach, events, merchant adoption, and localized Zcash content in Nigeria.
ZCG Feedback:
Strong, established community team; consistent results.
Important region for Zcash growth.
Status: Approved ✅
🔹Zcash Ghana (2025–26) | $49,400
Goal: Expand meetups, workshops, roadshows, campaigns, and Zcash onboarding across Ghana.
ZCG Feedback:
Promising enthusiasm but still a very new team.
A full-year grant is premature; smaller requests recommended.
Status: Rejected ❌
🔹ZEC Quest | $13,600
Goal: Gamified learning app with modules, quizzes, and badges to onboard new users to Zcash.
ZCG Feedback:
Similar initiatives funded in the past with limited impact.
Better to run quests directly through existing community platforms.
Status: Rejected ❌
🔹ZonChain | $20,700
Goal: Cloud-native analytics platform indexing and exposing Zcash blockchain metrics via APIs and dashboards.
ZCG Feedback:
Most of the data already available through other dashboards and explorers.
Limited added value at this time.
Status: Open ⏳
🔹Threshold Shielded Signing Kit (TSSK) | $25,000
Goal: FROST-powered multisig for shielded ZEC, including SDK, relay, and CLI reference implementation.
ZCG Feedback:
Practical need and adoption path unclear.
Status: Open ⏳
🔹Zcash Balkan Hub | $237,000
Goal: Multilingual community hub, tutorials, shielded dashboards, and onboarding across nine Balkan countries.
ZCG Feedback:
Considered out of scope.
Status: Rejected ❌
🔹Brave Global Privacy Campaign | $750,000
Goal: 3-month global Zcash marketing campaign via Brave browser NTTs and notification ads (100M+ users).
ZCG Feedback:
Open to the idea but need more detail on content, calls to action, wallet UX, and measurable impact.
High cost; may negotiate scope.
Status: Open for questions ⏳
🔹Education Initiative for Latin America (EduLATAM) | $60,000
Goal: University-accredited courses, hackathons, Zcash curriculum, and bilingual content across Mexico and LATAM.
ZCG Feedback:
(No final decision provided in the meeting notes.)
Status: Open ⏳
Brainstorm Session Follow-Ups
Least Authority / Zkool audit
ZCG has approved a project plan for a Zkool audit.
Ledger
Treasury Management
ZCG has hedged $4.5m in USD. On a periodic basis ZCG revisits treasury management strategy in cooperation with FPF.
In last week’s update, Josh compares the transformative experience of seeing art in person to the need to experience Zcash firsthand.
He argues that concepts like digital sovereignty and privacy can’t be understood only in the abstract.
To truly grasp Zcash’s value, you need to use it, feel the freedom it offers, and live that experience directly.
🔎 Diving into ECC updates
Zashi Updates
Completed:
Zashi 2.4.8 (shipping next week):
Transparent -> shielded address upgrades for swaps/payments.
Android bug fixes.
Zashi 2.4.9:
Enable Tor before wallet restore.
Improved error handling, wallet resync, and Reset Zashi (Android)
Next Updates:
Release 2.4.9 with Keystone Resync/Disconnect
Finalized designs for:
Transparent Address Rotation
Ledger support
Multi-Account
Duress/Decoy Wallet
Continued Improvements to internal workflows.
Zashi | Adoption Numbers
🍎 | IOS: 31k (3.5k increase)
🤖 | Android: 34.3k (1.9k increase)
🔁 | Swap volume (to date):
November: $125.9M
YTD: $211,3M
Zcash Core 🦓
Completed:
Zallet updated to use Zaino ChainIndex (direct full-node state access)
Major refactor: zcash_client_sqlite → zcash_client_backend
Orchard ZSA review underway
Quantum resilience spec completed
Next Updates:
Q4/2026 engineering planning meetings
Finish Orchard ZSA review
Merge outstanding PRs
Release lightwalletd with transparent compact block scanning
Other 🌐
Zypherpunk Hackathon live
January Z|ECC Summit announced
Zaki & c-node discuss state of Zcash
Interviews for Support/Community Manager + Partnerships
Participated in Georgetown Business School Career Day
Featured on Unchained
For developers who are joining the Zcash ecosystem, today we’re sharing a brief overview of the Arborist Call that took place last week. We recently published the full protocol updates and video clips, but this serves as a more streamlined “call to action” for anyone looking for the latest developments.
Zcash Foundation | 🦓 Zebra 3.0
Zebra 3.0 is nearing completion, with steady progress across RPC updates and Dockerfile fixes, thanks in part to external contributors. The stable 3.0.0 release is expected within days, timed for NU6.1 activation next week, marking a major milestone toward the eventual zcashd deprecation and strengthening the core stack.
Electric Coin Co. | Core Updates
Compact-block scanning now reduces data leakage to lightwallet servers, and deterministic zallet builds are live. Zallet has migrated to the new Zaino chain index, with backend refactoring improving full-node–style capabilities. Exchanges are testing zallet, and a Contributor Board is now available for community participation.
Zcashd Deprecation | Updates
The new Contributor Board highlights top “Ready” tasks, with Wallet-In-Place as a key priority.
All Zcash wallet developers (transparent and shielded) must update their consensus branch ID before Nov 23 (NU6.1) to prevent service interruptions.
Zcash Shielded Assets | Updates
ZSA is moving fast: major cryptography updates are merged, Orchard ZSA is in review, and the public testnet supports full issue/transfer/burn/finalize flows. TXv6 tools, test vectors, and ZIP 233 logic are live. ZIP 317 adds new issuance-fee rules, and work now shifts toward full Zebra integration. ZIPs 234/235 are being updated and Test Vectors PR #101 is ready to merge.
NSM | Updates
The external NSM team wraps up in November, and Shielded Labs will handle all NSM work going forward.
New contributors: Jude (DevRel, NSM/Crosslink support) and Philip (Tenderlink, building staking wallet UI for the December demo).
Crosslink | Updates
The Crosslink prototype is on track for Q1 next year, with an iOS demo in development alongside Zingo Labs and two example wallets planned. Milestone 4b Workshop on Dec 3rd will connect staking-weight to real testnet ZEC. Be sure to join for special rewards for participants!
Recent updates include a new transaction format with staking actions, staking-enabled demo flows, and temporary ZIP-317 disabling for fast iteration. Next steps: integrate real stake-weight, ensure balances reflect staking, build a full Orchard staking wallet, and open a draft ZIP PR for early feedback.