Zcash Shielded News | Volume 8
Zcash Foundation | Nominees for ZF Board Nov 2024,Zashi-Flexa Integration is Here: Spend ZEC at Thousands of Retailers, Constructive Interference | ECC Update, ZF has opened new applications for ZCG
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
Zcash Foundation Community Call: Nominees for ZF Board Nov 2024
In November, the Zcash Foundation opened up two positions on its Board of Directors, inviting community members to step forward and take on these roles.
The Board of Directors is an unpaid committee for Zcashers who wish to enhance the Foundation's performance by contributing to key decisions for the ecosystem as a whole.
This year, Peter and Amber, former community members, stepped down from their positions to focus on other roles, resulting in three candidates competing for the positions—a relatively low number compared to community expectations.
The community voted, and Taylor and Ted emerged as the winners of this election. Check out the background of each participant and the latest community call below.
Taylor Hornby (@erthrise) |120 Votes
Taylor Hornby, also known as @earthrise, has been involved with the Zcash project since before its launch and has been an active voice in the forums over the years, sharing ideas on how the community can work better together to make Zcash a better product.
Having worked as a security engineer at the Electric Coin Company and as Ecosystem Security Lead, Taylor possesses extensive knowledge of the Zcash protocol, enabling him to make positive contributions to the technical direction as one of the Board Directors.
Feedback from those who know him highlights that Taylor is a strong advocate for privacy rights, as well as being kind and empathetic—qualities that won over the community during the election, alongside his deep knowledge of Zcash over the years.
Ted Hoffman (@Boggerster) | 42 Votes
Known as @Boggerster in the community, Ted is a 29-year-old European fluent in French, German, and English, with experience in the crypto space since 2014. He values financial privacy and believes that Ethereum and Zcash are the only projects truly upholding their ideals.
In his application for the Board, Ted emphasized the importance of private and robust financial alternatives like Zcash in a world where banking access is often weaponized for political purposes. He envisions a promising future for Zcash, especially after recent changes to the funding model and the introduction of shielded voting.
Ted’s priorities include effective communication, simplified full nodes, robust integration mechanisms, and a secure transition to Proof of Stake. Drawing on his knowledge of projects like ETH, Cosmos, and Bitcoin, he aims to bring a holistic, community-driven perspective to help Zcash thrive even further.
Teranji Terrel (@Lowo) | 29 Votes
Teranji Terrel (@Lowo88), a 33-year-old from Atlanta, is a Computer Science student with a perfect 4.0 GPA and a deep understanding of financial markets dating back to his teenage years.
With a combination of technical knowledge and interpersonal skills, he aims to represent the interests of average investors, ensuring their voices are heard.
In addition, Teranji values transparency, open dialogue, and collaboration within the Zcash community. Through this nomination, he plans to leverage his market analysis expertise to assist in formulating strategies for the Foundation while also promoting education about Zcash
Zashi-Flexa Integration is Here: Spend ZEC at Thousands of Retailers!
One of the most anticipated launches of the year is finally here! 🚀 After months of hard work, the ECC announced last Tuesday the integration of Flexa into the Zashi wallet.
Flexa is a payments network that enables secure, fraud-proof cryptocurrency transactions at thousands of merchants across the U.S., Canada, and El Salvador, with new locations and merchants continually being added.
Like Zashi, Flexa is deeply committed to user privacy. While it is required to request some identification information to bridge the gap between cryptocurrencies and traditional systems, Flexa never collects or stores more than what is absolutely mandated by law. It does not share data with third parties and deletes it as soon as legally permissible.
This shared commitment to user privacy makes Flexa the perfect partner for Zcash and Zashi, aligning with their principles. The ECC remains steadfast in ensuring they know almost nothing about their Zashi users.
How it works?
1) Open the Zashi app and tap the hamburger icon to navigate to Settings. Then select Integrations.
2) Open Flexa and complete a quick registration process.
3) Choose the merchant you want to pay.
4) Generate a payment code in the app and scan it at checkout. (Note: Sometimes the QR code must be scanned by the cashier as a Gift Card.)
5) Your shielded ZEC will be sent and processed instantly by Flexa’s payment network.
6) The merchant receives your payment in their chosen currency. All they know is that the payment was successful—they won’t know anything about you, not even the currency you used.
Note: This integration is a significant milestone for Zcash and is currently available only in the United States.
Constructive Interference | ECC Update
Josh wrapped up the week with the theme “Constructive Interference,” highlighting tribes as groups with shared values where everyone can connect. In the cryptocurrency universe, each project and blockchain can be seen as a tribe with its own ideas. Divergences often lead to splits and new groups, such as forks.
Zcash emerged as an attempt to be a “better Bitcoin,” incorporating Zero-Knowledge Proof cryptography to achieve the true financial freedom that the technology itself offers. While its initial focus was on being a Layer 1 blockchain, this vision is expanding with time.
Josh noted that just as waves of light or sound can cancel each other out through destructive interference, tribes clashing with a zero-sum mindset weaken one another. This conflict among blockchains and communities within the crypto world diminishes their collective impact—a scenario that must be overcome for the greater good.
Progress of Week
Zashi 📱
Zashi 1.2.4 was released with Flexa support for both iOS and Android.
Our focus through the end of the year is mainly on integrating the Keystone hardware wallet.
We began research work on user interest in Zashi Vault.
Zashi Design
Adhoc engineering edits and requests
Continued working with third-party animator
High-priority focus on Keystone Wallet integration designs (final designs + dark theme)
Continued work on Onboarding redesign
iOS 🍎
Unique Installs: 4.5k
Total Downloads: 5.33k
AppStore Rating: 4.9**
Flexa
Worked with the Flexa team, adopted multiple SDK updates.
Tested and released v1.2.4 (3) to production.
Keystone
SDK refactor of Int, Int32 and UIn32 into type safe Zip32AccountIndex and AccountId.
System sheets implemented with dynamic height for the content (required bump of the deployment target to iOS 16!).
Navigation bar changes to deliver multi-account switch component.
QR Scanner checkers implemented (zcash address, zip321 and keystone animated qr).
Connect Hardware Wallet flow fully implemented.
Address book multi-account support implemented.
Internal build 0.4.6-1 released for testing.
Android 🤖
Total Install Base: 2.46k
Total Installs (incl. Open Beta): 9.69k
PlayStore Rating: 4.622*
Flexa
Worked with the Flexa team, adopted multiple SDK updates
Tested and released Zashi v1.2.3 (799) with the latest Flexa version to production
Keystone
Analyzed multi-account support requirements
Account UUID based logic in SDK in progress
Built the new Keystone UI: feature complete, waiting for final designs to finish up details and copy
Reworked Zashi’s navigation logic - which saves us time during development
Misc.
Made a few UI fixes & code cleanup changes in the Settings screen
Zcash Core
Support and testing related to NU6 and ecosystem
Work and reviews of incrementalmerkletree#119, librustzcash#1631, librustzcash#1627, incrementalmerkletree#120, zcash-android-wallet-sdk#1640, orchard#440
R&D on address rotation
ZIP Editors meeting for NU7
Wrote up draft ZIP to make Sapling diversifiers complete
Full throttle on changes needed for Keystone wallet support including multi account
Others🌐
Speaking of the light that comes from collaboration, it was encouraging to see the industry take a stand against the OFAC’s decision to sanction Tornado Cash. This week, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court ruled that smart contracts cannot be sanctioned.
This is a significant victory for privacy. The fight is not over, and Roman Storm is still fighting for his freedom. If you can, consider donating to his legal fund.Josh met with Brave this week to review the progress on their work to add support for shielded Zcash. The front-end user interface is currently in development. Originally, Brave planned to store files included in shielded memos without encryption, but has now decided to provide support for file encryption.
Keystone will soon announce the possibility to pre-order hardware wallets with a Zcash theme.
The ECC has received its final ZEC from the old development fund and is currently working on its budget for 2025.
Josh will join @aquietinvestor and others in a community call next week to discuss the next steps for funding and governance.
The ECC has started interviewing candidates for a new Strategic Marketing Manager.
The Zcash Foundation (ZF) has opened new applications for the Zcash Community Grants (ZCG).
This Wednesday, the Zcash Foundation (ZF) announced another call for applications for the Zcash Community Grants (ZCG).
ZCG is a committee made up of 5 members elected by the Zcash Community Advisory Panel (ZCAP). Its goal is to fund independent teams to carry out major ongoing developments (or other work) that benefit the Zcash ecosystem.
Currently, three of the current members' terms are expiring (Amber O'Hearn, Michael Harms, and Jason McGee). For this reason, the ZF is inviting community members to put themselves forward for this election, which will take place at the end of December.
Progress of Candidacy:
Anyone can run for the Zcash Community Grants (ZCG) committee. Current members can also run for re-election, and there are no term limits.
Candidates must submit a post on the forum (ideally five paragraphs or fewer) in the ZCG Elections category on the community forum. This post should announce their candidacy and explain why they believe they should be elected to the ZCG Committee.
Community members will have the opportunity to ask candidates questions directly by responding to their individual posts.
The deadline for nominations is 09:00 UTC on Friday, December 13, 2024.
After the nomination period closes, the Zcash Foundation (ZF) will host a Community Call, during which candidates will have the opportunity to introduce themselves and answer questions from the Zcash community.
Following the call, a poll will be opened on Helios for ZCAP members to select three candidates to join the committee. The poll will close at 09:00 UTC on January 1, 2025. As with previous polls, the election will be decided by approval voting, and the three candidates with the most votes will become the new ZCG members, serving a one-year term that will end on December 31, 2025.
Note: This election will be crucial for the allocation of funds to projects aiming to improve Zcash development. If you are a ZCAP member, be sure to carefully read or research about your candidate before voting.
Interested? Open your candidacy here.