Hi everyone,
As many of you are aware, there have been multiple issues contributing to a diminished ZEC user experience since June 17th. An increased transaction load, on-chain, has resulted in increased sync times for many everyday ZEC users’ mobile wallets. Ecosystem partners are also affected. Our current focus at ECC is to ensure that these issues are dealt with as soon as possible, and that Zcash users have a user experience they expect and deserve.
The issues mentioned are currently affecting Zcash wallets, miners, payment systems, custody providers, ATMs and more. With regards to the users of mobile Zcash wallets, some have been unable to access their funds. As mentioned, this does not mean that funds are lost, it means that some mobile wallets are having syncing issues during this time.
Fixing these issues is priority number 1 for ECC, even taking precedence over our long-term roadmap. Performance improvements will ensure that users enjoy fast and reliable services when using their ZEC. We have a cross-functional team — including engineering, partner engagement and support, product marketing, and comms — focused on solving user experience. Our work centers around five key areas:
- Improving the sync performance in our mobile wallet SDK to ensure that everyday ZEC users see an improved experience.
- User research to understand ZEC users / holders experience, and highlight what solutions are available to them.
- User experience research to understand how future protocol improvements will make ZEC more accessible to everyday people. This research will focus on proposing improvements to ZEC UX. This includes, but is not limited to, fee changes, mobile wallet improvements, and product strategy for the coming ECC wallet.
- Outreach to ecosystem partners to communicate our work around performance issues.
- Prioritizing changes that improvise long-term network resilience. This ensures the Zcash network will perform optimally in the event of sudden changes to network activity (i.e., transaction volume).
We recently released zcashd 5.1.0 and 5.2.0, which have already solved some, but not all, of the issues. The team is currently working on improving sync performance for our mobile SDKs which will benefit wallets such as NightHawk, Edge, and Unstoppable.
During this time, I will be communicating with the community and our partners regarding updates and the status of our work.
We’ll continue to monitor the forums for any questions from you all, and will hope to respond as quickly as possible.
If you have any questions or concerns, please let us know in this thread. If you would like to reach me directly, please DM me on Twitter.
Thank you. We will have another update for you all in the coming days.
Ian