Ambimorph for ZCG (December 2022)

Governance ZCG Elections
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Hi! I am also putting myself forth as a candidate for the ZCG Committee.

My name is Amber, and I’ve been a fan of Zcash since it was an eye glimmer, but I haven’t stayed as close as I’d like, and would like to be more engaged.

My background is a bit eclectic. I studied math and computer science, but also have a degree in Russian, and have published academic papers in a few other fields. So, I’m not afraid of learning new subjects deeply. I’m currently best known for advocating meat eating for health. Although I’m not now the biggest name in “Carnivore”, my research and early, outspoken presentations paved the way for its current popularity. So, I’m also not afraid of speaking against the majority when I think it’s important.

I’m on the board of directors at Least Authority, and currently seeking more involvement with privacy enhancing technologies–a strong value for me. Zcash should be an obvious major player in this area, and I want to help identify and support projects that are in alignment with a long-term strategic vision for its widespread adoption. This would span technical and usability development, community outreach–especially to people at risk, marketing and educational initiatives, and innovative uses. I would like to see projects with telescoping properties. That is, where small, self-contained projects are proposed as a first step in more ambitious larger projects that can build over time as the team develops its expertise and trust.

I would love the opportunity to work with the other members for the advancement of our common goals.

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Great to see your app and excited for the unique approach/perspective to the environment/community over the years.

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Thank you!

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I wanted to add a little colour to my technical background.

I studied math originally at the University of Waterloo, where I first got involved with the cypherpunk community, fell in love with computer science as a branch of math, and dabbled a bit in cryptography. I’ve co-authored a couple of papers on coding theory (eg. Error-detecting properties of [mathematical] languages) which later influenced my graduate work in computational linguistics.

I attended the Financial Cryptography conference in 1999 and 2000. Here’s a photo of me from the latter event: https://twitter.com/ambimorph/status/1522236957585072129?s=20&t=yfcW6OTjpajQ5ISnVcfDjg
It was there that I really started to appreciate a vision of what secure, digital currency could do, and daydreamed about solving problems like email spam using micropayments. This is why the Zemo project immediately resonated with me! It harkens back to some original motivations of the community.

Beyond that, I have tried my hand at software development, which I enjoy, but I’m not currently exercising. See also my somewhat neglected GitHub account.

So in addition to being a long-term fan and supporter of Zcash, I also consider myself technically proficient; a skill I would bring to bear in evaluating proposals for ZCG if I’m elected.

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