Announcing Ycash, The First "Friendly Fork" of the Zcash Blockchain

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Hi! Here are some off the cuff thoughts of my own, and don’t reflect ECC positions or plans:

  • As @hloo suggests, I also see Friendly Forks in a similar fashion to this post. I like the framing of pluralism, and look forward to reading more about it.
  • I really appreciate this approach that’s engaging with and inviting to this pocket of the Zcash community.
  • I recommend for Ycash devs to learn from other Zcash source forks and also chat with Zcash engineers about how to make the implementations operate safely between each other. And, in particular, next point:
  • Since this is the first chain split I’m aware of involving a chain with zkSNARK-style shielded funds, I recommend ensuring the “air drop” / “snapshot” will include shielded funds (at least Sapling). This prevents creating an incentive to existing Zcash Sapling z-addr hodlers to deshield their funds. Doing this should be feasible, although I already have at least one technical privacy concern (we want to ensure there’s no way to link shielded transfers across the two chains), and I recommend for any shielded ZEC holders concerned about privacy to wait for some assessment here.
  • It is true both that Zcash FR recipients are likely to receive YEC due to the chainsplit and also that they’ve parted with some portion of FR for operating expenses, taxes, etc… The current total FR issuance is an upper bound, and that estimate could be lowered by looking at transparency reports from the Foundation or ECC. (I don’t see this as a negative for Ycash; Zcash FR recipients will initially have some financial incentive tied to Ycash’s success.)
  • I have not heard about Ycash before this post, and ECC has not participated in any way in Ycash as of this post. However, I did chat with @hloo in person a week or two ago, and we did discuss the counterfeit protection via the turnstile, and maybe I mentioned to him that at ECC we haven’t put more effort into Harmony Mining in lieu of our other efforts. I do not know if that affected this Ycash project planning in any way.
  • As for disagreeing with ECC’s technical decisions around Zcash, I think users have three productive options:
    1. Help Zcash open up its development process to more teams / contributors than just ECC. The most direct opportunity there is to participate in the NU3 ZIP process. Also, I welcome anyone to proposing ideas on how to open up development or alter governance for Zcash on this Forum, Foundation mailing lists, at Zcon1, etc…
    2. Code up your own vision, which is how I see Ycash and other Zcash source forks. Ycash is notable, though, as the first Friendly Chain split. After all, “cypherpunks write code”.
    3. Find another existing project that embodies what you prefer. And as always users can distribute their time, money, and love across multiple projects and communities.

Ok, that’s my off the cuff, personal thoughts. I’m really curious to see how this develops across the community, and I look forward to chatting with @hloo and any Ycashers at the next Bay Area Zcash meetup. :wink:

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