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

Just a quick note that @guardawallet is supporting Ycash on it’s multi-currency wallets, not the “Shielded Guarda” wallet:

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DO you know if Zcash Linux Z address wallets are going to be support on the official wallet?

I can only speak to the Ycash Foundation’s software: ycashd and YecWallet. ycashd and YecWallet support all Zcash address types, including Sapling addresses and Sprout addresses.

So the fork itself supports all Zcash address types. There is no need to unshield your ZEC!

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I reinstalled the whole PC together with the ZecWallet but the same error occures. I deleted the params, like suggested somewhere, but to no avail.

So I installed Guarda and just sent a small amount of ZEC from the exchange wallet to the Guarda wallet, as a test.

Of course, seeing Guarda on C: feels terribly insecure. :confused:

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I use mobile guarda and will claim my yec there.

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I don’t trust my cellphone (it’s a small gadget that I carry all around, after all)

Neither do I trust a computer when it’s online. I often notice changes in my PCs behavor (like it getting slower etc.) and I recover the system and ProgramFiles disks from an image I made after a clean installation and immediately update my antivirus and browsers. All this as a minium precaution.

Having a crypto wallet full of money on C: feels nothing but wrong.

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@MrCoffie, sorry about the problems you’re having.

Author of ZecWallet here. If you have time, can you please file a bug here with a screenshot and a description of the error? I’ll try to fix it.

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not even sure if it’s a bug. For all I know, it might be Windows deffender killing it, (even though I explicetely gave permition for it.)

I will file it there, though. I’d be happy to help.

In the meanwhile I installed bitpie on my Android and sent a small amount from the exchange to it. Just received it. So, for the time, I have to working options I don’t really like.

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Prolly your smartscreen or firewall settings
Could be your AV too but not sure
Do or did any security prompts appear when you launched it?

@MrCoffie you can use symbolic links to connect zecwallet/yecwallet to an encrypted remote volume containing your wallet.dat file which will remove it from being internet-accessable most of the time. Just have both the symbolic link and remote wallet file named wallet.dat and it should work.

I’ve also heard you should encrypt the drive your zec/yecwallet is located on or at least put it into an encrypted folder/directory (VeraCrypt comes to mind). One advantage of the YecWallet route vs. a fork-supporting exchange or third-party wallet is it can be applied retroactively, no need to get it working before the fork. If you want to move your zec off an exchange to a secure wallet who’s seed/keys you can later import into yecwallet you can buy a hardware wallet such as trezor or ledger. Given the short time frame involved I’d recommend buying one off amazon (they are legit in spite of what some people say; just make sure you buy from a source linked directly from the trezor/ledger website and install the firmware and generate the seed yourself) and having it delivered overnight. You will pay for it, but at least its as close to perfectly secure as anything ever is.

One thing I will say however is a custodial/exchange wallet is almost by definition less secure than any wallet who’s keys you have control over if you practice any sort of minimal computer/internet hygiene. You can always use the “keys on an encrypted remote volume” approach I outlined above.

Yes and NO.

I’am not sure IF minimal computer/internet hygiene is enough. From a point of view of an very technical advanced person you are mostly right, but the problem is that NOT every wallet user is an above average advaned user. Here begin in generally the problems with wallets.

Speaking just generally, i myself by now have installed, tested and used for sure over 200 wallets and from time to time i still run into problems while installing, syncing, updating & upgrading. Some even that hard to master that i indeed as well prefer to use another option instead of wasting days of trying to fix something obvious not optimal. I’am not speaking here about the ZEC/YEC wallets, but generally.

This leaves of course a lot of room that less technical advanced people are more likely to loss somehow their funds on their own device, be it a PC, laptop or cell phone as while using a good exchange wallet for example.
As we witnessed with the Binance Hack, NO user suffered a loss, no matter it was a multi-million hack, means a good reliable exchange today has resources to cover at least a good portion of a potential loss. Of course less reliable exchanges like the cryptopia case has shown leaves your funds literally exposed.

This said someone should always have in mind the technical skills of the user when it comes to a wallet choice. For sure it’s true that for very advanced technical users a wallet where he holds his private keys is a very good option, but for a less skilled user or one with below average computer skills this might absolutly not be the best option and a good exchange or custodial wallet might be a better & more safe option.

I personally prefer as well always full node desktop wallets, but there are cases, as said allready, where i’am left literally with no other choice than using an exchange or custodial wallet to avoid endless dealings with problems.

Please tell me which wallets or better exchanges will support fork Zcash

I’d agree with @boxalex here.

a. Concerning the different types of wallets and security

When I got into cryptos I was reading that you need to keep your own keys and that exchanges are untrustworthy. I think the main reason for this approach was the the Mt. Gox incident.

During time, using both exchanges and local wallets myself, I came to think of the major exchanges as more convenient than local wallets.

One major factor is what @boxalex already mentioned as “computer/internet hygiene”. I am surprised to see how much people tend to trust their computers. Just to give an example, the average browser has a couple of add-ons installed. That’s 3rd parties programs incorporated onto your browser that underneath might be doing stuff that you are not aware of. Often computers have cracked applications installed. That’s programs that a hacker has changed the code to his liking. But it’s not just that. Just by visiting sites on the Internet you are not secure. Shit starts to happen on your PC. I don’t even get into your exposure to risk when visiting high risk sites like porn, pirate sites etc.

Back to local wallets, it’s often they don’t work properly and neither do they seem to take all the security precautions, to me. I remember installing Exodus when it got out, and then realizing I could not chose the installation path. Meaning that I could not install it on an external disk that I could unplug next. Meaning that an intruder would know exactly where to look for it and that my wallet would be constantly online, on a computer that day by day is getting less secure by default. Therefore, I never used Exodus. It didn’t meet my minimum security criteria. Btw, I have a friend that saw his ETH getting stolen from his Exodus wallet. Lucky it was only 0,5 ETH.

Same with Guarda now: cannot chose a different, more secure installation location for it. That alone doesn’t feel safe.

And I really wonder why a programmer that makes all the hard work to create a cryptocurrencies wallet doesn’t add that simple functionality of allowing altering the installation location.

The webbrowser is a dirty place. No surprise, since it’s the gateway to the chaotic jungle called the Internet. Of course, eventually you do trust it to visit your exchange, or ebanking, but there the measures taken by the exchange and bank (approving IP, google authenticatior etc.) seem to work for the time. And most things happen on their end. They are charged with the security and they oversee it constantly.

Getting to hardware wallets that @Walley303 suggests, a (different) friend of mine was using trezor and saw his capital getting stolen. A huge amount of money split in assorted cryptos. Myself, I bought a Nano Ledger 2 years back and never used it. When I realized I had to use a browser extension (at least that’s what I remember) my trust for it was over. And when I saw my friend getting ripped off his capital that he had stored in his trezor, I felt that my choice not to use my hardware wallet made sense.

As for the upcoming ZCash fork, if the developers think they have supplied clear, detailed instructions for the average user (and I’m not even the average user) as to how to handle it, well, they haven’t. And it seems they haven’t scrutinized security either. For example, they list BigONE in their info page, as an exchange that will support the fork, which will lead some people to move their ZEC there, when on a first glance, it looks like a ghost company. You cannot tell who is behind that site. Meaning that if they take your money and split, you won’t even know who to go after, who to sue.

b. My chat with BigONE

By the way, here’s a chat I just had with the BigONE support. Maybe it’s interesting:

Them: Hi, how can we help you today? =)
Me: Hi. I have created an account with you. Before starting using it I would like to know more about your company. When can I find its data? Like address, phone number etc?
Them: BigONE trading platform official website (link),Mobile APP Download address: (link)
Me: Thanks but this is not what I asked for. What I need to know is the data of the company that’s behind it. Company name / address / telephone number etc. I mean, what I see is just a site. What is the company behind it?
Them: BigONE is registered in the Cayman Islands. If you have any commercial cooperation intentions, please contact us at business@big.one. If you have any suggestions, please send them to advice@big.one.
Me: So, the company info is not available to the public or at least to registred members?
Them: I am very sorry, the customer service staff can only solve the business problems in this platform for you. If you have any other questions, please contact the above email address.
Me: I see. thank you.

I might send them an email out of curiosity, see if they reveal their info. With kraken, for example, the info is visible at the account’s fiat currency’s deposit instructions page.

It would be interesting to check the other two ZEC fork supporting exchanges listed in the info page (hoo and SafeTrade) as well.

The crypto world is a total mess and sorry to say that but the way I see things, ZCash is no exception.

c. Guarda and bitpie, how to claim

Btw, when Guarda and bitpie post that they will be supporting the ZEC fork, how is this going to work excactly? Are we going to see a YEC balance automatically appear after the fork? Or else how? It would be handy if they published instructions someplace.

I see now a tweet that Guarda will be releasing a claiming guide soon (https://twitter.com/MarijaCarola/status/1150386811119820800).

We are 3 days before the fork and information is so scarse altogether.

Sorry for the long post, but I realize there’s a limit on how many posts can do a new member. I had to wait a day to post this one.

( Btw: It’d be nice to have a 10 minute editing margin for typos. )

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guarda and bitpie wallets say they will support the fork. there are a few small exchanges listed on the ycash.xyz website, but personally I’m dubious of them. Yecwallet is the best way, and you can “claim” yec retroactively on it, but requires a full blockchain download. I’d recommend guarda if you want my opinion.

@MrCoffie and @boxalex thank you for this detailed discussion beyond the usual advice that is given.

@MrCoffie I’d be interested in learning more about what happened to your friend and his trezor.

As for not being able to select your wallet’s directory: you can usually use symbolic links to direct to a remote volume to store the more critical files so they are only exposed when used and don’t just sit on your hard drive. Thanks to the fine support folks on this website for enlightening me about this.

From the website:

“The Ycash Foundation continues to apply to several exchanges. The following exchanges have pledged to support Ycash. For any given exchange, users should perform their own due diligence” (emphasis added).

The Ycash Foundation does not endorse any exchange.

https://www.ycash.xyz/the_fork/#exchanges

Your experience sound like a deja vu in many cases hence i think it’s good to discuss the wallet issue in generally more often, especially bevor forks, airdrops and such so more users get aware of different “traps” they could run and/or the different possibilities and danger various options offer.

Just adding some personal opinions to the various cases you described, maybe it’s helpfull for someone:

Browser Extensions and Online Web Wallets:
For me personally this is an absolutly NO-GO as well, but than again, i consider myself as someone with perfect PC hygiene. The average joe user might very well use such due their easyness compared to hot desktop wallets for example.

Trezor, Nano and such:
Similar to you, i as well purchased a Nano which still is un-used on my desk. As soon as i noticed i need to have a browswer extenstion to use it which turned to be everything else than userfriendly i abondonded this approach. Maybe things have changed with hard wallets, usb wallets and such but for me it’s not an option anymore, at least not for now.

Cellphone & Mobile Wallets:
For me personally an absolute no-way for now. I mean phone security is behind all standards i consider real safe. Maybe i’am not advanced enough as i’am with my Work-PC, but i have doubts a mobile phone is a really good choice for bigger amounts of value in crypto currency.
I mean you take your phone everywhere, the problems begin with it could be stollen, hacked, who knows what access through bluetooth, wi-fi, whatever is possible. Damn, at my Work and Home-PC i even don’t use Wifi but a cable connection and not a single blue-tooth device connected to my PC, just as an example.
My opinion is that mobile wallets could advance faster than desktop wallets and so their security due the wider adoption and usage, but until this happens it’s not an option to me to use my phone i carry around to have my funds on it.

Desktop & Hot Wallets:
For an advanced PC user these are good options, but as we by now all know, there are a lot of scenarios they could be compromised as well. Not even talking about all the possibilities of own failures like deleting important files, forgetting or loosing the private key, failed HDD’s, viruses, trojans, whatever. Installations are often hard and i even have witnessed wallets where all the node info had to be entered manually. A task that is nearly impossible to manage for the average joe first time crypto wallet user. Leave alone sensible tasks like wallet updates with backups and whatever not that leave a lot of room for mistakes and errors.
While the long syncing times for someone with a powerfull PC and good internet connections are not really a burden, the average joe with his 4GB RAM Laptop will for sure having a harder problem with syncing a desktop wallet. Not even talking about wallets that need the HDD to be 20+ GB which is often a problem as well they are not aware of.
The functionally in many wallets has a bit improved in my opinion the last months but a lot of easy access, to do or security featues are still missing. I could write a book here after having used well above 200 desktop wallets.

Exchanges:
It’s like with banks how reliable are they, how thrustfull are they. In my opinion there isn’t a 100% garantee either, but at least a lot of steps someone can take to make at least good or better choices.
I think so far i have used about 30 different exchanges, maybe even more, too lazy to count them. Only a view are really the ones someone not blinded by greed would accept to use for bigger funds. Here i fully agree that Kraken, Bittrex & Binance are at least my personal favourites.
They have the top experts on security, whole teams, 24/7 overviewing things. This of course is again not a garantee, but they do the job better than we are doing with our Home PC i guess.
And if things look strange, normally withdrawing funds is an easy and fast job which again with some other wallets IF not updated periodiclly is not garanteed at all.
I personally advoid ALL strange exchanges by today. Even more after my personal research about fake volume exchanges (the majority!). I mean when an exchange dishonestly fakes his volume what’s left for the rest? Just things to consider when choosing an exchange.

Some other maybe helpfull advices i could think of to stay on the safer side:

  • Whatever you use or install try allways first with small amounts to see if it works. Better losing some bucks on transaction fees for making several test transactions incoming/outgoing than risking a bigger amount and being trapped.

  • I personally even split my holdings. For example why should i keep all ZEC or BTC on 1 exchange? Splitting it into 5 and using on each top exchange 1/5 reduces my risk automatically only to a 1/5th to loosing all funds. The same could apply to different wallets for example if available.

  • As said allready, keep the PC you have or access wallets absolute clean. This should be a must. On my end no torrents, no add ons or extensions, no wifi, no blutooth, no porn, no cracks, no hacks, no advertising, full anti-virus settings. NEVER EVEN even click or open whatever files/videos you get on facebook, email etc. Use passwords that contain at least 12 characters, letters, numbers and signs. Ensure nobody else has access to the PC you hold/access your wallets, not the wife, not the child, even less your friends or neighbours. Shut down the PC and secure it whenever you don’t use it. And and and, just to mention some elementry PC and internet hygiene suggestions.

And a final general advice i learned from my grandma: Greed is a bad advisor. Means greed often “forces” people to put down their guard, often blocks rational thinking and/or raises unnesessary FOMO. Allways put security and clean clear thinking above greed and someone is x times less likely to to suffer damage or loss.

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Ihave transfered my zec and waiting for a fork, lets hope yec does not cost 10 cents😀

Trezor requires a browser extention to initialize, but not to run the wallet (though there is a browser wallet) as it (and for that matter ledger) can sync to many desktop wallets such as electrum and exodus.

Mobile wallets: traditional advice is only keep “spending cash”/no-cry money on these for reasons you outline.

Desktop wallets: I have never encountered any difficulty setting any of these up, so YMMV.

20+GB HDDs are pa problem these days? News to me. My desktop has a 1TB HDD and it was the cheapest model…two years ago.

Those final points are all good.

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It’s not about you with 1TB or me with 7x HDD’s, it’s about the average joe with older to medium hardware and yes, I guess IF a given currency with a 50GB gets automaticlly installed on C:/ with allready limited space users can get problems. Leave alone someone installing the desktop wallets for his favourite 10 coins :wink:

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