Hi Zeeps!
Autumn in Colorado is special. The air is cool and crisp, and the aspen trees dance with dizzying colors across the mountain slopes. It is also a time of preparation.
I lived my first ten years on about a dozen acres outside of Montrose, among fields and a wooded wonderland with a quiet stream that I had all to myself in the summer months. But as the days grew shorter, we would start to prepare. For my part, I was responsible for chopping wood and filling the large bin in our home’s mudroom.
I would also help Dad burn ditches and fields where weeds had been left to grow or the grass needed clearing so that snow melt would drain and to prepare the earth for new shoots in the spring. I loved the burn—the heat of the fire, the smell of the grass, and that it seemed like serious and dangerous business. But while fire is dangerous, a controlled burn is exactly that—controlled. It’s deliberate, targeted, and highly effective for reducing danger and encouraging growth.
We’ve gone through something similar at ECC and in the Zcash community this year - clearing out things that needed to go, and making changes that will allow us to grow.
At ECC, that meant knocking down internal walls, changing our internal operations, and giving the team a voice. It meant inviting the community in and giving the team what it needed to ship a wallet for the first time. It meant eliminating distractions and returning to the core of why many of us are here in the first place, to build private and decentralized electronic cash.
For the broader Zcash community, we came together to shift governance, funding, and power to include more voices and drive greater accountability. We’ve been clearing out the old to make way for the new.
And we’re collaborating. More organizations and people are working on Zcash than ever before, whether through R&D efforts, ecosystem outreach, educational initiatives, or marketing.
We still have active controlled burns, including zcashd deprecation. We’re moving deliberately and effectively to clear out the old and bring in the new. I loved hearing Jonathan at the Zcash Arborist call this week express how “significant” this time is for the Qedit team, who have been working to bring Zcash Shielded Assets to life. New shoots, new life.
We’ve accomplished hard things this year, Zeeps, that have put us in a position to flourish in the months ahead. This week, NU6 activates as an outcome, dev funding changes, and the emissions halve for the second time in our history. It’s autumn on the calendar, but spring is in the air.
Here’s ECC’s contribution for the week:
Zashi
We met with the Keystone team this week to coordinate the next steps to integrate it with Zashi. We would like to release something by December if possible.
Got design chops? Keystone is running a contest to design a Zcash-specific wallet.
Design
- Continued exploring multi-wallet designs
- Adhoc engineering edits and requests
- Improvements to Seed/Recovery Phrase designs
- Working on illustrated icons (for key app screens)
- High-priority focus on Keystone Hardware Wallet integration designs
Zashi iOS
We reported a security issue this week.
- Finished work on Sending screens (sending / success / failure)
- Fixed rescan in Zashi broken navigation
- Address Book Encryption re-implemented according to the agreed code design
- Testing of scenarios
- Cross-check testing (Android’s file works in iOS and vice versa)
- Addressed comments from review
- Merged all code together into feature branch for the next release
- Keystone:
- Initial meeting with the team
- Demo app fixed and built
- Animated QR player/scanner WIP
Analytics Update:
Unique Installs: 3.95k
Total Downloads: 4.68k
AppStore Rating: 4.9*
Zashi Android
- Flexa integrated but behind a feature flag for now (waiting for 1.0.6 Flexa release with fixes)
- Finalized and merged Spanish app localization
- Finalized and Merged Not enough free space and In-app update screens redesign
- Implemented UI for Shielding transactions
- Fixed shielded icon behavior in transaction history
- All of the screens behind the Settings screen have been redesigned
- Expose ZIP 32 arbitrary key derivation merged in the SDK
- The Address Book encryption is almost finished; in review
- We’ve switched all links opening to the in-app browser component
- We’ve also resolved several newly introduced bugs
- Started to analyze the upcoming Keystone integration
Analytics Update:
Total Install Base: 2.35k
Total Installs (incl. Open Beta): 8.77k
PlayStore Rating: 4.656*
Zcash Core
- New librustzcash crate releases this week (zcash_primitives, zcash_proofs, zcash_keys, zcash_client_backend, zcash_client_sqlite)
- Note management in Zashi
- Address book encryption in Zashi
- The team spent R&D cycles on scaleability
Other
We met with the Maya team this week. They’ll ship release 112 next week and then focus on ZEC for release 113. Testing could take 4-8 weeks, and they’ll give us access to the test server. YWallet and Edge should be ready at the time of their go-live or shortly after that. We’re targeting Zashi integration following Keystone hardware wallet support.
The ECC leadership team was shuffled with recent changes. @andrea and @peacemonger have joined @daira, @tonym and me on the team.
We’re looking for someone to join our core team! Check out the job description and apply here!
ECC/Bootstrap conducted its Q4 board of directors meeting this week. We primarily focused on possibilities for income generation and long-term sustainability.
Now is the time to begin our next governance and funding conversations. I posted on that topic here and look forward to your engagement.
We’re also in 2025 budgeting and forecasting season.
Speaking of 2025, interested in helping ECC shape its roadmap? We’re coming together in Mexico this January. Apply here to join us!
Zcash Media has published a slew of clips on X from my interview with them a couple years ago.
I will be at a summit with DCG and their portfolio companies next week.
Six days until the 2nd Zcash halving!
That’s all for this week.
Feeling the burn,
Onward.