I don’t have to tell you; we all know time only moves in one direction. And in our universe, dark energy, which makes up 70% of everything we know, has gripped time by the hand to drive our universe’s expansion at an increasing pace.
Dark energy is not passive.
Relentless.
Expanding.
Uncompromising.
Unstoppable.
Pushing forward through time.
Dark energy only looks forward. It has to. If it did not propel our universe forward, our universe would implode.
source
If Zcash is to be the future of money, then we must grip time by the hand and press forward. We must be relentless. We must be unstoppable. If we stop, Zcash will implode. We’ve seen the effects of that on Zcash in the past few years. Tell me I’m wrong.
We must move forward with intention. We are currently on a path to reverse the course of Zcash. And to fully reverse course, we mustn’t stop to look back. We don’t have time for backward-lookers, distraction-lovers, or sideline-sitters. It’s time for focused movement forward.
This community will soon make big decisions that will decide its trajectory. The future of funding, whether through outside sources or from a dev fund, is critical. If there is a dev fund, the structure is vital. You will decide who and how much you will pay for work. And you will decide our collective future, and whether Zcash will be a meaningful path to human freedom. I’m not overstating its importance, and I don’t mess around. I don’t have the time.
Yes, we also need dark matter, the counterforce to dark energy, so it doesn’t all fly apart. It’s why good governance is so important. And the dev fund decision isn’t just about a dev fund. It’s about power and governance: who has it, who wants to hold on to it, and how we can build a public good with more voices, representing more people.
We need more, not less, voices.
We need more, not less, vibrancy.
We need more, not less, vision.
We need more, not less, resolve.
We need more, not less, action.
We need more, not less, accountability for outcomes.
This year, we get to start fresh. We have the facts. We know where we stand. Want to hear (some hard) truths?
- The tech we have discovered and invented is the best in the world.
- We have a strong community base. We are hardened and steadfast.
- We are often too easily distracted by less important things than our mission.
- We lost a lot of vibrant voices in the community over the years since launch.
- Increasingly, Zcash has become less relevant in crypto. Many don’t even know that we still exist.
- Zcash has had lackluster growth.
- We’ve been too complacent and wasted time, money, and the efforts of our talent.
- Zcash is no longer synonymous with zk. We lost leadership.
- Governance is too centralized and, at times, theater.
- We have too much drama and often our own worst enemy.
- We have people here who are some of the brightest and most talented in the world.
- We have people here that are fighters and will never give in.
Look, I could really give two shits about the past except for what I can learn from it. I care about being honest about where we are, what we have to work with, and what we will do to deliver on our commitment to set people free.
To do that, we need dark energy.
Focused. Relentless. Expanding. Uncompromising. Unstoppable.
Many of you, like me, are here to set people free.
Dark forces are masquerading as light and are dead set against us.
This isn’t a child’s game. We don’t have time to mess around.
But if we clothe ourselves in dark energy, we will not be stopped.
This is no time for timidity.
This is no time for fear.
Timidity and fear are not who we are.
What does that look like for you?
If you aren’t sure where to start, you can tune out the distractions, focus on what matters to you, and make your voice heard. Speak, surface new ideas, take surveys, run your own polling. Provide ideas and challenge others.
For me, my priorities are advocating for a dev fund model to align community incentives and drive outcomes. I am working to support a change governance to distribute power to more of the community and enable more people to do more things to propel Zcash forward. ECC is focused on driving adoption through robust and accessible tooling and differentiated capabilities in the protocol that gives people freedom.
You might be here for other reasons. Cool. But regardless of why you are here, the decisions about the dev fund, and ultimately governance and the direction of Zcash matter.
We cannot stand still. We cannot repeat the past.
We move forward, or we implode. It’s that simple.
Focused. Relentless. Expanding. Uncompromising. Unstoppable.
Take my hand, and let’s move with dark energy.
ECC updates for the week.
Zashi
iOS
- Unique Installs: 1.5k
- Total Downloads: 1.7k
- Average Rating: 4.9
We released 1.1.1, which includes
- re-written app navigation to fix an iOS 15 issue
- implemented authentication for Send, Delete, and Export Private Data
- built a custom Changelog implementation
- updated About screen UI and built a new Changelog screen
- implemented handling multiple memos and displaying them in the app UI
- implemented a fix for a shielding crash caused by an error
Try it out!
We also worked on Coinbase onramp integration, implemented Flexa’s latest beta, and completed the USD conversion UI.
Android
- Production Installs: 1.01k (only 25 days since launch
) - Open Beta: 1.3k
- Average Rating: 4.615
We completed authentication implementation, updated the splash screen, worked on a PR for trace logging in the Rust later, added a dialog for synching and have been working through user issues reported to us. An update is scheduled for early next week!
Zcash Protocol
We made updates to zec-sqlite related to transparent support, made further progress on ZIP 320, and continued work on a bug resulting in funds getting stuck related to a subtree roots issue.
We also implemented a fix for Brave related to using crates without Sapling dependencies and completed most of the Penumbra Security Audit. Daira-Emma participated in ZKProof 6 in Germany with Qedit most of the week.
Other Things
We posted a proposed ZIP to extend the dev fund for up to a year to allow the community time to explore non-direct funding options. The full context is up on our blog.
We conducted several interviews for the open Director of Finance and Operations position. We have some amazing candidates, and we will focus our time on them before evaluating anyone else. We also started reviewing all the resumes and portfolios we received for the product designer role.
We’re preparing for Consensus, including the party we are hosting with Brave and Filecoin. Will you be in Austin next week? The party is on Thursday night. Reach out for an invite!
We’re also sponsoring a booth and giveaway in partnership with Ampera. Anyone who comes to the booth and downloads Zashi will have more chances to win a retro Ford Mustang. Paul and I will be hanging out there throughout the week as well. You’ll also be able to pick up one of these retro Zashi tees!
We also started planning the agenda for the Z|ECC Summit in July. Many of you have already applied to join, but we still have some room. It’s going to be action-packed with workshops, core team updates, and planning. Edge will also be hosting a meeting with the team while we are there. Stay tuned!
Paul hosted another fantastic PGP event in Washington, D.C. If you aren’t aware, this week in DC was legit action-packed between SAB 121, FIT 21, and the Eth ETF approval. Check out some of the highlights from this month’s event.
We continue to hold as much ZEC as possible, using other assets to fuel our work. We’re committed to that strategy.
Focused. Relentless. Expanding. Uncompromising. Unstoppable.
Onward.
this should have been codified for the devfund earlier, in hindsight, and should be codified now. Dev Fund recipients must prioritize holding and using ZEC directly rather than treasuring other alternative assets.