tl;dr … yes @BostonZcash, I totally agree …
Wallet performance through NU5 and the recent spam attack has been very frustrating and disappointing. I’ve basically quit any outreach or introducing new users to Zcash for the time-being until I can confidently recommend a good mobile wallet. I’ve started diving head-first into the code myself to see if I can contribute to some of the wallets. Digging into the wallet code is good fun for me personally, but I should theoretically be concentrating on free2z.cash milestones. However, I can’t focus on free2z because free2z absolutely depends on at least one super-solid lightwallet to succeed. I will note that I run a couple of zcashd fullnodes and they haven’t given me any trouble.
I’ve been all over different light wallets recently. For a relatively large wallet with about 30 notes and 100+ transactions, not one wallet currently works. ZWL, Nighthawk, YWallet … desktop, mobile … none. Funds are essentially stranded.
As I was drafting this present forum comment, I was planning on writing some high praise for YWallet as a lifesaver:
YWallet is the reigning champion. I have a fairly old wallet with ~30 notes and ~100 transactions and the funds can ONLY be accessed with YWallet. Without YWallet I would have funds stranded and would be sour on Zcash TBH. So, many thanks to @hanh for keeping the dream alive.
BUT, as I was writing this post I went to send some funds on free2z … aaand … Ywallet is not syncing or even attempting to sync it seems. It’s stuck on 1727667 … current block is 1728793. So, about 1,000 blocks behind. Restarting didn’t help. There is no upgrade to get. Internet is strong. The sync indicator goes from “Disconnected” to 1727667 and back with no indication that it’s trying.
ZWL: Desktop crashes frequently, mobile doesn’t sync, crashes
Nighthawk: never worked on my devices. the times I’ve seen it work it’s too slow for my usage patterns
Zingo: still alpha, unreleased, based on same ZWL sync (for now)
YWallet: managed to sync and work a little bit yesterday on android, now it’s not syncing
I’m trying YWallet desktop now … it seems to be trying at least I’ll report back if it works or doesn’t … maybe there is a different public lightwalletd server to try? Seems like the problem must be with the backend at this point?
I plan to do my part to solve some of these problems or contribute to solutions. I plan to run lightwallet infra on free2z subdomain. I’m working on building all of the wallets and making contributions to the code. Here is my current synthetic trunk WIP aka THE ZUU:
Some of my next tasks:
- run my own lightwalletd on mainnet
- figure out how to build and work on YWallet
- make more contributions to zingolib and zingo-mobile
Right now free2z dev work is basically on hold for lack of usable wallets …
Totally agree. I wish that we were in a state where we needed a million-dollar marketing campaign right now. But, the product is not there. I’ve spent several 100 hours working on Zcash UI/UX this year, I run full nodes, I’ve build zcashd and lightwalletd from source, I’ve tried every shielded lightwallet that I’ve heard of. I’ve been a senior software engineer for about 15 years. I built free2z. I joined this forum ~a month after the genesis block in 2016. And even I can’t readily unstrand my funds. I guess I could go read up on zip-32 and figure out how to maybe load my seed phrase into a zcashd (which I run for about $50/month)… We want to bring this technology to the masses but right now it frankly takes an IQ of about 140 to be able to use Zcash at all.
I know centralization is a dirty word around here. But, we should consider the benefits and economy of scale that come with a measure of centralized oversight and direction:
Imagine if downstream dependents (like ZWL) were integrated and upgraded ahead of NU5 …
A metaphor I’ve been playing with is that we are trying to transport many tons of steel across a large ocean; but, instead of building a huge container ship, we’re trying to do it with a bunch of small sailboats. I don’t know if that metaphor is any good yet, still thinking about it. But, consider THE ZUU as an early sketch of what a container ship might look like. Come try it out and help me maintain it ;9
(about 400,000 blocks to go on YWallet sync/rescan on desktop 
…)