Hi Zeeps,
“Isn’t this what we all wanted? We wanted mainstream adoption,” quipped an OG Bitcoiner to me at SALT’s Wyoming Blockchain Symposium this week as we walked into a small fundraising happy hour for US Senator Tim Scott.
We were talking about how this conference was unlike any we’d ever experienced in crypto. Yes, builders were there, but most attendees and speakers were financial leaders, hedge funds, and political types. As builders, we were in the minority.
The conference was held in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, beneath the Grand Tetons. It’s one of the most striking places on earth, with the mountains seemingly reaching for the skies about the streams, lakes, prairies, and wildlife below.
Wyoming is a perfect symbol for crypto. It was at the heart of the Wild West, along the Oregan trail, the home of a number of Native American tribes, and the hideout of bank robbers and gunslingers like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. It’s also been dubbed “The Equality State” because it was the first to grant women the right to vote in 1869.
And so it was a little ironic that the big money and power from NYC, Miami, SF, and Washington DC descended on the least populated state in the US to talk about the technology that will either free or enslave us.
Despite some of what you will read below, the conference was hugely important, and I’ll share some notes about it below near the bottom of the post. It was a reminder that the powers of this world are not working on our behalf. They are working to build their power and wealth. Let’s not be deceived. While crypto was once the Wild West, it is no longer. And there are only a few of us still fighting to provide the common man with the tools of freedom.
I took this picture at an evening event. Grant Golliher, a rancher and horse whisperer, is the man with the horse. He and his wife, Jane, are the real deal, and I loved how he interacted with the horses. He wasn’t doing tricks but demonstrating how to build trust, love, and friendship.
During the exhibition, he remarked, “You have to build respect before you build friendship.” I was standing next to an attorney, friend, and OG Zcasher. He leaned into me and said, “We’re all just animals.”
Grant, the horse whisperer, told us how they used to “bust” horses through control and forced submission. But he and those before him found a better way, with respect for the horse and cooperating, caring, and learning from one another.
It reminded me of different power dynamics.
One is subjugation in formal power structures, such as in authoritarian regimes. I’d equate this to bronco busting, where the one in a position of power abuses its position by strong-arming compliance. These abuses are usually quite blatant.
Another form of power can come through a network of people cooperating for a common good. This has all kinds of challenges because everyone is primarily self-interested. Still, it is undergirded by a common set of values and ideals that can lead to symbiosis. That’s what I saw in Grant’s relationship with the horse and when we are at our best in crypto.
A third means of power is coercive, often where the one in power seeks to maintain control through manipulating others to achieve their ends. In many cases, the one coercing may believe they are doing it in the best interest of the greater good. But it’s a great deception. They are deceiving others and deceiving themselves. Sadly, we are seeing this happen with the financialization of crypto. We are being swallowed by the Matrix.
I was reminded of this again today when I came across this tweet.
We easily give up our freedom for “safety” and luxury, ignoring that we are increasingly under someone else’s thumb.
Big power and big money are descending on crypto as they descended on Jackson Hole this week. They speak of the benefits of transparency, that KYC is necessary for defi proliferation, and that by submitting to surveillance, we’ll all be rich and happy. Give us wealth and comfort, and we’ll blissfully submit.
One hedge fund manager told me this week that “privacy has lost.”
Here’s the thing. He’s right if we give up and give in. He’s wrong if we don’t.
We won’t give in.
And we’ll continue to build a new system where humankind is truly free.
Few.
Big week. Here are a few other things the team was up to:
Zashi
A new Zashi for iOS and SDK dropped this week with currency conversion (via Tor), TEX address support, and transparent transaction history restoration. Android will be released next week. Read all about it!
Design
- Finalizing new design system in Figma
- Reorganized Figma file to help navigate feature design flows and document design process
- Tweaks to Transaction History UI so a button to Save address to Address Book can be added, and collapsing/expanding functionality can be improved
- Prepared initial designs for the gift card integration with Raise
- Exploring new options for Receive screen redesign
- Ad hoc design tweaks for the dev team
iOS
Unique Installs: 2.69k
Rating: 4.9 ★
- Extensive testing of ZIP 320 and transparent history changes
- Collaborated closely with the Core Team on the related FFI changes
- Prepared SDK releases and app releases
- Finalizing shielding UI update and testing
- Rebased Dynamic Server Switch code
- Started working on Settings and Advanced Settings UI update
- Priority: prepare a new build for submission with Dynamic Server Switch, Coinbase Onramp, shielding transaction UI update and Settings UI update
Android
Total Install Base: 1.7k
Rating: 4.609 ★
- Extensive testing of ZIP 320 and transparent history changes
- Working on SDK release and app release
- Working on shielding UI updates and testing
- Next: Settings and Advanced Settings UI update
- Priority: prepare a new build for submission with Dynamic Server Switch, Coinbase Onramp, shielding transaction UI update and Settings UI update
Zcash Core
- Successful setup and testing of NU6 in the private testnet, including activation, zcashd wallet testing, lockbox and ZCG distribution verification, and ZIP 236.
- Troubleshooting Android SDK target API compatibility
- Some PTO
Other
I’ve been getting DMs from community members with some cool and creative ideas! I’m sorry I haven’t responded to them yet, but keep them coming! I’ll get caught up this week.
I began conversations with the Optimism team about their general and funding governance and what we might learn from it.
Relatedly, I’d love to see others in the community lean into more discussions on governance in September. We’ll help facilitate if no one else steps up.
The Keystone hardware wallet team is off and running, and Liz from LE is now in a group Slack for audit coordination.
@tonym met with ZF to discuss a license to continue supporting Zcash properties on the web. We haven’t yet heard how they will use the mark.
We filed paperwork for D&O insurance renewal—the fun stuff.
We released a video with @daira explaining why privacy is so important: “Privacy allows people to think freely.” Yes! I was disappointed to see some of the garbage responses expressed on X. We Zcashers come from all sorts of backgrounds and with different beliefs. But we have a common cause, Zeeps! Freedom of speech and expression is important for everyone.
I met with the UPA this week to select a candidate for an interim ED. More soon.
ECC officially closed its physical Denver office this week. Thanks to Janie for taking care of all the details! We’re now fully remote. End of an era.
I’ll attend Token 2049 and the Network State conferences in Singapore in September. Let me know if you plan to be there, and let’s meet up.
Some other notes and anecdotes from the SALT conference this week:
I had a remarkable conversation with former CFTC commissioner J. Christopher Giancarlo, who is now heading the Digital Dollar Project, which is bringing together commercial and government powers to build what amounts to a CDBC. He was on a panel with other former SEC and CFTC leaders and advocated for privacy. I approached him at a small evening gathering to dig into his thoughts more specifically. I came away troubled. While he believes that privacy is necessary for a digital dollar, he believes that law enforcement should be able to run nodes that give them visibility into transactions to spot potentially nefarious behavior. A legitimized main-in-the-middle. He’s well-connected and intelligent. This is why we need Zcash.
I heard from several people that Zcash is the last legitimate, uncompromised project, encouraging us to remain steadfast. Few remain.
I met with Charles Hoskinson and then Eran Barak, who is heading the Midnight project, currently under IOHK. They are using Halo2 and are currently completing their work to add recursion. Once the audit is complete, likely in early 2025, they will upstream the code so we can use it in Zcash. This is huge! We’ll set some follow-ups.
Marc, who runs crypto fundraising for St. Jude, told me their first donation was Zcash. Donate more, Zeeps! He also mentioned that the max they can accept is $50k in ZEC if they can’t see the source. This is due to scammers and hackers sending funds that might be reclaimed by the government later.
I attended a small fundraiser for Senator Tim Scott, which several notable politicians and power players, including Senator Cynthia Lummis, former Senator Cory Gardner, former SEC chairman Jay Clayton, and former CFTC commissioner J. Christopher Giancarlo, also attended. If the Republicans win the Senate, Tim Scott is positioned to head the Senate Banking Committee and announced he will set up a subcommittee for crypto.
Other notable meetings and connections were made with Blackrock, Kraken, Cointracker, Anchorage, Blockchain, several Zcashers and Monero users, and a few attorneys and hedge funds.
A few other notes:
- Proven cases were frequently mentioned as the key for this next phase of crypto
- Tokenization of other financial assets that can be traded 24x7 is a priority for large funds
- Identity, pooling fragmented liquidity, and chain interoperability were frequently mentioned
- ZK was frequently mentioned as the means to solve identity
- The importance of being able to stake with custodians also frequently came up
- Chain transparency is viewed as a critical feature to allow institutions to monitor on-chain activity
- Solona co-founder Raj Gokal talked about how the community was galvanized by a meme coin lunch and the importance of fun for driving adoption at scale.
- Interesting panel on decentralization and securities law. Highly relevant to Zcash. General consensus that capital raising is different than the product generated from that raise, but questions about when it stops being a capital raise.
That’s all of this week!
Eyes wide open Zeeps. The world will try to coerce us. However few, we must stay true!
Onward.
Awesome.
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