Hey zodlers, zeeps and zebras.
Some of you know that I’ve been working in Ethereum and Bitcoin post ECC, namely focused on a solution called “rollups”. I’m writing this post to outline some thoughts on the experience, how it compares to zcash and some calls to action.
Motivation
My motivation is to support those building rollup-like systems, with zcash style shielded pools, on top of bitcoin. I think bitcoin is a superior asset and that a zcash style transaction layer will reach more people than zcash itself. This does not mean I think people shouldn’t build zcash as an alternative chain. It’s simply a thesis I have. I could be wrong. If I knew I was wrong, I’d quit my work.
Experience
I recently worked in Ethereum and now work in Bitcoin full time. Freedom and decentralization are often terms thrown around by people.
Unfortunately, the guise of freedom is often veiled in VC-pumped Ponzi schemes, token warrants to partners and desires to get rich concealed in WAGMI culture.
A minority still care about core tenants related to censorship resistance, freedom to transact, privacy and un-fuck-with-able money. A lot more (or so it seems) care about number go up, appeasing the feds and other less interesting outcomes.
Now I do think censorship resistant online economies (Ordinals, memecoins, etc) are interesting and worth building. Free markets rock! But seeing project after project launch with the same playbook, token allocations and exit strategies, is a bit tiring.
Infinite projects building this and competing over the same apps and users is unnecessary.
I also get told all the time that “privacy is unachievable” or that “the regulators would never allow it a scale”. To that I’d respond “scale is a surveillance regime”. The push back is often ignored, which is fine. Privacy should be a choice and not everyone should prioritize building it. It’s a dangerous game. Not everyone should be expected to engage. The brave few, however, do.
My experience can be summarized as seeing a lot of really smart people trying to solve really hard problems, and business incentives often make reaching the end game much harder.
Comparison
Now, I do see that the financial incentives fund really amazing research. The things that have been accomplished in Ethereum and Bitcoin are amazing (likewise that Zcash’s funding model funded amazing things that have changed the world forever, and for good). The research is fascinating. And, the developer communities are thriving.
I think this energy allows people to “co-opt” the system and leverage research and funding to get to the end stage they envision. Privacy is one of these outcomes in my opinion. And I do think bitcoin and Ethereum will have improved privacy protocols. I also think alternatives are needed. Insert Zcash.
I really struggle with seeing the community argue in such politically motivated ways. Personal agendas were all to see in the latest dev fund discussion, and I really thought it was a bad look from the outside. Cypherpunks don’t attempt to instill control on the issuance model.
To the contrary, however, I believe that disagreeing in public, even when harsh, is well needed. Recently, I’ve been called a paid shill, scammer, shitcoiner and worse. It’s an anarchic system we participate in. This is expected and I mute the comments and move on.
The “comments” I’ve seen marked as offensive are really tame to what else goes on in other ecosystems. Where you see unity, others see lack of fire. Where you see cohesiveness, others see centralization.
I really implore some of you to be more vocal. You are extremely smart and talented. I want to personally thank @emersonian and others for pushing back on the surveillance grant QEDIT was about to receive. This work would’ve marked the end of zcash entirely.
Back to the point. Zcash is on an island and needs to leave personal agendas at the door and be ready to integrate back into the broader crypto ecosystem. The research and privacy communities seek you all.
Outcomes
Zcash needs to be apart of the greater privacy and crypto economies. I strongly believe it is isolated, and it appears that others feel the same. I believe it needs to fight more vocally against the incentives at play in many ecosystems, and support developers, on any chain, who are forwarding privacy.
This community centric contribution will also enable zcash to tap into the resources that other ecosystems provide, namely generated via treasuries and funding models.
To accomplish this, I believe Zcash needs:
- community liaisons that represent the community at privacy events, even those in competing ecosystems
- Research groups covering Zcash as a part of the modular blockchain ecosystem. I think a community liaison should also be funded to participate in other ecosystems community efforts and provide feedback to the Zcash community. An example of this could be celestia’s zk working group.
- Events and online working groups focused solely on digital cash use cases. We need to be in the trenches at events focused on cypherpunk money.
My thesis isn’t that we need more people building here. We need more people building in other places. We need to extend the communities we interact with in an official capacity.
My next step will be drafting an unofficial RFP for community members to do this. I will support you in drafting a proposal to ZCG and other grants communities to get this funded. I did this for ZecHub and got them funded the first time round. Happy to do it again for something I find important.
More information on these potential programs will come in a following post. For now, I would appreciate feedback on the ideas and how we could make them worthwhile.
Thanks for reading. Don’t sell your bitcoin to Feds. Don’t sell your zcash to whales who will push for centralized proof of stake protocols.
Cypherpunk, digital cash is the endgame. Everything else is noise.
With love,
Janusz
