Grant Application - Zcash Integration for the Open Wallet Standard (OWS)

Community Grants
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GitHub Application: Issue #255

MoonPay open-sourced the Open Wallet Standard (OWS) on March 23, backed by PayPal, Circle, Ripple, Solana Foundation, Ethereum Foundation, and 15+ others. One BIP-39 seed, one encrypted vault, every chain. EVM, Solana, Bitcoin, Cosmos, Tron, TON, all supported. No privacy chains.

This grant adds Zcash to OWS with full PCZT signing support. Fork open-wallet-standard/core, implement the Zcash chain module, submit an upstream PR. Zcash becomes the first privacy-preserving chain in the standard.

What it does

OWS does the same thing for every chain: store keys, sign pre-built transactions. For EVM that’s signing RLP-encoded payloads. For Zcash that’s signing PCZTs.

The integration adds three commands:

  • ows wallet create - ZIP-32 key derivation from the shared BIP-39 seed, produces a Unified Address with Orchard and Sapling receivers alongside all other chains.

  • ows sign tx --chain zcash - The core deliverable. Takes a PCZT with proofs already applied, decrypts the spending key, applies Orchard/Sapling/transparent spend authorization signatures, returns the signed PCZT.

  • ows sign send-tx --chain zcash - Sign + finalize + broadcast via lightwalletd. End-to-end shielded send in one command.

This is the same PCZT-based signing pattern that Keystone ships via Zashi and OneKey is building under ZCG Grant #228.

Why now

OWS is at v1.0.0 and the chain interface is still being shaped. Agentic payments are moving from experimental to production - x402, MPP, A2A. The chains in OWS get distribution. The chains not in OWS don’t.

If Zcash isn’t in the standard when it matures, adding it later gets harder.

What already exists

The Zcash engine behind CipherScan and CipherPay and zipher-cli already implements ZIP-32 derivation, Sapling + Orchard proof generation, PCZT creation, and lightwalletd sync in production on mainnet. This grant is integration work, wiring that engine into OWS’s chain interface, not reimplementing Zcash cryptography.

Budget

$25,000 - 3 weeks full-time. Single milestone + startup payment.

  • Week 1: OWS codebase analysis, chain registration, ZIP-32 key derivation bridge

  • Week 2: PCZT signing (Orchard, Sapling, transparent), lightwalletd broadcast, tests

  • Week 3: Mainnet validation, upstream PR prep, docs, this forum post with results

Full application details in the GitHub issue linked above. Questions welcome.

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Zcash Community Grants Meeting Minutes 3/30/2026
Zcash Community Grants Meeting Minutes 4/13/2026
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OWS launched with MoonPay, PayPal, Circle, and Ripple backing it. Getting Zcash into that standard early is infrastructure that compounds.

Your CipherPay work already proves the crypto pieces are production-ready. This grant builds on that foundation.

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I started working on the OWS integration ahead of the grant decision. I believe this is important enough that waiting wasn’t an option, Zcash being in OWS alongside Ethereum, Solana, Bitcoin, and the rest puts it in front of every wallet and agent that adopts the standard. That’s distribution you can’t buy.

The core integration works: ZIP-32 derivation from the shared BIP-39 seed, PCZT signing (Orchard + Sapling + transparent), lightwalletd broadcast with TLS, all functional on mainnet. I submitted a demo to the OWS Hackathon to showcase real use cases built on top: an autonomous prediction market agent that funds cross-chain trades from Zcash’s shielded pool. The hackathon entry is a proof of concept for the grant deliverables, not separate work.

The code is functional but early. No audit, no edge case hardening, no upstream PR yet. That’s what the grant is for, turning a working proof of concept into a production-ready contribution with proper tests, docs, and a clean PR to open-wallet-standard/core.

If the grant gets accepted, the upstream integration ships faster with dedicated time for the polish that matters. If not, I’ll still release it, Zcash should be in every multi-chain standard that matters, and OWS is the one that’s gaining traction right now.

Here’s the tweet:

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@Kenbak at the most recent meeting, ZCG voted to approve this proposal. Congratulations!

To keep the community informed, ZCG requests that you provide monthly updates via the forum in this thread.

Please check your forum inbox for a direct message from FPF with important next steps, including a link to the Milestone Payment Request Form and your unique validation code for submitting payment requests.

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Amazing, thanks a lot! Back to work :saluting_face:

1 Like