Grant Application - ZECsy Community Building: 12 Months of Zcash on the Ground

readymouse · September 1, 2026, 6:06am

Many thanks to ZCG for believing in me, and valuing our work.

readymouse · September 30, 2026, 3:12pm

ZECsy Monthly Report: September 2026

Reporting period: Sep 1 to Sep 30, 2026
Milestone: Milestone 1 of 9
Grant: ZECsy Annual IRL Program, approved through nine-month milestones

1. Summary

Zcash use among sex workers and small businesses is growing on its own. We are tracking twenty providers now publicly list ZEC as a way to pay them, and two small businesses, graphic artist Angelica and Working Girls Press, began accepting ZEC; Working Girls Press ran live sales through CipherPay at our Amsterdam booth. Requests for workshops are now coming to us unprompted. A Chicago organizer who found Violet’s guides is recruiting students and a venue for an October 14 workshop, a Boston collective is offering its vetted mailing list for a November session, and workers in Ottawa have asked about workshops in their city. Our separately funded Cypherpunk Week trip to Amsterdam drew about 200 check-ins, trained apprentice Molly Simmons, and brought in the Prostitution Information Center and CryptoCanal as partners for a planned February 2027 workshop. We completed Milestone 1 and spent $30,883 of the $45,833 startup payment on team compensation and advance bookings for Exxxotica NJ, Devcon8 Mumbai, and Exxxotica Miami, and every annual deliverable is on pace.

2. Milestone status

Milestone declaration: This document serves as the report for completion of Milestone 1.

3. Deliverables tracker

Pace note: Startup funding used to plan for October and future events. Everything is on pace for completion.

4. Cumulative evidence of Zcash use

4.1 Zcash in the wild

Violet @fabacab maintains a list of sex workers who now publicly list that they accept ZEC (or other cryptocurrencies via Swaps in ZODL). This shows the real impact of the workshops, outreach and people using ZEC in the wild. Note: We only include workers who publicly report accepting ZEC, to respect people’s privacy and disclosure decisions. Currently 20 providers are listed.
- Finding Providers Who Take Cryptocurrency • Violet Rollergirl • Hacker chic companionship
Violet also maintains a BlueSky Starterpack for Zcash related accounts, who want to follow the currency. This is recommended to workers who are now interested in zcash, and want to follow updates on social media.
- Bluesky
Mylo hired Angelica (@bugknife.bsky.social on Bluesky) who now accepted Zcash for graphic art and design contracts. She designed the poster for Amsterdam as well as the program insert for Exxxotica NJ.
Screenshot 2026-09-30 at 10.52.17514×688 128 KB
We are working with Justine, owner of Apex Latex (https://www.apexlatex.com), who will be vending at the zcash booth at Exxxotica NJ as a demonstration of CipherPay’s point of sales system. We plan to work in the next month to try and integrate CipherPay directly into the site. Justine joined us in Berlin Blockchain week and is returning as a veteran for Exxxotica NJ.

4.2 Second-generation onboarding

For each workshop, we establish a Signal chat for that cohort. We intend to send out polls to the Signal chats 1-month after the workshop to ask about how many others they have onboarded as well as number of transactions they have completed to gauge ongoing usage. We will report results as we have them.

4.3 Community signals

Violet was invited by E.M. to give a workshop in Chicago. See Section 5.2 for discussions on the event. E.M. personally reached out to Violet after reading her guides, and has done most of the legwork to find a venue and recruit interested students.
A worker in Ottawa, CN saw the post about the Chicago workshop and reached out to see how a workshop could be set up or brought to Canada to support workers in her area.

4.4 In their own words

Commendation for Violet’s resources and guides on Bluesky.
@zahrakamasi.bsky.social on Bluesky

An appreciative text message that Violet received when learning we were returning to Exxxotica NJ, after Exxxotica Chicago that we staffed a zcash booth for in April 2026. We gave out clear plastic kits with various hygiene and harm reduction supplies.

Highlights from Molly’s experience being an apprentice with us during Common S3nse in Amsterdam. See her full comments in our post-trip report for the event, and excerpt here:
- “[…] I was, however, incredibly surprised to learn the ease with which I was able to pick up the ins and outs of Zodl, Zcash, and CipherPay with the help of my other Zcash team members.
- I’m leaving incredibly excited to continue using Zcash for my business, and am even talking with Mylo about the possibility to get Cipher Pay integrated with the website for my publishing house, Working Girls Press.
- I’m leaving the experience feeling much more knowledgable about the world as a whole, and confident in my ability to onboard others, both from a logistical standpoint and in my ability to demonstrate how it can improve our lives and ability to survive and thrive though sex workers are constantly debanked and face financial discrimination.
- I’m very grateful to have had this experience and was touched that sex worker voices and perspectives were included by the Zcash team, and that my experience and insight was valued.” – Molly Simmons

5. Activations and workshops

5.1 Completed Events

Cypherpunk Week in Amsterdam, September 2 -4

Type: Side event + Booth
Crew: Violet Parr, Mylo Bennett, Kate Stapleton, Molly Simmons
Apprentice trained: Molly Simmons
Format: Common S3nse conference plus 2 walking tour side events, and post-tour drinks

What happened: This is not apart of this grant, as it was approved on the side but during the month of September we staffed a booth at Common S3nse and hosted side events.

Outcomes:

ZECsy’s Amsterdam trip (Cypherpunk Week, Sept 1–5) delivered strong on-the-ground results: the team hosted a booth plus four side events (two walking tours and two afterparties) alongside Common S3nse and DashCon, reaching roughly 200 Luma checkins, 90% booth foot traffic, and 33 new contacts.
Concrete onboarding wins included a tour guide, six tour attendees, a hackathon builder who shipped a Zcash-based poker app, and a graphic artist and small business (Working Girls Press) both adopting @Kenbak’s CipherPay for payments.
Beyond onboarding, the trip built real relationship capital: new ties with Dash, Zano, Web3Privacy Now, OtterSec, and, notably, the Prostitution Information Center and CryptoCanal founder Eleonore, both eager to host a future sex-worker-focused privacy workshop, which the team flagged as needing a “scouting trip first, workshop second” model going forward.
The event closed essentially on budget (about $800 over a $30k budget) and surfaced clear next steps: revise info cards since Payy Network is shutting down, source SWAG locally to avoid shipping delays, and build a one-page Zcash fact sheet and an apprentice onboarding guide for future trips.

Documentation: The full post-trip report can be found at:

5.2 Updates to In-Progress Events

Boston Workshop, date TBD

Type: Workshop
Crew: Violet (instructor)
Apprentice trained: TBD
Format: Private workshop for vetted students

What happened: Violet and I met with C. from Boston Sex Worker’s and Allies Collective (https://bswac.org/). C is very interested in partnering with us to host a workshop in the Boston area. BSWAC already has a mailing list of vetted workers in the area, that they will leverage to help us fill the room. They also have connections to safe venues.

Outcomes: We are targeting a mid-November event, and will update as we know more.

Documentation: TBD

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Chicago Workshop, October 14, 2026

Type: Workshop
Crew: Violet (instructor)
Apprentice trained: NA
Format: Private workshop for vetted students

What happened: Violet received an inquiry via her website after a sex worker E. M. read her resources guides on her personal website. E. M. is associated with a group in Chicago, and asked Violet if she was willing to run a workshop. E.M. already is willing and able to find students and a venue. This is exciting because they reached out to Violet directly, demonstrating real signal that these workshops are desired.

Outcomes: Event planed for October 14, 2026.

Documentation:

Luma link: Chicagoland ZECsy Workshop: Cryptocurrency for Providers · Luma

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Exxxotica Edison NJ, Oct 22-25

Type: Conference Booth
Crew: Mylo Bennett, Violet Parr, Kate Stapleton, and Justine (from Berlin Blockchain Week)
Apprentices: Eve, Avery
Format: Staffed booth at the main event

What happened: The ZECsy team is preparing for the event.

Paid for a premium booth which includes ad placement o
n the website, and an insert into the program. ($2,900) Zcash at EXXXOTICA
The program insert was designed by Angelica, a ZEC-accepting graphic artist. See the two women in the kitchen.

We booked ground transportation, and hotels logistics for all 6 team members.
Justine, who worked with us for Berlin Blockchain Week, will be joining as a vendor-in-residence at our booth. Justine will get set up with CipherPay.app, accepting ZEC for her items at our booth. During Cypherpunk Week in Amsterdam, we hosted Working Girl’s Press, and found that having a ZEC-accepting vendor at our booth was a great demonstration of the technology. People need to see what’s possible, and this is a great example of a Point of Sales system.
Kate Stapleton @kate.stapes is a veteran zcash advocate from Cypherpunk Week in Amsterdam, and will support Exxxotica with her expertise in business development and onboarding everyday users.
Mylo is working on SWAG giveaways. For Chicago we gave away 600 pouches that contained an info card about zcash, some condoms, wet wipes, and other emergency helpful supplies. We received great feedback on the kits, that they were valuable and also memorable. We are planning on 1000 kits, as we expect a larger crowd.
We will try to host a sex worker focused workshop alongside the main event, but will not count this towards the weekend workshops funded separately by ZCG. This will be a bonus workshop. This workshop will be an experience if we get high attendance because the conference draws a crowd, or we get low attendance if the conference distracts people who would otherwise attend.

Outcomes: TBD

Documentation:

Luma event: ZECsy at Exxxotica Edison, NJ · Luma
Zcash at EXXXOTICA

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Mumbai Devcon8, Nov 2- 6

Type: Conference Attendance + Side Event
Crew: Mylo Bennett, Violet Parr, Kate Stapleton
Apprentices: Evi Nova

Mylo and Violet first met Evi during Buenos Aires devconnect, then saw her again at Berlin Blockchain Week. Mylo invited her to India because her technical background in smart contract development.
- https://au.linkedin.com/in/evinova

Format: Networking at main event, and university-focused side event

What happened: The ZECsy team is preparing for the event.

Mylo finalized the team capable of traveling. Arranged hotel and flights, plus have applied for travel VISAs to India.
Side Event:
- Leveraging Kate’s contacts, we are working to host an event for students. Since @webzero is hosting a hackathon, we will not be including this element as we don’t want to overlap with their efforts. Webzero is not focusing on university students, and so we will take this market share.
- Our current plan is for a university student focused talk and networking event. This would include an overview of zcash from a user’s perspective and then a developer-focused talk about building on zcash. I am thinking approximately 50-80 students, with networking drinks and pizza to follow. We will have ZEC giveaways for downloading the wallet and other onboarding activities.
- Mylo will prepare a set of project ideas for zcash development, that students could apply for a Zcash Community Grant to support the work. If students are committed, Kate and Mylo will review applications for the grants before they submit.
Our goal for attending is to build relationships with other privacy-focused projects and organizations in the space. These connections will aide in getting us speaking slots at future conferences, collaborations for events, as well as our awareness of tools in the space.
- Example: Mylo is particularly looking for accounting, bookkeeping, and payroll options that might work for businesses who want to accept Zcash.

Outcomes: TBD

Documentation:

Luma Links for attending main events: ZECsy at ETH Cypherpunk Congress #3 · Luma, ZECsy at Devcon 8 · Luma
Our luma links for university side event: TBD

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Exxxotica Miami FL, Dec 4 -6

Type: Conference Booth
Crew: Mylo Bennett, Violet Parr, Kate Stapleton
Apprentices: A. O., TBD #1 and TBD #2
Format: Staffed booth at the main event

What happened: The ZECsy team is preparing for the event.

Paid for a premium booth which includes ad placement on the website, and an insert into the program. ($2,900) Zcash at EXXXOTICA
- Note: Change of sponsorship tier, see Section 9 for full details.
We booked hotel to ensure we had space in the host hotel, as they book early.
A. O. was selected as both an adult industry professional but with experience in cybersecurity. We believe his combination of technical expertise and industry knowledge expertise will enhance the experience of those visiting our booth.

Outcomes: TBD

Documentation:

Luma event: ZECsy at Exxxotica Miami · Luma

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5.3 Other In-Progress Event Planning

Montreal Workshop: We got interest in collaborating with local workers, and will pursue a phone call to organize timing, venue, etc.
Amsterdam Workshop: We are looking at returning to Amsterdam around late February 2027 to align with other sex worker gathering happening at that time.
New Orleans Workshop: We are looking at collaborating with Working Girl’s Press who plans to attend a poetry and small-business printing press gathering in mid-April 2027. This would be an opportunity to interact with small businesses, as well as workers in the area. Working Girl’s Press accepted ZEC during Amsterdam’s Common S3nse conference at our booth as a CipherPay Point of Sales demonstration.
ETHDenver Feb 2027: Mylo and Kate are brainstorming ideas for a larger conference or activation in Denver. They will be networking during Devcon in India for connections and partners who will make a larger event successful. They will work on a specific plan in October, to have concrete asks ahead of Zcon7 in Cancun and Devcon8 in Mumbai.
Kate Stapleton @kate.stapes plans to attend DC Privacy Summit in DC including PGPZ’s Cypherpunk Dinner. She is not using ZECsy grant funds for this trip in mid-October.

6. Work outside events and workshops

Zcash Marketing Station:

I set up a Zcash marketing section of my basement, as I source materials in bulk. Rather than buying 200-300 condoms every event, I ordered 2k yellow condoms to save money and serve us for at least the next 2-3 events. This will serve as a staging area, as well as inventory tracking for what I have set aside for each event.

Currently I am preparing for Exxxotica NJ, Zcon7, and Devcon8 in India. I have the SWAG packs for the booth in NJ, plus leftover yellow/black aprons from Chicago. I will also store durable items such as the yellow kitchen backdrop, sign standers, and business card holders.

6.1 Field reports routed to the teams who own them

6.2 Collaboration with other grantees and ecosystem projects

Mylo joined Elzz @elzz-ux in her Proof of Privacy initiative. On September 2nd Mylo and Elzz hosted an X space to talk about zkSNARKs and other privacy-preserving aspects of Zcash. We had 390 participants on the call which gener ated quite a bit of Twitter buzz.
- The Proof of Privacy class resulted in a Twitter/X trending topic with a summary with 3.8k views:
- Zcash Class Explains Privacy Tech with zk-SNARKs / X

Mylo and Kate met with Divij Pandya @divijpandya of PGPZ to talk about collaborations between our grant work.
- Grant Application - Pretty Good Policy for Zcash
- Outcome: PGPZ and ZECsy team will create a FAQ sheet for those interested in the legal and revelatory status of Zcash to distribute at booths and crypto-focused evented.

6.3 Partnerships, introductions, and connections made

Mylo and Violet talked with Natalia James of the United Auto Workers union about the need for financial resiliency in at-risk communities. No tangible takeaway at this time, but an interesting connection.
Mylo connected with L. H. working at harm reduction efforts in NYC. She will be a valuable resource for providing harm reduction supplies for Exxxotica booths. We found harm reduction supplies were popular during Chicago, and we aim to provide more of these items as value SWAG attracts people to our booth for conversations. It also also such fun quips as “At zcash, we aim to protect your privacy and your physical layer.” The condoms are for “shielding your liquid transcations”.

6.4 Community and governance participation

Mylo and Violet are planning to attend Zcon7 as invited speakers.
- Zcash Foundation 🛡️ on X: "🔐 Privacy isn't a luxury. For many people it's a necessity. @zreadymouse, @rollergirlVi, @evan_greer and @scottonder on financial privacy and marginalized communities, moderated by Alex Bornstein. 🎤 📆 Oct 27–29, 2026, Cancún Don't miss it - apply today → https://… / X
Mylo voted in the ZCAP poll.

6.5 Tools, documents, and materials produced

During Amsterdam Cypherpunk week it was clear that we needed a 1 page summary flier for zcash. In preparation for Exxxotica in Edison, NJ I began the process of creating a 1-page summary for users and a second page for businesses.
- When finished, we will post the fliers on a resources pages off ZECsy.com for other marketing teams to use.

6.6 Program development

Now, attending sex worker meetups and support groups is a recruiting apprentices activity, which the team will continue to participate in.

7. Budget and spend

Startup payment: $45,833

Spent this month: $30,883

Variance and savings: On budget, aside from major change outlined in section 9.

8. Learnings and changes

What worked: The ability to plan months in advance allowed us to make cost savings by buying in bulk and also align with other organizations better.
What did not: Molly S. highlighted the need for better materials for apprentices coming to the booth. She was comfortable with the zcash-related technical onboarding, but wanted clearer instructions on how to handle various questions from attendees.
Change we are making next month: We have an onboarding document for new apprentices to read before attending a booth about common questions we get and how to respond.
- Ex. Politely inform inquiring smart contract auditors that zcash doesn’t have smart contracts and therefore we don’t need their services.

9. Major Changes

For Exxxotica Miami, I planned for the Seminar Tier Sponsorship at ~$18k, but unfortunately this option was sold out. My intentions are to use these funds to return to Amsterdam for a follow-up workshop. We made connections with the Prostitution Information Center and CryptoCanal who both pledged their support and excitement for a ZECsy workshop. We are targeting a February return trip. We will keep the committee posted about appropriate allocation of these funds.

10. Risks, blockers, and asks

Risks:
- Pending approval of Indian VISAs for team members traveling to Devcon8 Mumbai
Asks of ZCG or the ecosystem:
- What bookkeeping and accounting systems do ZEC operating business use?

Note: All monthly report and post-trip reports can be found at ZECsy_Team_Reports - Google Drive

kate.stapes · September 30, 2026, 3:28pm

Attending Amsterdam was an incredibly refreshing crypto event experience- as someone who’s been attending events in the space since 2013, I met a lot of new faces in privacy, which is rare. We made some really great connections that we will lean into for events moving forwards and just to have in the ZCash network in general. Really looking forwards to the upcoming events and expanding out reach and audience through this ZECsy grant!

readymouse · October 31, 2026, 5:25am

ZECsy Trip Report: Exxxotica, NJ, Oct 23-25th

Zcash Grassroots Marketing Team · @readymouse , @fabacab , @kate.stapes

Hello friends,

I would like to thank @ZCG for their continued support for this grant, and our outreach to the adult entertainment industry. According to Research and Markets, the adult entertainment industry is $78 billion, with the largest independent video creator market, OnlyFans, taking in $6 billion itself from fans. The average OnlyFans subscriber pays between $10 to $50 a month, and nearly 30,000 fans attended Exxxotica NJ. This represents nearly $300,000 to $1.5 million in monthly revenue opportunities that walked past the Zcash booth over the course of the weekend. More than 700 fans, creators, and vendors stopped by our booth and learned about Zcash.

We chose a kitchen theme for the booth, because the kitchen is where you gather to share ideas, get advice, share a meal, and share stories. We connect in the kitchens of our lives. Here, we give out wet wipes, Tide-stain remover wipes, and other emergency supplies. In each small kit, we included a Zcash information card and a Zcash information flyer.

Our team from left to right: Avery, Violet, Kate, Eve, Mylo, Justine

Daily posts on Twitter (@zReadyMouse):
Day 1 [Viral Tweet]: https://x.com/zReadyMouse/status/2113735056178962574
Day 2 [Global Pandemic Tweet]: Mylo on X: "Day 2: Zcash at @EXXXOTICA . @rollergirlVi and @kate_stapes in Mama's zcash kitchen. Giving away protections for your body and your money. Privacy is ZECsy." / X
Day 3: Mylo on X: "Day 3 @EXXXOTICA: A non-profit approached us with an all too common problem. They have fiat with a fiscal sponsor, but CashApp banned their account, how can they distribute funds to their members and mutual aid recipients?" / X

Stats

~700 individual interactions (tracked via SWAG distribution)
2 side events attended (afterparties)
1 main event + booth
2 advocates and educators trained

Cumulative Impact Summary

We gave out over 700 plastic pouches with Zcash information cards as well as emergency supplies like wet wipes, Tide-to-go stain remover and make-up remover. Each pouch was given and at least a short conversation was had with the receiver. By tracking pouches distributed, we can track the number of conversations we have over the course of the weekend. See the information flyers we made below, soon they will be posted for other marketing teams to use.

ZECsy Apprentice(s): Eve and Avery

What they took on: Onboarding and talking about Zcash at the booth and on the conference floor.
What they can now do unsupervised: Both Eve and Avery are comfortable walking someone through Zodl as well as talking about the features like encrypted memos and transparent vs shielded addresses. They are also able to explain and demonstrate off-ramping via crypto-backed payment card services such as KAST.
In their words:
- “This weekend at Exxxotica was a transformative experience for me, as well as the dozens of people I onboarded to Zcash. Having been a Zcash evangelist online for about a year, I realized there is something magic and irreplaceable about doing this in person. Framing is everything, and people are often the victims of inertia. When you tell them about a new thing, “I’ll do it later” never comes. But when I whip out my phone and show them how easy it is, their eyes light up. People often recoil when they find out that zcash is a cryptocurrency, which is totally understandable! Crypto folks living in a bubble may not realize that crypto has a bad rap, because of all the rug pulls and scams, because of the environmental impact some blockchains have, and of course because of how shitty a large chunk of the community can be. But people understand the need for private transactions, especially as sex workers. Even though porn is legal, so many of us are being banned from venmo and cashapp, even twitter and instagram. The framing I found worked best was to “imagine signal for your money, imagine cashapp that can’t ban you, doesn’t need your ID, can’t know who you are or how much you have or who you’re transacting with.” Once I explained it that way, peoples’ eyes lit up.
- The most common question I got asked was “okay, I got the zodl wallet, but now what? How do I actually get zcash?” I could have suggested an exchange like kraken, but these aren’t crypto folks. These are marginalized and vulnerable people who just need a way to safely get paid. What no one knew until I explained it, was that zcash isn’t just a cryptocurrency, it’s an entire software ecosystem that provides a workaround for censorship. Thanks to zodl’s swap and crosspay features, I was able to demonstrate how someone can receive zcash from a cashapp user sending USDC. This is crucial, because as sex workers we know all too well how hard it is to get our customers to even fully read our ads and follow our instructions, let alone adopt new ways of doing things.
- But realizing that we don’t have to, is a game changer. Once people realized that they can get paid in zcash from the same clients who insist on still using cashapp, they were in. Showing people how to get a visa debit card through Kast that they can preload with zcash and use with apple pay or google wallet blew their minds. I’ve been an evangelist for signal private messenger since 2015, and the level of frustration and hopelessness I have felt trying to get people to care about their privacy cannot be exaggerated. But we are in a different era now, and people learn real fast when it affects their ability to eat and pay bills. And it gets better. I was shocked that onboarding people to zcash over the weekend became a gateway to get some people onboarded to signal private messenger, as well as using password managers like bitwarden and keepass as well.
- The need for privacy has an urgency that it didn’t before, especially in this community. I make porn. I am an escort. I am trans. I am not a “crypto bro” or a “shill.” These things make me a credible messenger for an extremely necessary and powerful safety preserving tool that would otherwise be dismissed as “more crypto bullshit.” And all of these things would have been impossible to convey unless I had 10 minutes to stand there, face to face, in my stiletto pump heels and fishnets, looking out for them as one of them.” - Avery

**
ZECsy Veterans:** Justine returned to support the Zcash booth after supporting us during Berlin Blockchain week in June 2026. She demonstrated the CipherPay point of sales system by selling latex products at our booth. Kate Stapleton also returned to support this event, after supporting Amsterdam Cypherpunk Week in September 2026.

Interesting Conversations

Violet did an interview with Pink Rock Femme at the STDHero booth. She talked about Zcash and the importance of financial sovereignty for the adult entertainment industry. This video got 14k views on X, and more on BlueSky. See the full video at:
image1094×1118 195 KB
- https://x.com/rollergirlVi/status/2114583972172755257
- @violetrollergirl.com on Bluesky
Mylo connected with New Jersey Red Umbrella Alliance to talk about their struggles with de-banking and loosing CashApp. The organization has a traditional fiat bank account, and dispersed funds via sending first to the director’s CashApp and then direct mutual aide to unhoused populations and individuals via CashApp. CashApp has now banned the organization’s account, resulting in a complete lack of ability to distribute funds. They are seeking resources for alternative methods, and were deeply interested in what Zcash has to offer.
- Mylo will follow up with the executive director after the conference.
A creator who is also a software developer was so immediately blown away by the Zcash team that she went home to start developing a clip site, with direct to consumer sales with ZEC. She aims to have a prototype in the next few weeks, that will take payments and unlock videos for the customers after ZEC payments are confirmed on-chain.

People we met before who we saw again:

People often need 3 touch points to convert. Violet and Mylo met a creator at a party hosted by one of our prior ZECsy apprentices in April 2025. Mylo then talked to this friend about Zcash in particular over Signal in August of 2026, but they weren’t ready to commit. This lovely human attended our booth in Oct 2026, and finally downloaded Zodl. She is now very interested in diving deeper through a workshop or extended conversations.
We also reconnected with many of the creators and vendors we met during Exxxotica Chicago.

Social Media: Zip-Zap
Mylo’s day 1 post showed the flyers on the booth table that included a small black cat, our ZECsy mascot lovingly named Zip-Zap the ZECsy cat. This post gained ~11.3k impressions, almost 10x my average post impressions. Many Twitter users zoomed in on this cat resulting in Zip-Zap going semi-viral. An X community was created including many memes as well as at least 6 tokens on Pump.Fun.

The X Community: $Zip-Zap - The Zecsy Cat Community / X

A token was also launched by an unknown party for both Zip-Zap and ZECsy. We did not create this token!

As a result of Zip-Zap’s popularity, my second tweet about Exxxotica went viral.

Social Media: Dev Fund Debate

Mylo’s Day 2 post to twitter went pandemic-level viral with over 140k impressions, nearly 100x more impressions than previous posts. This post received 130 repost/quotes and ignited discussion over the funding practices of the Zcash Community Grants board.

Disgustingly, many haters added transphobic and antisemitic comments. Some have even used it as moral grounds to advocate for abolishing the long-standing ecosystem funding streams intended to be used for Zcash adoption.

However, many supporters also voiced their support of the work included in this grant.

Supporters:

The debate sparked many essays and news coverage, including mention on CoinDesk:

Who was in the room

Who attends this event: +30,000 fans, creators and vendors
Who we reached: ~700 attendees
Prior Zcash awareness: We have a handful of booth visitors reveal they already held ZEC, as well as a 20-30 folks held other cryptocurrencies. Many vendors and creators visited our booth in Chicago, as we build relationships in this community. Several creators stopped by our booth precisely due to prior social media awareness or prior exposure at a previous event:
- @violetrollergirl.com on Bluesky
- @violetrollergirl.com on Bluesky

Developer Relations and Bridging Communities

We did not have any technical issues with Zodl, or NEAR during this event. We were pleased to report 0 bugs during the conference weekend. **

What the room needed that does not exist yet:** I made a flyer for general users and also business who want to accept ZEC. This event showed me that non-profits have specific needs, such as crypto-accepting fiscal sponsors, and reporting requirements.

Mylo plans to create a flyer summary for non-profits to parallel the business flyers.

Lessons Learned

We learned that our flyers fit perfectly in the dental kits, so we will update the SWAG kits to always include this size flyer in the future.
We learned late in the event, that we could leave the emergency kits in the bathrooms so folks can find both Tide stain-remover in the bathrooms along with our info cards and fact sheets. We plan to leave kits in the bathrooms for future events.
We need a non-profit focused fact sheet.

Thank you to the Zcash community for your continued support. Onward, to Exxxotica Miami!

— @readymouse, @fabacab

Note: All reports can be found at ZECsy_Team_Reports - Google Drive

gordonesTV · October 31, 2026, 12:51pm

Greetings, ZECsy team! You are doing a fantastic job—congratulations!

I would like to share some impressions I gathered from a few people here in Spain, during a couple of events I recently attended.

As you know, I live in Barcelona, where I run Zcast and the Zcash Barcelona Club. My goal is to promote awareness, usage, and adoption of Zcash in Spain—and, hopefully soon, throughout the rest of Europe.

This week, I had the opportunity to attend Merge Madrid and network with many people within the ecosystem. We are successfully gaining recognition—both as “Zcashers” and as a project of significant weight and prominence—but during these interactions, a couple of people remarked:

“What’s this about Zcash now supporting trans people and ‘woke’ culture?” Another person commented: “Zcash has turned into a community made up entirely of trans people—from its creator (Daira) to those LGBTQ+ conferences you’re organizing.”

These are the exact words they used; naturally, I know these claims are taken out of context and are completely incorrect.

Rather than getting drawn into a fruitless debate, I simply pointed out that cryptocurrencies—from Bitcoin and memecoins to NFTs, Zcash, and beyond—are open to everyone: Black people, Latinos, Christians, Muslims, homosexuals, and heterosexuals alike. To suggest otherwise is the height of hypocrisy and shows that one is not a true “enthusiast” for freedom and privacy.

I also added that what ZECsy is doing is attending conferences and events within the adult entertainment industry—a sector where, incidentally, I haven’t seen any presence from the Bitcoin, Binance Angels, Monero, Dash, or Solana communities. No one else in the crypto ecosystem is doing what ZECsy is doing! You are openly attending these types of events and talking about crypto adoption, privacy, and Zcash.

In the recent past, there have been attempts to bring crypto adoption to the adult industry, but these were always online or merely nominal—not active, in-person, and strategic in the way ZECsy is approaching it.

I believe my response to the people I spoke with helped clear up some of their ignorance on the subject. I certainly hope so.

At a time when Zcash is enjoying widespread popularity and visibility—but also facing intense scrutiny on social media, which can lead to misinformation—anything that “creates a stir” can easily be used for manipulation or distortion.

I’m sharing this simply to express my respect for the work you’re doing (which I know is far from easy) and to encourage you to keep doing a great job. If people get “scandalized” by a photo of someone in skimpy clothing using ZODL—well, so be it!

And as for those complaining about the size of the grant you were awarded… well, let them go out and try to achieve even half of what you’ve accomplished. Many of those who criticize likely do so because they wish they could be the ones attending these conferences and events—don’t you think?

Apologies for the long message…

Let’s keep pushing Zcash forward!

fabacab · October 31, 2026, 1:58pm

@gordonesTV Your support means a lot. Thank you for your time, support, and trust.

readymouse · October 31, 2026, 5:01pm

ZECsy Monthly Report: October 2026

Reporting period: Oct 1 to Oct 31, 2026
Milestone: Milestone2| Payment this milestone releases: November 1, 2026
Report date: October 31, 2026 |
Prior reports: ZECsy_Team_Reports - Google Drive
Grant: ZECsy Annual IRL Program, approved through nine-month milestones

1. Summary

In October 2026, ZECsy completed Milestone 2 of its ZCG-funded annual IRL program, and every deliverable is on pace for the year. The month had two activations. The first was a private workshop in Chicago on October 14 for 15 vetted students. A local sex worker found Violet’s online resource guides and asked for the workshop herself, which is strong evidence of organic demand. The second was a staffed booth at Exxxotica NJ (October 23 to 25) with two apprentices, Eve and Avery. Justine of Apex Latex accepted ZEC there through CipherPay’s point-of-sale system, and Violet’s interview at the STDHero booth spread widely on social media. We include signs of growing real-world adoption, including a workshop graduate onboarding her own clients, and Violet onboarding four vendors in Cancún, working across a language barrier.

Outside events, the team grew its ecosystem ties. Mylo and Kate met with PGPZ to build a legal and regulatory FAQ to hand out at booths, connected with Zodl’s marketing team and sent wallet feedback to Zodl, and explored a Zec.live streaming demo with ZK AV Club. Mylo and Violet both spoke on a Zcon7 panel, Kate attended the DC Privacy Summit on her own dime, and the team made two new flyers, one general and one aimed at developers. Next up are a university-focused side event at Devcon 8 in Mumbai (November 2 to 6) and a booth at Exxxotica Miami (December 4 to 6). A Boston workshop with BSWAC is planned for mid-November to early December, and Montreal, Amsterdam, New Orleans and ETHDenver are in early planning.

Spending was $39,583 for the month, which is on budget. The biggest costs were Exxxotica NJ travel, swag and booth ($15,500) and Mumbai prep ($6,000), with the remaining crypto-events money set aside for Devcon.

The main lesson was that local coordinators make workshops succeed, and that workshops scheduled next to adult-industry expos don’t draw because the likely attendees are busy at the conference. So the team will reach out to values-aligned organizations in different cities whether or not there’s an event nearby. The one major change is swapping AVN for XBIZ Los Angeles, which has a more business-to-business crowd and has a blockchain category, which also frees the team to attend the Zodl Summit in January.

Team photo from Exxxotica NJ: Left to right: Avery, Violet, Kate, Eve, Mylo and Justine.

2. Milestone status

Milestone declaration: This document serves as the report for completion of Milestone 2.

3. Deliverables tracker

Pace note: Everything is on pace for completion.