1.0.15 release & Overwinter
This week we continued onwards with the 1.0.15 release which includes Overwinter specification and implementation. While Overwinter implementation is the priority, we hope for the release to address other issues as well (all of which can be viewed in the above link). We added an improvement proposal draft for the Overwinter transaction format and joins other drafts related to Overwinter including transaction expiry, signature hashing and network upgrade mechanism.
Sapling & Powers of Tau
Integration strategy and design work are continuing for the Sapling network upgrade. We’re also charging ahead with the Powers of Tau ceremony which has around 40 participants so far. But we’re looking for many many more!! If you want to join this ongoing multi-party computation round which will be used for the zk-SNARK public parameters in Sapling, now is your chance! At some point, we’ll need to take a snapshot of this ceremony for use in the second round but we haven’t determined the cut off date yet. That said, the final integration of Sapling code is approaching fast so we highly encourage those interested to join the mailing list and declare your intent to participate and date of availability. Attestations from prior participants are available in the mailing list archives if you are looking for some inspiration or ideas.
UX & Documentation
We added a UX checklist for wallet developers and you can read our blog post for some background on the intent of the checklist. We should have a PDF version of this list available on that page soon and plan on expanding it as our research continues and understanding of various UX aspects improve.
Look out for documentation on the Overwinter upgrade for users and third-party developers in addition to an introductory blog post explainer about the recent additions of incoming viewing keys and the payment disclosure experimental feature. Please let us know if you have any feedback about these features that we can improve upon in future releases.
We’re also playing around with the new OpenBazaar support for a Zcash full node which is in release candidate stage and will share some guidelines for using OB + Zcash when the release is out!
SF Cryptocurrency Devs
Finally, two Zcash engineers will be giving a talk at the San Francisco Cryptocurrency Devs meetup next Wednesday. If you’re in the area, be sure to join us! If you’re not in the area, watch the livestream!
Thank you, Paige. I always look forward to these dev updates. btw I hope the Zcash team are eyeing Anarchapulco as a future speaking event. Don’t let Bitcoin and Dash (and Pivx ) have all the attention!
Update: OpenBazaar is looking for OB + Zcash testers of their latest release candidate, RC4.
Here are the guidelines:
Install OB RC4 on a computer that has never had OB before and select ZCash when you install.
Install OB RC4 on a computer that has run OB previously, and create a new server configuration with ZCash.
Create 1 or more listings on the ZCash node.
Send ZCash funds to the OB Wallet from an external non-OB source. Make sure the transaction appears in the wallet and confirms within an hour.
Use discovery, with the Coin filter set to ZCash, and test if your listing appears within 10 minutes of being created.
Test to see if you can purchase a ZCash listing using an external ZCash wallet. Test at least one direct purchase and one moderated purchase.
Once you have confirmed funds in your OB wallet, test to see if you can purchase a ZCash listing using the OB wallet. Test at least one direct purchase and one moderated purchase.
Test to see if the the buyer and seller can complete all the steps of one direct purchase and one moderated purchase.
Test to see if the buyer can dispute an order, and it can be resolved by a moderator split 50/50 between the buyer and seller.
Bonus: Test cancelling an order (this only works if the seller is offline when the purchase and cancellation are made).
Bonus: Test if the seller can refund an order instead of fulfilling it.
Thanks for sharing this, Paige! We are asking testers to share their feedback on the Zcash branch by just clicking the “Feedback” tab at the bottom of the application.
Anarchapulco draws a fairly diverse crowd - libertarian / freedom oriented, eco-hippy / new agey, outright anarchist (the principled kind, not the idiots). And I wasn’t suggesting that Zooko should make himself available but I’d love to see someone with the appropriate background to give a Zcash presentation or at least provide a Zcash presence. This coming Anarchapulco is going to be a blast and if it continues to draw more people then don’t miss out on next year.
) have all the attention!