This week has been an exciting one on a couple levels. First of all, we’ve been doing a lot of work on getting ready for Monday’s [1.0.8 release] (1.0.8 Milestone · GitHub).
This version, in addition to the issues mentioned in last week’s dev update, is set to include usability improvements for z_importkey RPC to reduce the rescan range (PR 2052), an update to getblock RPC to accept a block height or hash (PR 2187), adding anchor data to getblock RPC (PR 2168), introducing Rust/librustzcash to build system (PR 2183), improved documentation for connecting to testnet (issue 2165), setting up a local orphan chaintip detector for zcashd (issue 2003), and removing a whole bunch of unused QT code (PR 1636).
We’ve rearranged and updated the [security section] (Security Information - Zcash) of our site to include a [Privacy & Security Recommendations] (Privacy Recommendations and Best Practices - Zcash) guide for users of our software and the network as a whole.
Additionally, 3 of us at the Zcash team have been spending days this week at the semi-annual [Tor dev meeting in Amsterdam] (2017Amsterdam · Wiki · Legacy / Trac · GitLab). We’re hosting a session tomorrow to consider various possibilities for how Zcash and Tor can collaborate (on network and community levels) and will be sure to report back the results. In general, the level of interest I’ve heard these past couple days from the Tor community towards Zcash has been very encouraging.
We also announced our zk-SNARKs for Enterprise work, referred to ZSL (zero-knowledge security layer).
So, look out for the 1.0.8 release on Monday and keep in mind we’re doing our second Show & Tell featuring zmsg next Friday!