Hello again Zcash community,
@fabacab , @cos , and I just got back from ETHBoulder and ETHDenver, (see our trip summary) and we’re already planning the next leg. We wore our Zcash shirts, and every day we got stopped constantly with questions. @fabacab and I spoke at ETHBoulder, and walked away with 51 new Zodl users and 275+ individual conversations about ZEC in 9 days. Adding a third team member made a meaningful difference — in Buenos Aires with 2 people we onboarded 34 users; in Denver with 3 we hit 51. The pattern is clear, and we want to keep the momentum going.
We’re applying for $18,510 to bring a 3-4 person team to two events this spring:
ETHCC + ETHGlobal Cannes — March 2026 Europe’s longest-running Ethereum conference draws 10,000+ attendees and has a strong privacy-conscious developer community. This is also a meaningful strategic opportunity: at the Aleo/Miden Privacy Salon in Denver, @fabacab spent over an hour with the listing manager from Bitvavo — Europe’s largest spot exchange — who has been trying to get in touch with someone at Zcash about compliance questions and a potential ZEC listing. That connection has been forwarded to @paulbrigner , and ETHCC gives us a chance to continue building that relationship in person. The concurrent ETHGlobal hackathon also opens doors for developer-focused Zcash tooling conversations.
Exxxotica Chicago — April 10–12, 2026 This one might raise eyebrows, but hear us out. The adult industry is one of the most underserved verticals for financial privacy tools — content creators, sex workers, and gig workers face de-platforming, payment processor discrimination, and surveillance risks that Zcash directly addresses. Exxxotica draws 20,000–30,000 attendees who have a genuine, practical need for what we’re building. We’re also in active conversations with Bitrefill about a joint booth — Zcash as the on-ramp, Bitrefill as the off-ramp — which would reduce our booth costs and create a compelling, complete payments story for attendees. If the Bitrefill co-booth is confirmed, any savings will be returned to the grant.
Our track record:
* NYC Workshops
Each event we’ve come back with more users, more contacts, and more partnership leads. Two speaking invitations came directly out of our Denver presence — @fabacab and I have both been invited to speak at ETHConf on a privacy panel, and @fabacab and I spoke at ETHBoulder on practical Zodl and private payment processors usage respectively.
Budget summary:
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ETHCC Cannes (3 people, ~6 days): $10,730 — flights, hotel, food, incidentals, tickets
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Exxxotica Chicago (4 people, 3 days): $7,780 — flights, hotel, food, booth, reusable display materials
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Total: $18,510
Targets:
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60+ new Zodl downloads at ETHCC, 40+ at Exxxotica
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300+ conversations at ETHCC, 150+ at Exxxotica
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Trip reports with photos, metrics, and new user testimonials posted to this forum within 1 week of each event