Hello friends,
@fabacab and I just returned from ETHCC + ETHGlobal Cannes — Europe’s longest-running Ethereum conference. Cannes is very different from Denver or Buenos Aires. The side events are deliberately intimate in scale, spread across small venues and private salons along the Riviera rather than large party venues. That intimacy meant fewer quick handshakes and more sustained, hour-long conversations over meals and drinks. This lead to a different kind of outreach, but one that felt deeply valuable.
From left to right: @paulbrigner Paul Brigner (ZODL, Inc.), @fabacab Violet Rollergirl and @readymouse Mylo Bennett
We posted daily on Twitter (@zReadyMouse) throughout the week, sharing selfies of new Zodl wallet app users alongside their unified addresses to welcome them into the community. We encountered quite a few ultra-privacy minded folks who didn’t want a selfie. Of the 20 new Zodl users, only 7 gave us permission to use their faces.
A note on our numbers: illness hit us twice — @cos was unable to join us in Cannes at all, and then @readymouse and @fabacab were both hit mid-trip. A double whammy, and a known risk explicitly called out in our grant application. Attending as a two-person team and losing days mid-event meaningfully affected our Zodl download count relative to prior events. Despite this, the quality of the connections we made and the depth of engagement across the week represents a different kind of win, outlined in detail below.
Notably, Violet was invited to speak on a panel that was well-attended and well-received, a kind of exposure only possible thanks to our increased momentum and consistent presence across multiple events.
Stats
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20 new Zodl downloads
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~150 individual interactions / conversations (tracked via ‘Protection is ZECsy’ condoms distributed)
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+23 new contact entries in @ReadyMouse 's phone
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+27 new contact entries in @fabacab 's phone
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12 side events attended
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2 main events attended (ETHCC + ETHGlobal Hackathon)
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Speaking engagement: @fabacab on panel at Oak Security event — ~90 attendees
Cumulative Impact Summary
* NYC Workshops — Supporting Financial Privacy Education for At-Risk Communities
Extended Connections Over Meals
Because of the intimate and small venues that characterize EthCC Cannes, we found ourselves in lengthy discussions over the course of the week, often over dinner or drinks, rather than the rapid-fire floor interactions typical of a large convention. Connections are organized below by ring: our closest Zcash-internal alignment first, privacy-native projects, and then the broader ecosystem.
Us and Zcash
Zcash Open Development Labs (ZODL)
We had lunch with Paul Brigner (@paulbrigner ) from ZODL. Conversation spanned the future direction of Zcash from ZODL’s perspective, as well as how our grassroots outreach efforts can formally connect with ZODL’s business development work. Follow-up meeting planned with Zodl’s business development lead.
Us and Privacy Projects
Fhenix
We have a pre-existing friendship with one member of the Fhenix team, and Cannes gave us the opportunity to meet the broader crew. Fhenix works on Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) for Solidity-based smart contracts — a privacy space that is meaningfully distinct from Zcash’s domain. Since Zcash does not currently play in smart contract execution, Fhenix are non-competitors, and we see strong potential for future event and marketing collaborations in the shared privacy ecosystem. The trip also confirmed their invitation for us to speak during ETHConf this summer.
Oak Security
Oak Security provides smart contract auditing services and hosted the privacy panel at which @fabacab spoke (event link) with approximately 90 people in attendance, a high-visibility opportunity to speak about the Zodl wallet and Zcash’s application usage for everyday users and in particular gig workers and de-banked individuals.
Hana, the panel organizer, was thrilled with @fabacab 's inclusion and is already thinking about next steps. Given Oak Security’s European base, the most natural venue for a follow-up collaboration would be during Berlin Blockchain Week, adding another compelling reason to include that event on our calendar.
Bermuda Labs
We had dinner with some members of Bermuda Labs in attendance. Bermuda Labs is building shielded transaction technology for ETH-based chains — conceptually similar to Railgun. They are relatively new to the privacy scene and are targeting institutions and larger players rather than everyday users. Their technology is non-overlapping with Zcash (bolt-on privacy for non-private chains versus Zcash’s privacy-first architecture), though the use case overlaps: both are trying to solve financial privacy. They are pre-launch, and early impressions of the UI and liquidity tokenomics left some open questions. One to watch, but not a direct competitor.
Nightfall Network
We had lunch with Paul Brody, friend and Founder/CEO of Nightfall Network and formerly the Global Blockchain Leader at EY, where he spent years building Nightfall, a public-domain ZK rollup for private enterprise transactions on Ethereum. Paul is now taking that work independent with Nightfall Network as his own venture. Conversation ranged across the future of privacy tech at the institutional level and the emerging space of agentic commerce. AI agents transacting autonomously in ways that will create new and urgent demands for private, verifiable payments.
Us and the Larger Ecosystem
Optimal DAO + YouHodlr
We shared a meal with Matthias “Matze” Goesser of Optimal DAO and Alexandra Lloyd of YouHodlr, a Swiss banking, crypto, and regulatory services firm. Alexandra handles legal work for YouHodlr.
Parity Technologies
The Parity Technologies team — the engineers behind Polkadot — joined us at dinner one night. Good to make connections with others active in the space, though no specific collaborations or follow-ups came out of the conversation.
turtle.xyz
We hit it off immediately with the BD and ecosystem engineer from turtle.xyz, a liquidity distribution protocol. Honestly, the technical overlap with Zcash is limited — different lanes. But the conversation was easy, genuine, and the kind of relationship that makes the conference circuit worthwhile even when it doesn’t produce an immediate collaboration.
Speaking Engagements
@fabacab joined a panel at the Oak Security event (https://luma.com/by5hcste) with ~90 attendees, speaking on privacy technology and Zcash’s role in the broader ecosystem. The talk was recorded, we will add a link to the video when it’s available.
Left to Right: Jordi Baylina – ZisK VM, Lauren Dutton of Fhenix, Hana Yoosuf of Oak Security, Violet of Zcash
User Stories & Conversation Notes
The following are direct reflections from conversations during the week, beyond the metrics.
“You’ve changed how I was thinking about privacy tech”
After a conversation with @ReadyMouse about Zodl as a Venmo replacement for everyday users, one attendee reflected:
“Interesting, you’ve changed how I was thinking about privacy tech. I’ve always thought that it was the whales and terrorists who wanted privacy, to hide their wealth — but it makes sense that normal people want privacy too.”
This is exactly the reframe our outreach is designed to create. The “whales and terrorists” misconception is one of the most common barriers to Zcash adoption (even if they don’t say it out loud), and the Venmo framing reliably cuts through it.
“You don’t even have to mention that it’s crypto”
@fabacab had a lengthy discussion with a marketing director about Zcash’s application for gig workers and the adult industry. Their assessment was pointed:
“Crypto has a really big problem because there were so many scams, and now everyone in crypto is trying to convince everyone else that it’s not a scam even though it doesn’t give them anything they don’t already have. But you are very smart, you are solving a problem for people and you don’t even have to mention that it’s crypto. That’s the way everyone else should be doing it, but they don’t have a product market fit. You do.”
An unsolicited validation of our core thesis: lead with the problem, not the technology. From a marketing director, this lands differently than internal consensus.
Strategic Event Portfolio
1. DevConnect Argentina — November 17–22, 2025 (Complete)
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First-ever “Ethereum World’s Fair” with global developer community
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Ethereum Cypherpunk Congress #2 by Web3Privacy Now + ETHBuenos Aires
→ Impact: +34 new Zodl users, +175 personal conversations about Zcash
2. ETHDenver — February 17–21, 2026 (Complete)
- Largest free Ethereum event with 18,000+ attendees and major hackathon component
→ Impact: +51 new Zodl users, +275 personal conversations about Zcash
3. ETHCC + ETHGlobal Cannes — March 30 – April 3, 2026 (Complete)
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Europe’s longest-running Ethereum conference (10,000+ attendees)
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Intimate venue format led to deep, multi-hour engagements with key ecosystem players
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@fabacab on panel at Oak Security event (~90 attendees)
→ Impact: ~20 new Zodl users, ~150 individual interactions
4. Exxxotica Chicago — April 10–12, 2026 (Upcoming)
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Adult industry professional trade show and conference
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Heavy values-alignment: privacy-aware audience with genuine payment privacy needs
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Zcash Kitchen booth, where Privacy is the Secret Ingredient
5. ETHConf + ETHGlobal NYC — June 8–10, 2026 (Future Vision)
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Home base — no travel costs
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Speaking engagement invitation extended by Fhenix team
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Premier East Coast Ethereum event; strong developer and institutional presence
6. Berlin Blockchain Week — June 14–20, 2026 (Pending Grant)
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Potential Zcash x WebZero co-hosted event during Berlin Blockchain Week
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Potential follow-up collaboration with Oak Security from Cannes panel
7. Exxxotica Minneapolis — June 26–28, 2026 (Pending Chicago Outcomes)
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4 team members attending
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Zcash Kitchen booth activation with full pouch and apron mechanic
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Follow-up with Minneapolis-based contacts and vendors encountered at Chicago
8. Boston Blockchain Week — September 7–11, 2026 (Future Vision)
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Second home base — no travel costs
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Strong local network; natural opportunity for community building and developer outreach in our own backyard
9. Korean Blockchain Week / ETHTokyo — September 22–29, 2026 (Future Vision)
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Expanding Zcash’s footprint into the Asian market
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Combined Korea and Tokyo coverage during a dense week of events
10. Exxxotica New Jersey — October 23–25, 2026 (Pending Chicago Outcomes)
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4 team members
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Train-accessible from Boston/NYC — no flights required, reduced travel cost
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Zcash Kitchen booth
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Strong local network opportunity given proximity to NYC community
11. Zcon7 — October 27–29, 2026, Mexico (Future Vision)
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Zcash’s own annual conference — the community’s home event
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High-value opportunity to reconnect with core ecosystem, present grassroots outreach results, and coordinate on roadmap alignment
12. Exxxotica Fort Lauderdale — December 4–6, 2026 (Pending Chicago Outcomes)
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Keep momentum in the industry
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Zcash Kitchen booth
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Follow-up with contacts and vendors encountered at Chicago, Minneapolis, and New Jersey
Thank you to the Zcash community for your continued support. On to Chicago!
We are planning a Mama’s Zcash Kitchen theme for the booth. Inspired by my mother saying “you should give out milk and cookies”, we are giving out bandaids, mouthwash and other sensible SWAG items inside a Zcash branded pouch. Zcash is a good, reliable, everyday-use app and as such, we wanted the SWAG to be equally useful. The pouches include a QR code to download the Zodl wallet, QR code to a written guide, as well as links to CipherPay.app for e-commerce, BitRefill for gift card off-ramping, and the Payy Network payment card for Visa-based reloadable debit card off-ramp solutions.
— @ReadyMouse , @fabacab