Where are we going with Zcash? That’s an important question that I wish would be discussed more. We have long-term development projects, but without such discussions, how do we fine-tune them? I really wish this forum would be more active, we really have a lot of things to figure out.
One thing we see today in the Web2 ecosystem is the proliferation of “mega apps” like WeChat or what Xwitter is trying to become. These are two famous examples, but there are many more quietly moving in a similar direction. Take Uber, for example, where more and more services are being offered from within the app.
Personally, I think it is much better for Zcash to be best at something than good at many things, with modularity in mind. But in a world of apps that see themselves as The MegaApp, there is a risk of Zcash simply not being used, of being irrelevant.
A perfect example to tie this thinking back specifically to Zcash might be Signal Messenger. What answer do we have to their integration of chat and private payment? Ideally, we should have had a mutually beneficial relationship with them, where Zcash ends up being the token integrated into their app and we help develop that integration, for example. We can’t just hope that they like us, we have to make sure that we are as much of a strength to them as they are to us.
Signal is just the most obvious example off the top of my head. But the reasoning is similar with Matrix, with Fediverse, with Tor, you name it. Sorry to come back to this but those are just such great examples for me: Matrix is as beneficial to the privacy ecosystem as Discord is detrimental, but what is our official chat room network? Fediverse/Mastodon is as beneficial to the privacy ecosystem as Xwitter is detrimental to it, yet what is our official social network?
We are heading in a direction where the most reliable offline wallet for Zcash will most likely be an Android device kept offline. Let’s find ways to help the most secure Android OS, GrapheneOS?
The world of privacy needs us united, because that’s likely the only way we will win against the strong forces against us.