My First Zcash!

[elisehamdon]

Hello Zcash friends! Six years ago I became part of the Zcash ecosystem and since then I’ve contributed quietly and in different capacities. In 2022 I approached ZF with an idea and was incredibly fortunate to receive a ZF grant in order to establish Mass Adoption Alliance, which became a 501(c)(3) public charity the following year. The goal of MAA is empowering youth through education about financial privacy.

MAA is going to be developing a new Zcash community resource and there’s an opportunity for everyone to play a role, make a contribution and join in on the fun! This project is going to be a great, open source, evergreen resource!

It’s with great excitement that I announce the kickoff of My First Zcash! This will be an educational e-workbook, which is a fork of the open source diploma program used by Mi Primer Bitcoin, in El Salvador. The audience for the resource will be teens to adults.

The broader vision is for the content to be utilized as the anchor for a five-session course that could be delivered online or in-person. Who loves teaching people about Zcash? I’m looking at you!

When I first started thinking about this project, I reached out to several people to discuss the concept and talk it through a bit. One of those people was @autotunafish, who suggested I think about how to make the content evergreen, which was of course an excellent idea!

I followed up on that by connecting with @decentralistdan to brainstorm and, generous as-always with his time and talent, he set up a call and introduced me to @squirrel to talk about the possibility of ZecHub administering a bounty program to provide an avenue for keeping the content evergreen. Squirrel was open to the idea, which I really appreciated!

So, this post is the jumping off point for the My First Zcash project! Would you like to get involved? I sure hope so! This deck outlines the project in some detail. *If you are game to help create content, please have a look at p.4!

I’ll work on getting a Discord channel set up and hope you’ll join me out there for some fun and collaboration!

[pacu]

Hello! I, as Zcash Wallet Community Developer, would like to contribute any way you see fit!

[elisehamdon]

Hi Pacu! Thank you for offering! I had planned to reach out to you, so this is wonderful news! Sending you a DM right now!

[gordonesTV]

Excellent initiative!

What a pleasure to see this become a reality.

I am at your service and happy to contribute and collaborate. I am in Venezuela and speak Spanish. I am part of the Zcash en Español community, I run Zcast, the Zcash en Español podcast, together with @AuraBritoSM , and we really love the educational topic.

I have also done a few trainings here in my country about Zcash, about Zingo and about Free2Z.

Stay tuned!

[elisehamdon]

You are so kind! I’m at work right now but immediately afterwards, I’m going to write you a proper message. More soon! And thank you for the very kind words! I’m overwhelmed with the kindness everyone is showing for this initiative! Thank you so much!

[elisehamdon]

I am so excited to connect with you and the entire Zcash en Español community! I just sent you a DM, looking forward to hopping on a call with you - hopefully this week! Choose anytime that is convenient from you using that Calendly link and I’ll be there! Talk soon!

[_eric]

What do you think about an “In Popular Culture” section? Could mention 1) the Tiesto & Ava Max music video, 2) Blockchain by Money Man, or 3) items priced in Zcash in the Netflix series Altered Carbon

[elisehamdon]

Great idea! Would you be willing to post this idea over in the My First Zcash Discord discussion? Let’s get a conversation going about a pop culture section!

[elisehamdon]

Stop over and say HI! Want to contribute? Great, there’s lots of opportunity to get involved!

[elisehamdon]

My First Zcash is taking shape quickly, thanks to the work of so many! If you’re a writer and interested in helping out, stop over to the discussion in Discord next week Wednesday. You’re invited!

[elisehamdon]

As this project continues to move forward at a rapid pace, we’re looking for a few additional volunteers to help with the following:

• Graphic design: page layout and illustrations (Professional experience with Photoshop and InDesign is a plus, join the existing team to make some magic happen)

• Proofreading (Native English speakers, copyediting experience a plus)

• Compile Glossary (Native English speaker with broad Zcash knowledge)

Please complete this form if you are willing to help out.

Join our weekly project sync in Discord anytime!

[ryan.taylor]

Do you like doing page layout design for books like My First Zcash or think that maybe you do?

Yes! You do!!

Take a beginners dive into Adobe InDesign with me tomorrow at the ZF AV Club Weekly Workshop | Wednesday, 6 March at 16h UTC

[elisehamdon]

Thank you for hosting this workshop, @ryan.taylor ! I appreciate you so so much!

[elisehamdon]

Hello! This is a quick update about the My First Zcash project. There is so much good news to share! Where to begin…

Let’s start with the biggest news! Both ECC and ZF have donated foundational design elements to this project. I owe both organizations a debt of gratitude for being so generous. Thank you!

• ECC is allowing MFZ to utilize the Cypherpunk Zero images to provide a thematic thread throughout the workbook.

• ZF is allowing MFZ to utilize their extensive collection of Cypherpunk Zero NFTs to be featured throughout the text as (extremely) cool callouts to draw the reader’s attention to featured content.

The first chapter mockup is in the works! This is thanks to @Minevg, who has volunteered to be the Creative Director of this project. She will stitch together each chapter inside an InDesign layout as creators submit them, to insure continuity throughout. This is a huge task. Thank you, Mine!

To support the work of Mine and the multitude of other people involved in the design and illustration process, the kind-hearted @geffen has volunteered to donate his time and talent to developing an InDesign style guide/template that will standardize the look and feel of the book, in cooperation with Mine and other helpful designers.

Speaking of helpful souls, @ryan.taylor is leading InDesign workshops to help experienced graphic designers learn how to use the software, offering his design expertise at every turn and being an overall amazing advocate for this project. Thank you!

@theKroy, an architect by trade, is skillfully leading illustrations (graphs/charts) in cooperation with Chameleon. They’ve created a sheet that outlines the work ahead. The professionalism is off the charts with these two!

@Marek @oxarbitrage and @pacu have all been so generous with their time, each drafting one of the three core chapters of the workbook. They’re all on track to finish a draft by the end of this month and the graphic layout will be ready and awaiting their text by then.

And do you know who completed the first big element for this project? Our own @decentralistdan! The Zcasher we all know and love. The moment this project began, Dan asked how he could help and immediately completed a big project for MFZ, creating an exhaustive list of Zcash videos, which @FranklynStein then built on by creating Zcash-branded QR codes for each URL. The QR codes will be included alongside text as a “Learn more” opportunity.

While I’m traveling this week, @ryan.taylor and @FranklynStein volunteered to co-host the weekly MFZ call in Discord, which is an opportunity for volunteers and team leads to check-in with each other, to keep the project moving forward. Stop by anytime, you’re invited!

Thanks to the hard work and dedication of so so many, this project is really coming along nicely! If you would like to get involved, there is plenty of opportunity to do so!

[The-Alien]

Oh this is great! I love the flow of the course, first the dark side of FIAT, the shared mission we share (decentralization)… Then enter Zcash, great revelation moment at the right timing… From there the order seems to flow.

A lot of people start with “Why my project is best”… Which is why they lose people’s attention.

it seems like you’ve taken into consideration the journey of those who take the course, how their experience navigating the course will be like.

I think this is great. If I can help edit out some content, or provide some… Let me know.

All the best to you @elisehamdon !

A lot of people start with (This why my project is best)

[elisehamdon]

So sorry for the delay, I’ve been traveling and offline this past week. Thank you @The-Alien! I appreciate your kind words and your offer to participate! Please join our next meeting or hop into the MFZ Discord discussion. Would love to have you join us!

[The-Alien]

Perfect! I’ll be there

Thank you

[elisehamdon]

Calling all InDesign (and Photoshop) Pros! If you’re an experienced InDesign (or Photoshop) user, we could really use your help with page layout! Please reply here or fill out this form to volunteer.

ALSO: Very soon we’re also going to need many, many proofreaders. Native English speakers who are exceptional at spelling, grammar and general wordsmithing. Please fill out the form or reach out here or over in Discord.

Thanks everyone!

[elisehamdon]

Join us for tomorrow’s weekly My First Zcash Sync over in Discord!

20 days and counting to complete the first iteration of this project! We can do this!

Tomorrow’s meeting features contributions by: @Mine @Pacu @Marek @geffen @decentralistdan @FranklynStein @theKroy @Chameleon @SpeedFox @Martinblu

[elisehamdon]

Special welcome to Frostbyte1121 [in Discord], a high schooler who will be participating in this project as part of the Mass Adoption Alliance initiative to bring Zcash to student audiences! Welcome Ice!