Here are the updates from this week:
-
Zcash hit its millionth block.
-
Open-source wallet apps localized into 5 additional languages.
-
ECC published the Transparency Report for Q1 2020.
-
MGRC met this week. Here are the minutes from their first meeting.
-
There are now 23 places where you can pay with shielded Zcash.
-
Zooko quoted in Coindesk Op-Ed, The Web Wasn’t Built for Privacy, but It Could Be and DC was interviewed on Staking Defense podcast.
-
ICYMI, here are recordings from past events
- 10/6 - Gardening Club (video will be posted early next week)
- 10/7 - Deep dive on Halo2 with Zero Knowledge Seoul
- 10/7 - Zcash webinar with Blockchain Academy (Brazil)
- 10/8 - Arborist Call (video will be posted early next week)
Mark your calendars,
- 10/13 - CoinDCX Youtube Livestream (India), link
- 10/13 - Can Privacy and Regulation Coexist? with Gemini and Perkins Coie, link
- 10/14 - MetalPay AMA, registration link
- 10/19 - ZKP Privacy Conference hosted by Dystopia Labs
- 10/27 - Zeal calls are back!
- 10/28 - Zcash 4th Birthday
- 11/3 - November Gardening Club
- 11/5 - November Arborist Call
- 11/18 - Canopy Activation
Documentation
- Zcashd forking and connecting to upstream instructions
- Debian packages build instructions
- Updated a broken link via community feedback form
DevInfra
- Phase 1: Travis CI full support for native Mac
- Phase 1: Public and private namespacing mechanics for production Tekton
- Kustomize implementation of prior kubernetes BlockExplorer
- Updated mainnet and testnet seeders staged for deployment
- Phase 1: Grafana alternative cloud solution
Core
- Updated almost all our dependencies (including ZeroMQ)
- Removed OpenSSL
- Merged several upstream Bitcoin Core PRs
- Check out these PR Statistics from last quarter
| Repo | Open at Start of Q3 | Opened in Q3 | Total Opened | Closed in Q3 | Open at Start of Q4 | Reduction |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| zcash | 108 | 87 | 195 | 130 | 65 | 40% |
| librustzcash | 14 | 33 | 47 | 38 | 9 | 36% |
| zips | 14 | 7 | 21 | 10 | 11 | 21% |
| Total | 136 | 127 | 263 | 185 | 84 | 38% |
Security
- Finalizing Jesse deprecation
- Handled two internal security responses
Wallet
- Localization to ECC wallet in five languages (iOS and Android)
- Security improvements around seed handling (iOS)
- Fixed rust interfacing issue (iOS)
- General app maintenance (iOS)
- Better use of viewing keys and less reliance on seeds (Android)
- Discovered and patched a critical issue in dependency library (Android)
- Proposed protocol for autoshielding
Community Shout Outs - Shout out to PaywithZcash for maintaining a directory of Zcash merchants. Shout out to rex4539 and linuxion for submitting community PRs.
This week in privacy, DOJ announces a new Cryptocurrency Enforcement Framework. The framework includes some troubling statements around anonymity enhanced cryptocurrencies or “AECs.” Jerry Brito from Coincenter weighs in. Did you know about “keyword warrants”?
Other headlines: “Do Not Track” is back. The Markup reports on algorithms violating fair housing laws. EFF shared tools for police surveillance and school recordings raise questions from a privacy lawyer. I came across this 2015 paper that explores privacy as a public good - it would be fun to think about how privacy fits into Ostrom’s principles.
In crypto news, crypto crackdowns continue, John McAfee was arrested earlier this week. Belarus dissidents use bitcoin.
