Proof of Privacy Campaign Report
A Community-Led Approach to Zcash Onboarding and Education
1. Introduction
Proof of Privacy was a multi-phase Zcash onboarding and education campaign I designed as part of my Ambassador work. It combined community-led onboarding, gamification and a five-day live learning series to bring a new class of people into Zcash and give them the context to understand what Zcash is, why financial privacy matters, and why any of it should matter to them.
2. Background and Campaign Rationale
Education and onboarding have always been a major part of my Ambassador work, through content, workshops, live conversations and IRL activities.
Over time, I started thinking about two things differently. First was onboarding. Most people enter an ecosystem because something or someone introduces them to it. I wanted to see what could happen if people already in Zcash became part of bringing the next group in too — if someone once opened that door for you, could you now help hold it open for someone else?
The second was education. A lot of crypto education happens through one-off posts on X, but people can easily scroll past, like or repost something without really engaging with it. I wanted a more deliberate and interactive way for people to learn, ask questions and actually understand what Zcash is, why financial privacy matters, and why any of it should matter to them.
Proof of Privacy brought those two ideas together: community-led onboarding and interactive education.
3. Campaign Objectives
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involve the community directly in bringing the next group of people into Zcash;
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make online Zcash education more interactive;
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give participants structured context around financial privacy and Zcash;
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use gamification to encourage continued participation throughout the campaign;
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give participants practical actions to complete alongside the education;
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create opportunities for participants to reflect on and publicly share what they learned.
Overall campaign flow: discover → register → participate → invite → learn → share → continue into the ecosystem
4. Campaign Structure
Phase 1 — Invite & Onboard | 25–30 August 2026
The first phase focused on getting people into the campaign. Participants registered through Gleyo, amplified campaign posts and invited others using their personal referral links. People they brought in could also invite others, allowing the campaign to keep expanding beyond the first set of participants.
I designed the campaign quests and activities. @gilmore Gleyo was used for registration and tracking, including referrals, XP, completed quests and leaderboard positions.
Phase 2 — Educate | 31 August–4 September 2026
The second phase consisted of five consecutive live X Spaces, each focused on a different part of the learning journey.
After each Space, participants were given post-session quests based on that day’s activity. One recurring quest asked them to share something they had learned from the session, giving them a chance to reflect on the discussion and take the education back onto the timeline in their own words.
Other quests helped participants move further into the Zcash ecosystem, including following Zcash accounts, joining the Zcash Discord and downloading the ZODL wallet.
5. Education Sessions
Day 1 — Financial Privacy
Tutor: Elzz, Zcash Global Ambassador | Attendance: 116
The opening session covered what financial privacy means, why financial information deserves protection and why privacy should not automatically be treated as suspicious behaviour.
Day 2 — What Public Blockchains Reveal
Tutor: Dre, Zcash Ambassador | Attendance: 80
The session explored the information visible on transparent blockchains and the financial trails that can be created from publicly available transaction activity.
Day 3 — What is Zcash / zk-SNARKs
Tutor: Mylo Bennett, Zcash Community & Ecosystem Organizer | Attendance: 376
Participants were introduced to Zcash and how zero-knowledge proofs make it possible to verify transactions without publicly exposing the underlying financial information.
Day 4 — Transparent vs Shielded Transactions
Tutor: Tony Magarit, Finance & Operations, ZODL | Attendance: 188
The fourth session focused on the difference between transparent and shielded transactions and how privacy works in practice on Zcash.
Day 5 — Quiz, Graduation & Finding Your Place in Zcash
Tutor: Squirrel, ZecHub Core Team | Attendance: 136
The campaign concluded with a live quiz, graduation and an introduction to ways participants could continue learning and participating in the Zcash ecosystem. Participants became the Zcash Class of 2026 — #ZcashClass26.
6. Campaign Performance
| METRICS | RESULT | |
|---|---|---|
| Total registrations | 239 | |
| Active participants on Gleyo | 165 | |
| Active participation rate | ~69% | |
| Wallet addresses submitted through the ZODL quest | 125+ | |
| Cumulative attendance across five Spaces | 896 |
Participants also completed recurring post-Space quests sharing what they learned from the sessions.
Proof of Privacy also appeared on Twitter/X Trends.
Relevant links to the proof of privacy campaign can be found here:
7. Rewards and Campaign Support
The Top 15 leaderboard participants shared a $300 ZEC reward pool funded from my Ambassador grant:
| POSITION | REWARD |
|---|---|
| 1ST | $60 |
| 2ND | $50 |
| 3RD | $40 |
| 4TH | $30 |
| 5TH | $25 |
| 6TH | $20 |
| 7TH | $15 |
| 8TH | $15 |
| 9TH | $10 |
| 10TH | $10 |
| 11TH - 15TH | $5 |
The graduation quiz had a $50 ZEC prize pool, with five winners receiving $10 each. Dre contributed an additional $20 to the quiz pool on the day.
The Top 15 participants also received $25 ZecHub Store coupons with free worldwide shipping, provided by ZecHub and valid for one year.
ZODL supported the campaign as a sponsor and supported the wallet-onboarding activity.
8. Key Takeaways
Community-led onboarding can widen participation. Giving people already in the ecosystem a role in bringing others in helped turn onboarding into a shared activity rather than a one-person effort.
Live education creates a different kind of interaction. Spaces gave participants room to listen, ask questions and engage with the material in real time.
Post-session quests extended the learning. Asking participants to share what they learned moved the education beyond the live sessions and back onto the timeline.
Gamification supported continued participation. Referrals, quests, XP and the leaderboard gave participants reasons to keep moving through the campaign.
9. Future Iterations
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expand the campaign into more languages;
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increase participation from more regions.
10. Acknowledgements
Thank you to @Dre_Nesthub @readymouse @tonym and @squirrel for joining the campaign as tutors. And to my co-host throughout the spaces @Omegaonchain
Thank you to @ZODL for supporting the campaign and the wallet activity; to @ZecHub for the continued support, amplification and merchandise rewards for the Top 15 participants; and to @gilmore Gleyo for providing the infrastructure used to track registrations, quests, referrals, XP and leaderboard activity.
Thank you to Zcash Espanol, Zcash Ghana and Blockchain LAUTECH for amplifying the campaign within their communities, and to @Monsignoree for designing the Proof of Privacy posters and visual assets.
11. Conclusion
Proof of Privacy tested a different way of approaching Zcash onboarding and online education: make bringing people in something the community can participate in, then give those people a more deliberate and interactive way to learn.
The campaign brought people into the experience, kept them participating through quests and rewards, gave them live access to educators across the ecosystem, and encouraged them to share what they learned. For me, that is the model worth building on.