Hi everyone, I’ve submitted a retroactive grant application for ZecLedger, a read-only shielded accounting tool for Zcash (CLI + a public no-keys web dashboard). Ask: $10,000 USD.
I wanted to share a bit more context around the ZecLedger retroactive grant application for anyone who hasn’t followed the project from the beginning.
I started building ZecLedger around the ZecHub Hackathon 3.0, where it was submitted to the Accounting track.
The hackathon gave me a reason to take the idea from something I was experimenting with into something people could actually run, test and use. ZecLedger was submitted as a working open source project with a demo and documentation, and it has continued to evolve since then.
The original idea came from a simple problem:
Zcash gives you financial privacy, but how do you actually keep track of your own finances when your transactions are shielded?
That’s the problem I wanted ZecLedger to solve.
ZecLedger is a read-only accounting tool built around a Unified Full Viewing Key rather than a spending key. It can read shielded wallet activity and produce balances, transaction history, cost-basis reports, payment reconciliation and privacy checks, but it cannot spend the funds.
The project has been tested against real Zcash activity. The 108 transactions mentioned in the application represent a real mainnet wallet history spanning eleven months. That is the transaction history used to test the accounting engine, not eleven months of development.
The project has also gone through independent testing against a real mainnet wallet, which helped uncover issues that still needed fixing. I think that is worth mentioning because ZecLedger is still a project under active development, and I would rather be clear about what works and what still needs work than make it sound more finished than it is.
There is also a public web version of ZecLedger:
The web version is focused on public Zcash network data and research. It does not ask for or handle private keys.
I also put together a video showing the direction I want to take ZecLedger and what I am trying to build around the idea:
The current code is open source and available here:
And the development process is documented here:
The $10,000 request is retroactive compensation for the work that has already gone into building and shipping ZecLedger and ZecLedger Web. It is not a request for funding to start the project.
There is still a lot I want to do with it. I want to make the accounting experience easier for normal users, improve the research side of the web app, and explore more ways ZecLedger can help people and organizations actually manage shielded ZEC.
For me, the bigger idea is still the same:
Privacy should not mean losing the ability to understand your own finances.
Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to look at the project, test it, give feedback, or follow the work so far.
