Rore - High-Performance Rust UI Engine for Zcash Desktop Clients

Community Grants Applications
1

Hi Zcash Community,

I have submitted a Zcash Community Grants application for Rore - a High-Performance WGPU UI Engine for Zcash Infrastructure, and I would like to share the proposal here for community feedback.

While the Zcash ecosystem has smartly pioneered the move away from bloated Electron wrappers towards Rust-based UI frameworks, a core architectural bottleneck remains. Current Rust frameworks still largely rely on embedded WebViews (HTML/CSS rendering) or Virtual DOM (VDOM) diffing algorithms.
When running a full Zcash node or visualizing high-frequency shielded transactions, generating Zero-Knowledge Proofs demands immense CPU/RAM. Even in modern Rust UIs, VDOM diffing and WebView rendering consume significant CPU cycles during heavy data-stream updates. The UI still competes with the core cryptography for resources, which can lead to frame drops and thermal throttling for node operators on standard hardware.

Rore proposes a fundamental shift: a hardware-accelerated, Zero-VDOM UI engine written entirely in pure Rust. It utilizes WGPU for direct-to-GPU rendering, strictly capping UI resource consumption at ~150MB of RAM and 1-3% CPU. By eliminating Chromium bloat, Rore also eliminates web-based attack surfaces and browser telemetry, aligning perfectly with Zcash’s core privacy ethos.

The main parts of the core project are already ready. Alpha stage. I have prof’-of-consept.

Grant Summary

  • Application Owner: Umidjon Davlatov
  • Organization: Independent Solo Developer
  • Requested Amount: $50,000
  • Category: Infrastructure / Core Tooling
  • Proposed Duration: June 2026 - October 2026 (addintional 6 month tech support)
  • Startup Funding: $7,000
  • Milestone-Based Funding: $43,000

Team

** Umidjon Davlatov **
Project Lead / Solo Systems Architect
Responsible for end-to-end execution, core engine architecture (WGPU/Taffy), Zcash RPC asynchronous integrations, milestone delivery, and developer documentation.

Problem

Zcash is built around strong financial privacy, which requires heavy local cryptography (proof generation). However, when external desktop tools and wallets are built using bloated wrappers like Electron.js, their UI processes directly compete with underlying nodes (like zcashd or zebrad) for the user’s hardware resources. Running a heavy Chromium-based UI on top of node APIs leads to input lag, thermal throttling, and application crashes during intensive blockchain syncing. Furthermore, relying on Chromium introduces unnecessary web telemetry and an expanded attack surface for privacy-first users.

Proposed Solution

I will build Rore, an open-source, pure Rust UI framework. Instead of a Virtual DOM, it uses fine-grained reactivity (Signals) mapped directly to Zcash’s asynchronous data streams. Thousands of UI widgets are batched into a single GPU RenderPass via WGPU. This creates a hardware “sandbox” effect: 99% of the user’s CPU power is freed up exclusively for Zcash cryptography, while the UI is handled smoothly on the GPU at 60+ FPS.

Milestones & Deliverables

Milestone 1 - Core Engine & Zcash PoC Terminal

  • Amount: $15,000
  • Expected Completion: 2026-07-15
  • Deliverables: The rore_core Rust crate (WGPU + Taffy pipeline). An open-source PoC “Zcash Data-Grid” terminal demonstrating live simulated RPC data visualization without VDOM overhead.

Milestone 2 - Zcash UI Component Toolkit

  • Amount: $8,000
  • Expected Completion: 2026-08-30
  • Deliverables: The rore_ui crate containing highly optimized native components tailored for Zcash apps (Virtualized Grids, Buttons, Secure Inputs).

Milestone 3 - Web-Syntax Macros & Developer Docs

  • Amount: $8,000
  • Expected Completion: 2026-10-15
  • Deliverables: Declarative Rust macros (e.g., view!) that mimic JSX/HTML syntax to lower the barrier to entry for React developers. Complete GitBook documentation and a boilerplate GitHub repository (“Rore Zcash Starter”).

Milestone 4 - Maintenance & Upstream Integration Support

  • Amount: $12,000
  • Expected Completion: 2027-03-15
  • Deliverables: 6 months of continuous framework maintenance, WGPU updates, DevRel support in the Zcash R&D Discord, and potential upstream PRs to librustzcash if async bottlenecks are identified during UI integration.

Budget Breakdown

  • Total Requested: $50,000
  • Hardware/Software Costs: $4,000 (testing hardware/driver compilation)
  • Compensation Costs: $43,000
Zcash Community Grants Meeting Minutes 5/11/2026
Zcash Community Grants Meeting Minutes 05/25/2026
2

Just a small correction, the Zenith full node wallet does not use Electron or any web framework. :smiley:

3

Yeah, I don’t have full information ZCash all projects. But I’m glad to hear that.

4

Which ones?

5

Thanks for pointing this out. I realize my previous statement was a bit vague. To be clear, I wasn’t implying that zcashd or zebrad itself uses Electron.

What I’m trying to say is that external Electron-based desktop tools and wallets - built on top of the zcashd and zebrad APIs - impose a significant load on the user’s computer. When the user runs the node in the background, rendering a heavy Chromium-based UI directly competes for CPU and RAM with the node’s core cryptographic operations (such as proof generation). This hardware problem is precisely the bottleneck that Rore is trying to solve.

6

Yes, which tools and wallets are they?

1 Like
7

Zingo PC, Zecwallet.

1 Like
8

FYI Zecwallet has been depreciated for several years. The wallet at zecwallet (dot) com is an imposter wallet, not related to the the real project:

1 Like
9

Hi. Thanks for your comment.

Over the past few days, I have spent some time conducting a comprehensive architectural audit of the current Zcash cross platform ecosystem. I wanted to make sure that my proposal perfectly meets the most pressing infrastructure needs of the network.

This in-depth analysis led me to one conclusion: Zcash has a world-class pure Rust infrastructure on the backend. (zebrad, librustzcash) ECC has successfully covered the mobile space with Zashi . But the Native Desktop environment remains a significant strength gap. Historically, Zecwallet has struggled under the weight of Electron and is obsolete, Zingo PC still runs on Electron/React. and alternative solutions rely on mobile frameworks (eg. Flutter, Dart VM).

Zcash needs a very lightweight, lightning fast, pure Rust Desktop wallet and Node Terminal.

This was exactly where my initial idea for Rore came from. The goal was not just to create a common UI library. This is about creating the custom infrastructure needed to power the next generation desktop wallet.

10

Thank you for submitting your proposal. Following a thorough review by the ZCG and a period for community feedback on the forum, the committee has decided not to move forward with this proposal due to it being out of scope of the type of projects they fund.

We sincerely appreciate the time and effort you invested in your application and encourage you to stay involved and continue contributing to the Zcash community.

Zcash Community Grants Meeting Minutes 05/25/2026