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These are heavy days. I’ve been dealing with some personal things, and around the world, streets are full of chaos, bombs are dropping, and people are dying. I’ll admit, I’ve been doom-scrolling the past few days, watching live feeds of explosions and lights hurtling to the ground. This voyeurism into things I can’t control and the rumination on the wrongs in this world is not good for my mental health.
My mom told me a story about my sister some years ago. She was at a high school dance and felt so constricted by her dress and all the people that all she could think about was ripping off the dress and running free. That’s how I feel as I type these words. I want to run, and so I’m going to do that here and see where it goes.
Stewing and handwringing about what you can’t control is a choice. What you meditate on and give your time to is a choice. There is a verse from Philippians that I’m choosing to think on right now. It reads,
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
As I sit here, I’m choosing to meditate on people I’ve met who are doing things true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and admirable. I am seeing them in my mind’s eye and the good that affected me this week.
I’m thinking about an ECC teammate who used their time and skill to try to save the life of a friend.
And a doctor who called me while he was traveling, just to check in and offer help to a family member and who is now planning to accept Zcash so patients can pay for care out from under the watchful eye of third parties.
And a friend and fellow Zcasher, a true believer, who introduced me to that doctor.
I’m thinking about my sister, now also a Zcasher, who is out of her mind excited about the concert we’re seeing together tomorrow, without the constriction of that prom dress.
And I’m smiling as I think about the voices emerging in our community who are laughing and having fun while telling our Zcash story and sending each other love letters.
And also smiling about another Zcasher, whom I have long wanted to meet in person, who is coming to the Z|ECC Summit in a couple of weeks and has made stickers for all of us who will be there.
I’m thinking about an ECCer who gave birth to a wonderfully beautiful baby girl.
There is so much good in Zcash and in this community. What we’re building, we’re building for good. We’re building something that empowers people to choose what they will and will not focus on. This isn’t just tech. It’s legacy. And a shared commitment to helping each other run free.
So run free with me and spur one another on. Let’s run free from the expectations of others, free from divisiveness and hate. Let’s run free from those who want to control how we think and wish to restrict our movements. Let’s run free.
Here’s ECC’s work on Zcash this week:
Zashi
What we did:
- Transaction Submission over Tor : Completed on both iOS & Android, including transaction fetching and enhancement.
- Swap or Pay with NEAR : Designs for both flows have been finalized and approved by the team. We are rebuilding the UI and finalizing NEAR 1Click API integration + business logic for the initial testing prototype.
- Decoy Wallet & Multisig: Started the exploratory design phase for Decoy Wallet feature and Multisig Support.
What’s up next:
- Run testing and QA the Tor implementation. Due to restrictions in some countries and interference with self-hosted light client infrastructure, we are delaying this release to include the option to turn this feature on or off.
- SDK release migration on Android (deadline at the end of this month).
- Swap or Pay with Near - continue building the initial testing prototype.
- Plan the next steps for Maya integration.
iOS Analytics
- Unique Installs: 8.34k
- Total Downloads: 10k
- AppStore Rating: 4.9*
Android Analytics
- Unique Installs: 3.85k
- Total Downloads: 19.5k
- PlayStore Rating: 4.373*
Zcash Core
What we did:
- Debugging & integration work for Zashi Tor support
- We worked on adding full-block scanning capability to zcash_client_backend in service of enabling full-block scanning in zallet.
- We worked with the Zaino team to ensure that we are aligned on development priorities.
- We added a Docker build for zallet.
- We implemented z_gettotalbalance in zallet and worked on adding transparent UTXOs to the results of z_listunspent, in order to facilitate debugging and reduce the need to use multiple divergent APIs to get information about unspent outputs belonging to the wallet.
- We made additional progress on the Rust zcash_script implementation.
- We fixed a high-CPU usage problem in zallet and fixed bugs related to the handling of coinbase inputs.
What’s up next:
- Complete Zcashd key import (currently in debugging) for zallet
- Complete zcash_client_backend implementation of full-block scanning support.
- Prepare Zcashd release for NU6.1 testnet (we’ll have everything done but will be waiting on the keyholder orgs for a testnet P2SH key before we can cut the release.)
Other
Tony is taking over her operational responsibilities while Janie is on maternity.
We started work on a grant package to submit to coin holders later this year.
Paul the SEC Crypto Task Force meeting.
Tune into PGP for Crypto this Thursday, which will include a roundtable discussion on Tornado Cash & Samourai Wallet: New administration, same old legal fights.
We are finalizing the agenda and session leaders for the upcoming Z|ECC Summit. We are currently at capacity, and registrations are now closed. Joining us will be Zcashers from the ZecHub, ZCG, the Zcash Foundation, The zkAV Club, Shielded Labs, red·dev, and NEAR.
That’s all for this week.
Running free,
Onward.