Hey, welcome to the Zcash community. Glad to have you here. A lot of work ahead.
5 Likes
We wish you great success working with the Shielded Labs team.
5 Likes
Welcome @philliptrudeau !
5 Likes
Awesome, welcome Phillip!
5 Likes
Welcome @philliptrudeau
4 Likes
A post was merged into an existing topic: ZSAs in NU7, H2 2025 Extension
Shielded Labs is happy to announce that we have received a generous donation of 3,221 ZEC (approximately $1.2 million) from Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss. This contribution will directly support Shielded Labs’ core initiatives, including the Network Sustainability Mechanism (NSM), Crosslink, and Dynamic Fees, which focus on strengthening the long-term security, sustainability, and scalability of the Zcash network.
Tyler and Cameron are long-time, deeply committed supporters of Zcash and its mission to build unstoppable private money. Through Gemini, they have consistently demonstrated leadership in supporting Zcash directly. Gemini was the first major exchange to support shielded Zcash withdrawals, which now includes support for Orchard, Zcash’s most advanced privacy protocol. More recently, they reinforced their commitment to Zcash with the launch of the Cypherpunk DAT, reflecting their continued belief in cypherpunk values and self-sovereign private money.
In Tyler’s words, “A healthy Zcash ecosystem depends on multiple independent organizations contributing at the protocol level. Shielded Labs plays an important role in that effort, and we’re glad to support their work.”
Cameron echoed that view, saying, “We’ve supported Zcash for many years because we believe strong privacy is an essential property of sound money. Shielded Labs is doing important work at the protocol level, and we’re happy to support their efforts.”
Shielded Labs is a Swiss-based Zcash support organization funded by donations from Zcash holders and supporters. We operate independently of the Dev Fund and block rewards, with donations supporting long-term protocol development. This donation is Tyler and Cameron’s second contribution to Shielded Labs. Their first donation, made in 2023, supported the formation of a dedicated team focused on Crosslink.
We are grateful for this strong vote of confidence in Shielded Labs and in the broader Zcash ecosystem. Their contribution meaningfully accelerates our ability to execute on critical protocol-level work and to collaborate openly with other contributors to advance Zcash’s mission. We sincerely appreciate Tyler and Cameron’s continued support of Zcash and its ongoing development.
18 Likes
Shielded Labs is excited to announce that Vitalik Buterin has made a donation to support the continued development of Crosslink, a security-focused upgrade to Zcash’s consensus architecture. The contribution will be used to advance Crosslink from its current prototype stage toward a persistent, incentivized testnet and eventual production readiness.
Crosslink strengthens Zcash’s existing Proof-of-Work consensus by adding a parallel finality layer that protects against chain reorganizations and rollback attacks. All block production and economic activity continue to occur on the PoW chain, while the finality gadget anchors blocks and provides stronger settlement guarantees. By ensuring that confirmed transactions cannot be reversed, Crosslink reduces double-spend risk and increases confidence in transaction settlement. Stronger finality allows for shorter confirmation requirements for exchanges, improves reliability for cross-chain integrations, and provides the consistency required by applications that depend on predictable settlement. These improvements make Zcash easier to integrate into the broader crypto ecosystem while maintaining its existing security properties.
Vitalik’s donation will be used to support the productization of the existing Crosslink prototype, including the launch of a persistent, incentivized testnet where participants can earn ZEC, as well as the transition into a productionization phase. This phase will focus on design specifications, security analysis, audits, coordination with wallets and infrastructure providers, and proactive engagement with the Zcash community. As with all major protocol changes, progress toward mainnet activation will depend on technical readiness, security review, and broad community support.
Commenting on the donation, Vitalik said, “Zcash is one of the most honorable crypto projects with a steadfast focus on privacy. Shielded Labs’ Crosslink work will allow Zcash to be more secure and on a lower security budget, supporting its long-term sustainability.”
Shielded Labs is a Swiss-based Zcash support organization building unstoppable private money. We focus on protocol development projects that strengthen the long-term security and sustainability of the Zcash network. Shielded Labs is funded by donations from Zcash holders and supporters and operates independently of the Dev Fund and block rewards. This donation marks Vitalik’s second contribution to Shielded Labs; his first, made in 2023, supported the formation of a dedicated team focused on Crosslink.
Shielded Labs would like to thank Vitalik for his continued support of Zcash. He has been a long-time supporter of the project and has contributed to discussions around protocol design and security over many years. We appreciate his continued engagement with the Zcash ecosystem and his willingness to help advance work that makes Zcash stronger and more resilient.
20 Likes