Hi Zeeps!
As I sit here tonight, Bitcoin is dancing just above $100,000 per coin, and all the OG Bitcoiners are dancing with it. 100k? Yipes. It’s an epic milestone, for sure.
As the saying goes, “Something is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it.” Well, as it turns out, people are currently willing to shell out a ton of cash for digital bits.
What is Bitcoin? Just electricity? Bitcoin’s bits are not a physical thing, like gold, which really kind of messes with most people’s heads. Like all money, Bitcoin is a shared social construct. We collectively agree on what it does and how it works and that the bits have value.
We are getting more comfortable living within the Matrix every day.
Speaking of the matrix, I was thinking about silverware this week. It didn’t start by waxing philosophical about what Bitcoin is. It started with this post from Balaji. In it, he asserts that Neo, aka “Zatoshi,” should rise up from the unknown to bring freedom by creating a new programmable, private token on top of Ethereum.
Naval Ravikant responded in a tweet, that has since been deleted, arguing that Zcash works, is built for purpose, and that three distinct chains are needed for digital “gold, code, and cash.” That resonated and kickstarted this week’s mental fixation with eating utensils.
A spoon is built for purpose. It does an exceptionally good job of holding and delivering soup to my mouth. I don’t even like soup much, but I was forced to consume some this week. I reached for a spoon and was slurping chicken broth in no time. Bitcoin’s product market fit is digital gold. It’s a spoon.
But much to the chagrin of the meat-eating Bitcoin maxis, a spoon sucks for eating steak. For that, you need a fork. Yes, Zcash is a fork of Bitcoin, but that’s not what I mean. I mean that you need another instrument, also built for purpose, just a different one. Zcash is aptly named. It is encrypted, electronic cash. It’s built for purpose.
Ethereum is more like a Swiss army knife. It’s got all kinds of utility. There are even versions that include spoons and forks. So why not just use Ethereum? Because all the little screwdrivers and saws take up so much room. The contraption’s complexity gives it a breadth of capability, but I’d rather just use a fork at the dinner table. It does the job, doesn’t overcomplicate it, and because it doesn’t overcomplicate it, it is a better tool for what it needs to do. Oh, and don’t get me started about the horror show that is “the spork.”
Which brings me back to the Matrix and this line from the movie:
“Do not try and bend the spoon, that’s impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth …There is no spoon. Then you’ll see that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself.”
Zcash is what we make it. If we collectively decide it’s a fork, it is a fork. If we intend for it to be electronic cash, it will be so. It doesn’t mean we can just sit on a comfy couch, binge-watch Tick Tock clips, and somehow manifest it into being.
I’m reminded of this quote from Jesus:
“If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."
The basis of this statement is faith. It’s the foundation. But it also requires action. To move a mountain, you must speak and command it to move.
Like Bitcoin, Zcash works because of the tech behind it, and it’s useful because it’s a social construct. It’s collective and malleable. It is what we decide it is. And to engage in transactions with one another, we need encrypted electronic cash. Day by day, more people are opting for the red pill and reaching for a fork.
We are standing at the foot of the mountain Zeeps. How big is your faith? Speak it!
Here’s what ECC spoke into existence this week:
Zashi
Zashi Design
- Adjustments and amends to Keystone Wallet integration designs (finalizing changes to both light and dark modes)
- Adhoc engineering edits and requests
- Continuing design efforts for Home Screen designs, Send/Receive screens, and Maya Integration → Swap)
- Working on new app illustration assets
- Video asset designs (intro, outro, and title slides)
Zashi iOS
- Keystone Zashi (sneak peek)
- Keystone Receive flow ->UI done, logic done
- QR codes with colored logos + Keystone logo added
- Finished flow for signing a transaction with Keystone UI
- Addresses presented in Zashi come from the WalletAccount wrapper
- Implemented final design tweaks
- Localization support of new texts done
- Request ZEC flow supports Keystone now
- UI drawer issues fixed + iOS 15 support (again ;))
- Keystone iOS SDK
- Hardcoded account(s) no more!
- AccountUUID massive refactor
- Import UFVK added to the SDK
- Test suite refactored to reflect latest changes + clean up so we have green CI again
Analytics Update:
Unique Installs: 4.82k
Total Downloads: 5.65k
AppStore Rating: 4.9*
Zashi Android
- Keystone Android SDK
- The SDK moved away from ZIP 32 Account indexes to Account UUIDs
- Several new Account-related APIs have been added
- The entire SDK codebase has been updated to adopt these changes (tests included)
- Keystone Zashi
- Keystone Payment flow - UI done,
business logic blocked by PCZT - Keystone Create account flow → UI done, logic can now adopt the new import account SDK API
- Keystone Select account flow ->UI done, logic done
- Keystone Receive flow ->UI done, logic done
- Address Book → implementation unblocked and agreed on for v1
- Missing derivation tools with UUID support, todo - migration!
- Settings → waiting for copy updates
- Zashi payment flow ->broken derivation of spending key due to missing UUID support on derivation tools
- Keystone Payment flow - UI done,
Analytics Update:
Total Install Base: 2.73k
Total Installs (incl. Open Beta): 10.2k
PlayStore Rating: 4.622*
Zcash Core
NU7
- The ZIP Editors / node implementors posted a Viability Assessment of the candidate ZIPs.
- ZIP 2004 is out of NU7.
- All other ZIPs are technically feasible but “inclined not to include” ZIP 235 due to insufficient usefulness.
- Decided what to recommend for ZIPs 234 and 235: these should be implemented behind feature flags to allow more time for governance decisions.
- Resolved cryptographic design issues for ZSAs:
- zips#955: Attack against Spendability due to ρ potentially not being unique in an issuance action – require an OrchardZSA Action and use its nullifier + index to derive ρ.
- What to sign for asset swaps. (Not NU7 but this increases confidence that the design will not need an incompatible transaction parsing change.)
- ZSA audit underway.
Keystone
- Working full tilt on prerequisites for Keystone:
- Multi-account support
- Resolved design issues about the Address Book: there will be one Address Book shared between the Zashi and HW wallet accounts. If they need to be separated later, we will duplicate them.
- Implementation is mostly merged.
- PCZTs
- Design is essentially done.
- Several PRs in flight.
- Multi-account support
- Zcashd wallet replacement deprioritized relative to Keystone.
Other
@aquietinvestor and I met to discuss concerns raised about including NSM in NU7, including the time needed for the community to weigh in on issuance smooth and burning. All in all, we landed on a great outcome.
Join us next week as we discuss the future of Zcash governance and development funding. More information here.
The new Zcash Keystone hardware wallets are on a discounted pre-sale. Act fast!
Check out the awesome clips of Trevor from Flexa talking about our work together.
Jonathan (Qedit) and I met this week to discuss the NU7 schedule and priorities. He shared that the audit is nearly complete, the testnet is coming soon, and they are preparing to provide educational content for the community.
Binance mentioned Zcash as a top performer. Nice summary.
The team at Maya is progressing well with Zcash support, and we’re working with them to get ready. They’ll be joining us at the Z|ECC summit in January.
Coinbase added support for ApplePay in their SDK, which means that, theoretically, you can use ApplePay to purchase ZEC directly in Zashi. However, I had no luck testing it, as they are still working out some security kinks.
We’re proud to be partnering with the Giving Block. Tis the season to donate a little ZEC to your favorite cause.
We’re in ECC budget season! Tony and I are working through the final details.
We are in the midst of interviews for a new strategic marketing manager.
We’re looking for someone to join our core team. Check out the job description and apply here.
Interested in helping ECC shape its roadmap? We’re coming together in Mexico this January. Apply here to join us!
That’s all for this week.
Moving mountains.
Onward.
