Hi Zeeps.
Have you ever surfed a 100-foot wave? Yeah, me, either. I’ve been surfing twice. And in my head, I looked more skilled, and the waves looked much bigger than they did in the videos taken of me. No, those won’t be seen by anyone anytime soon. Maybe someday I’ll use them for before and after comparisons. 
Garrett McNamara, however, lives on a different planet. A couple of years ago, I found the documentary 100 Foot Wave, which tells the story of Garrett’s search for massive waves and what he found in Nazaré, Portugal.
It gripped me in a few ways: the power and beauty of the waves, the story of these surfer’s determination to ride them, and the community formed in the town and among surfers from around the world. There is a beautiful symbiosis between all of them. The wave is the main character, the unifying element. And it is not something to be tamed or conquered but to be danced upon.
If you are in the moment, then you are really connected to what’s going on. I just deal with the situation as it comes. - Garrett McNamara.
The waves of Nazaré become so large because of a convergence of factors. Beneath the waters lies a canyon 5,000 meters deep, extending for 230 kilometers. With its particular size, shape, and proximity to shore, the canyon embraces the swells that originate from North Atlantic storms, lifting them out of the water like a magical beast.
I’m writing this post on a Saturday morning in Singapore following the Token 2049 conference. I didn’t enjoy it. There were a few highlights, but everything from the over-the-top emcee to the costumed creatures and sparkling dresses handing out fliers to the never-ending lineup of parties hosted by projects I’ve never heard of was a bit much for me personally. While it wasn’t my thing, there was no doubt that this crypto movement is a force and one still getting started.
I’ve also recently posted about the rise of government and financial powers and activities in crypto. These forces and storms are collectively creating swells of wealth and power.
Like the natural forces fueling the waves at Nazaré, they are building, resulting in an amplification that will swell into, perhaps paradoxically, something we can ride to freedom. We can attempt to fight these forces or “just deal with the situation as it comes” and ride the impending 100-foot wave.
Riding the wave won’t be easy. You don’t get towed in and do your best to pop up. Garrett and the others surfing Nazaré have spent years in the water. They are well-practiced, well-trained, disciplined, and focused. They aren’t trying to do too many things but are hyper-focused on one thing and doing that one thing within a trusted community.
We need a similar approach. We are very good at building and supporting a privacy-preserving protocol, and Zcash is solid, but it’s not enough to ride the oncoming wave. We need a user experience that rivals the best Web 2 experiences. To deliver that requires high capacity through linear scaling while not inhibiting decentralization, near zero fees, support for instant payments, a succinct chain, simple key backup and wallet recovery, localized tooling, and an engaging, shareable, and fun UI.
“Does the 100-foot wave exist? Yeah, it does. Is it surfable? I don’t know.”
The 100-foot day is coming. Will we be ready to surf it?
I think so. If we focus on one thing, execute with discipline and in community, we’ve got a shot. But understand, we may only get one.
So, put a wetsuit on and lfg!
warning: watching this video might be good for your soul
Here is where we were taking the drop this week:
Zashi
Zashi 1.2 shipped with Coinbase integration! More on our blog.
Design
- Pablo partially OOO
- Updated UI of the Scan flow
- Prepared designs for promotional purposes
- UI tweaks to new designs based on product and dev feedback
iOS
Unique Installs: 3.18k
Total Downloads: 3.75k
Rating: 4.9 ★
- Redesigned UI:
- Confirmation screen
- Transaction History
- Scan screen
- Receive screen/tab
- Finished AddressBook
- Setup Zashi internal target to be able to share builds for internal testing
- Native dismissal of the keyboard is buggy in iOS so we made a fully custom solution
- Design system innovations:
- zFont that styles the texts according to Figma rules
- zImage that styles the icons/images according to Figma rules
- Fixes:
- Memo input broken cursor behavior
- Broken Restore flow navigation
- Restoring badge when new wallet was created is dismissed now
- Release 1.2 Fixes:
- Updated the code so we can make builds on new macOS, Xcode, and Swift, released SDK 2.2.3 with fixes for these new systems as well
- Sharing of QR code now supports custom icon, title, and subtitle
- Created a custom toast solution and used it for Copied to the clipboard! message, it can be presented from the bottom or top edges
Android
Total Install Base: 2k
Total Installs (incl. Open Beta): 6.65k
Rating: 4.667 ★
- Finished and tested the Coinbase OnRamp integration
- Reviewed and merged support for Android 15 in both SDK and Zashi projects
- Implemented new Design System
- Finalized Flexa integration
- Added a Report button to all of Zashi’s error dialogs, which allows users to share the error stacktrace with us without having to share a screenshot
- Investigating user-reported bug reports
- Fixed the SDK Tor free-after-use bug on Android API 27
- Released SDK version 2.2.4 Zashi version 1.2
- We improved the Send Form Memo field and Send us feedback Intent creation features
- Started working on Address Book and related UI updates
Zcash Core
- Debugged and fixed:
- Reviewed:
- Updated librustzcash#1539 to include the missing documentation from librustzcash#1530.
- Reviewed
- Added scan progress to TUI (zec-sqlite-cli#44).
- Split scan progress into “scan” and “recover”
- R&D investigation: can async ZSA swaps be done with fewer than 4 actions?
- Dealt with a security issue affecting a team member
Other
I spent the week at Token 2049 in Singapore and will attend the Network State conference tomorrow.
The Bootstrap Board of Directors approved a resolution to appoint me as the Bootstrap Executive Director in addition to ECC CEO. Zooko recently vacated the Bootstrap ED position ahead of his move to Shielded Labs.
We’re working on the next transparency report, to be released next week.
@decentralistdan is working with Pacu on third party zcashd deprecation coordination.
Participated in a cross-community call about Zcash narrative coordination.
Working through various contracts and insurance-related fun.
We sent funding to @gordonestv for the European evangelism trip.
Began work to integrate CoinTracker.
Financial model in support of sustainability planning.
I’ll speak at DevCon in Bangkok in November about why crypto is failing the cypherpunks.
Paul (now Coinbase and Bootstrap board member), along with Project Glitch, is organizing and hosting the DC Privacy Summit in October. The speaker lineup (including Zooko!) is incredible, and I’m honored to be a part of it. You can hear more about the event here.
That’s all of this week!
Amped for what’s coming.
Onward.
