I just sent this out to the Zcash Foundation newsletter. Below, I collapsed or removed a few sections that would be old news to frequent forum readers. But here’s a link to the full, original version for anyone who’s new or hasn’t checked in much lately 
click to open the first section
Hello everyone! This is a long newsletter, so the most important items are first:
-
Please join the ongoing discussion of future Zcash development funding. If you want to have a say in what happens, now is the time to speak up.
-
“The Zcash Foundation and Parity Technologies are proud to present Zebra, a consensus-compatible Zcash node client written in Rust” — read all about it!
-
We released the Zcon1 recap, videos (with slides!), and photos
In addition, please note the “Newsletter Changes” section below.
ZF Grants Progress
We know that many of you are eager for an update on ZF Grants. Here’s the latest:
-
Since the platform went live on mainnet, the Foundation has funded four campaigns (1, 2, 3, 4) with bounties. We blogged about the first two.
-
The ZF Grants development team improved the platform’s privacy UX and fixed a privacy issue. (A handful of users were affected, and we contacted them directly.)
-
We are still working out the details of our funding priorities and evaluation criteria, including robust RFPs. In the meantime, the Zcash Community Forum and Zcash Community Chat are great places to seek feedback on grant ideas.
Newsletter Changes
[I cut this whole section. That part that’s relevant for forum users who don’t subscribe to the newsletter: I’m going to cross-post the same information here, on a weekly basis, just like I’ve been cross-posting the monthly updates that ZF sends to the general mailing list. Since it would be redundant to continue cross-posting the monthly updates, I plan to stop doing that. Let me know if you object.]
June Overview
click to open
We published five blog posts in June:
What kind of social mores will keep the project healthy, and how can we codify those without delaying progress too much? Zcash multisig governance is one answer to those questions, and we’re currently exploring and iterating on how it ought to work. Ideally, over the next few years, Zcash the protocol will be defined by a multisig governance model, where 2-of-2 consent is required to modify the protocol or introduce new features.
-
“Two Bounties Awarded and a ZF Grants Update” (already linked above)
-
“Zebra, the New Consensus-Compatible Zcash Node Client” (already linked above)
Consult our June monthly update for a thorough list of, well, everything that happened in June. (If you care about privacy, which seems like a safe bet, the new Zcash posters are guaranteed to make you smile!)
July So Far
-
At CoinDesk, Leigh Cuen wrote an article about Zcon1 called “Monero and Zcash Conferences Showcase Their Differences (And Links).” If you’re interested, be sure to read the commentary on Twitter as well.
-
The Zero Knowledge podcast released an episode with Zcash Foundation board member Amber Baldet. It was recorded at Zcon1.
Links to earlier Zcon1 media coverage are available in the recap blog post.
-
Along with the Ethereum Foundation and the Electric Coin Company, the Zcash Foundation sponsored a Gitcoin bounty for BLAKE2b Precompile, which will help accelerate interoperability efforts. The bounty is currently worth a little over $9,000 USD. See the EIP discussion for extensive details.
-
Zcash Community Forum regular ChileBob released Zatsuma, a noncustodial Zcash point-of-sale app that was funded on ZF Grants. Take a look at the code, try out the app, and help with testing
-
Coda Protocol announced early results of the SNARK Challenge: “The Groth16 Prover has been sped up 3X!” The Zcash Foundation contributing funding to the SNARK Challenge — and by the way, there’s plenty left! The 3X speedup code is available on GitHub.
Zcash Ecosystem Highlights
-
A website that counts down to the next Zcash halving.
-
The Mosaic.io “State of Privacy Coins” report, which was presented to institutional investors as part of a Coinbase initiative, then shared publicly via Twitter.
-
Technical AMA with the Electric Coin Company team.
-
Rainey Reitman of the EFF: “Poorly-crafted legislation could impose privacy-invasive regulations in the name of combating money laundering that could undermine new cryptocurrency technologies like ZCash [sic] and Monero, which endeavor to provide digital currency users with some of the same financial privacy enjoyed by anyone who uses cash.”
That’s all until next week! If you read this far, cheers, the zeal spirit is appreciated 