These thoughts and opinions are my own. I am not speaking on behalf of ECC.
Dear Zcash community,
What we are trying to do is hard. The cryptography, engineering, regulatory engagement, comms and adoption. This isn’t just another cryptocurrency. This is the complexity of building a cryptocurrency with sophisticated cryptography and a focus on fundamental human rights.
Tonight I will be on a call at 11pm to work through a concern in a foreign country who is uncomfortable granting their citizens privacy. Like the country we’re meeting about tonight, many states are just fine with the surveillance that other cryptocurrencies allow for. This is the world we live in and the future that is headed our way unless we act. States are pushing surveillance in the name of protection. It’s a grand bargain between those in power and the people that they govern. And it’s a dangerous agreement and difficult to undo. The irony is that states are better off when their citizens are protected from the prying eyes of bad actors and foreign states. But today, this is lost on most.
Zcash is a threat to those pushing for broad surveillance powers, but not because of what it does today. The market cap is too small, z2z usage is minimal and the UX is too limiting. But Zcash is a threat because of what it may provide in the future.
As a team member who is fighting this battle every day, some of this funding conversation feels healthy, and some of it is incredibly discouraging. But I do understand it. The Zcash community has the right to keep this team accountable and to determine how, or if, we should keep our jobs. You have the right to decide how much should be paid to developers and how much should be paid to miners. But know that we are inventing and engineering and fighting and busting our asses every single day.
I work for ECC because I believe in your rights, I believe what we are doing is for a good and noble cause, and I believe that, for now, this group of people is uniquely equipped (more than anyone in the world) to help further that cause.
I believe that we at ECC have a vision for a world where people are safe and free and have the opportunity to strive for better things. I believe that most Zcashers share that common vision. I hope you share that vision. And, we also have a vision for how to get there. It is not yet realized. We still have much to do.
So you may decide if you want us to stay, or not, or the mechanics of how all that will work. But we are here and committed and fighting for you every day. And I, for one, am grateful to have the opportunity to spend my days in this effort. And I thank my coworkers and this community for that opportunity today, and hopefully tomorrow. You, us, we still have much to do.
Josh