Tokidoki for ZCG (June 2022)

Hi folks!

I’m glad to announce my candidacy for ZCG.

Who am I?

I’m a new dad from Indonesia who work as a software engineer. Previously I worked with a US-based fintech startup as a Junior Engineer. Late last year, I decided to quit and work full time on crypto. I managed to get a job in crypto but unfortunately not in Zcash. While I haven’t been able to work full time on Zcash, I was able to join the forum as moderator and learn much more about Zcash technology and community.

As a new dad, I want my kid to live in a world where money is not used against them. Money should be used to make a better world, it shouldn’t be used to control others. At first, I was interested in Zcash due to shielded transactions that allow for freedom of transactions. Cash is fungible and any “digital cash” must also be fungible. I believe shielded Zcash is the fungible digital asset, but not yet a “cash”. While Zcash has solved the privacy problem, it’s still not accessible to most, unlike cash.

My vision for Zcash

I have always thought that we need money that is neutral. Money that doesn’t discriminate anyone or anything regardless of physical or social boundaries that exist between us. There’s a good chance that Zcash could be the money that I envision here. A neutral, digital, fungible, and importantly, accessible money for everyone. As such, my north star for Zcash is usage. For Zcash to be sustainable, it needs users. For Zcash to be used by as many people as possible, we need to make ZEC the money with the best UX and educate everyone about its existence.

My target while serving on ZCG

ZCG should play a major role in making Zcash more accessible and delivering the best ZEC UX for Zcash users. For example, a zodler should be able to store their ZEC in a secure mass-produced device like a hardware wallet. A community should be able to manage their treasury on Zcash, privately and with the ability to selectively reveal their holdings for public accounting. Parents should be able to safely prepare their children’s savings accounts on Zcash. So, as a ZCG committee member, I will focus on grants that directly benefit the “Zcash users” by allowing them to easily, safely and happily use Zcash for their needs.

A few examples of approved grants that I’m most positive on:

As a software engineer with community management experience, I believe I can provide the ZCG with unique perspectives blending technical and social aspects of Zcash.

Disclosure:

  • I’ve never been employed by the Electric Coin Co. (ECC) nor by the Zcash Foundation (ZF).
  • I have never received a ZCG grant.
  • For the last two years, ZEC is consistently the largest portion of my crypto portfolio.
  • I’m active in other cryptocurrency/DAO communities but most of my time is spent on Zcash.
  • I had an employment contract to work as community manager of a cryptocurrency project. Currently, I’m not employed by any other cryptocurrency teams.

Thank you for reading this far. I hope everyone is excited for my candidacy and looking forward for an even better ZCG. Also, good luck to all ZCG candidates. Godspeed.

Cheers!
tokidoki

P.S.: You can private message me with shielded memo, pun intended :wink:, at zs1cmws5cn9kj4kk6en990wnvvyeu7qkwkjnxfv3hehv4g8ss7m3zps56affl3vyv8xw4u3c2ga225

21 Likes

Awesome that you’re running for ZCG! You have done a lot of great work on moderation of the Zcash Forums. I also like your communication style and technical background and feel that would be valuable for ZCG.

My one concern is your contract work as a Technical Community Manager at Penumbra. I feel that some people would see this project as a competitor to Zcash, including the founder, which may be bad optics. I personally feel like you would navigate it well, just as I did working with Ethereum and Zcash at the same time. However, Penumbra and Zcash are at this moment less friendly than Zcash and Ethereum and arguably more competitors than allies.

How does the Penumbra team feel about your ZCG application and how would you address the optics of being paid by what some would consider a Zcash competitor?

6 Likes

Thanks for the question :pray:

I just want to clarify that I’m not in contract with the Penumbra Labs team anymore. Currently, my work as a community mod in the Penumbra Discord server is voluntary. If the Zcash community wants me to, I can step down from my voluntary moderation work there. So, not sure what the Penumbra team feels about my ZCG application but I have been open with them that I’m active in the Zcash community from the beginning and they have no problem with that.

As a project that leverages the Zcash Sapling design, I see Penumbra to be a good thing for Zcash. Penumbra team is experimenting with private staking, private voting and importantly a shielded decentralized exchange. All of that could be a great data point for next iterations of Zcash. And as Penumbra aims to be the shielded pool for the Cosmos ecosystem through IBC, Zcash could very well have a really nice entry into the Cosmos ecosystem. I think having a shielded wrapped ZEC used by cosmonauts (i.e. Cosmos users) is strictly good for Zcash users and zodlers. And just to be clear, I have no stake in Penumbra. :smiley:

Cheers!

2 Likes

You clearly have anti-Ycash bias. You mention Ycash more often than I do. I will NOT be voting for you.

3 Likes

Thank you for expressing your vote @hloo. However, this is off-topic and I will move this to the appropriate topic. Cheers!

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Hiya @tokidoki obviously I am a fan of your perspective, and have benefited from your thoughtful messages on matrix and this forum.

I believe that the UX that zingo will produce is precisely the one that Users need… because it will evolve as a direct response to user requests! As Far As I Can Tell (AFAICT) this means that zingo intends to build the kind of thing you’d like to fund. Does that sound right to you? If you were on the ZCG, would there be an obvious problem with zingo (as decribed) that we’d need to fix before grant eligibility? Or do you believe it has the right basic ideas for your support?

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Yeah, I’m definitely interested with the idea behind zingo. If I were elected, I would like to see an effort like zingo gets funded. Users need a wallet that evolves with their need, and also a wallet which publication doesn’t depend on a single individual/entity.

Personally, I agree with teor in their reply to you:

I also believe zingo and the community will find the solution it needs to move forward. Cheers! :beers:

1 Like