Your Zashi Buddy. ECC Roadmap and Update

[joshs]

Hi Zeeps!

Last week, Elon announced Telsa’s roadmap, which included plans to sell you a cute little guy for your home. For somewhere between $20 - $30k, we will be able to get our own “Optimus buddy” to do our dishes, zap off our unwanted hair, and play board games with our kids so that we can focus on the important stuff. And to make it even better, Elon claims (1:39) that there is an 80% probability that it won’t include a Tesla self-directing AI that lasers off your face and steals your Dogecoin while you sleep.

Sign me up! I mean, what could go wrong? And if these robots are as intelligent as it seems like they’ll be, they’ll most likely be Zcashers and our new Zashi buddies. A man can dream, right?

Not to be outdone, today, ECC released its Q4 2024 updated roadmap for Zashi and Zcash.

Every quarter, the ECC team reviews our performance from the previous quarter, re-evaluates our priorities, and refactors our plans for the quarters ahead. As you can imagine, the upcoming quarter is the clearest, and things get a bit fuzzier the further we look. Here’s the refactored quarterly roadmap for Zashi and our work on Zcash. The full PDF is up on the ECC website.

For Zashi, we’re finishing up version 1.x this quarter with several features, including Flexa integration, address rotation, and Spanish localization. Version 1.2.1 for iOS will be available Monday and includes an address book, a cool new receive ZEC feature, and bug fixes.

The major features planned for Zashi 2.x are Keystone hardware wallet integration, multi-account support, and liberated payments. I have been waiting for a hardware wallet to support shielded addresses since Zcash launched. I can’t wait!

Of course, Zashi will need to support multiple accounts so that you can use different wallets for saving and spending your ZEC. Liberated payments are also something we’ve been talking about for some time. This will allow you to give ZEC to a friend or tip your hairdresser with ZEC, even if they don’t yet have Zashi installed.

While we’re working on that, we will conduct market research and explore the viability of a Zashi Vault product. The idea is that we can unlock a richer feature set in a desktop version of the Zashi over time without cluttering the simple, easy-to-use Zashi mobile experience. We also want to explore whether there is a market for white glove services such as supported MPC account recovery and priority support. What is shown in the roadmap are simply potential areas of exploration.

We plan to start planning for Zashi 3.x after the first of the year, emphasizing swaps and the potential for multicurrency support in anticipation of Zash Shielded Assets (ZSAs).

Our roadmap for Zcash is largely focused on our team’s contribution to the ecosystem and may not fully reflect the contributions and plans of others.

NU6 is set to activate in late November. Based on Qedit’s timelines, we have assumed that NU7 will be ZSA-focused, but this is subject to change based on community consensus.

ECC engineering efforts will heavily focus on features and activities in support of zcashd deprecation in collaboration with the Zcash Foundation, the Zingo! team, @pacu, and others in the ecosystem ahead of NU7, as ZSAs will not be supported in zcashd.

It is noted that Shielded Labs is advocating for the Network Sustainability Mechanism to be implemented ahead of zcashd deprecation. While that decision is in the hands of the community, I don’t believe we should rush to include it as I don’t think there has been sufficient community debate on the pros and cons, or clarity on whether the community wants the change and if it should be prioritized over other things. ECC’s plan does not include any time to support the change in zcashd, with audits or an ecosystem rollout. If the community wishes to proceed, great! But all work must be accomplished by Shielded Labs and/or others.

Our Zcash R&D efforts during the months ahead include short and long-term performance and scalability improvements to the protocol, support for third-party efforts, including Keystone and Brave, and improvements needed for Zashi and other wallets. In conjunction with anticipated Zcash governance and funding conversations, we also plan to collaborate with the Zcash Foundation and the broader community on a disbursement mechanism for the lockbox that activates in NU6.

We’re grateful for all the community input and feedback on our planning and efforts this year. Our next roadmap refactoring will occur in January at the next Z|ECC summit. We’re investigating locations and leaning toward a Central or South American venue. Z|ECC summits are open to Zcash community contributors. More information on how you can apply to participate will be available in the coming weeks.

Here’s what your buddies at ECC were up to this week:

Zashi

Design

• Continuing Transaction History redesign - implementing feedback from team review
• Progressing with Onboarding redesign
• Updated the splash screen design to allow for authentication on app launch

iOS

Unique Installs: 3.59k
Total Downloads: 4.24k
Rating: 4.9 ★

• Version 1.2.1 for iOS will be available Monday and includes an address book, a cool new receive ZEC feature, and bug fixes
• Send Feedback screen implemented + fallback to scenarios when users don’t have Apple email app setup
• Flexa:
  • Initialization moved to the point when users truly need/want it
  • A biometric check was added to confirm a payment
• Feature Flagging system implemented, Flexa code is the first instance merged
• SplashScreen enhanced to act as a biometric checkpoint for app launch and app foregrounds (ask again after 15 minutes)
• Working on adding an address to the memo for easy Reply-to

Android

Total Install Base: 2.16k
Total Installs (incl. Open Beta): 7.69k
Rating: 4.7 ★

• Redesigned/Unified buttons and paddings across the whole app based on the new Design System
• Updated Zashi’s Welcome screen background
• Added new Integrations screen to the Settings
• Working on Address Book with remote storage using Google Drive
• Debugged and prepared a fix for a bug with “BadBlockHeight” blocking syncing in cooperation with the Core Team - to be tested with affected users
• Fixed “unsupported address type” issue blocking syncing
• Fixed a crash on lower Android versions caused by the ZIP 321 library
• Working on the Request ZEC flow

Zcash Core

• librustzcash
  • Completed zcash_client_backend: Implement note management via change splitting (librustzcash#1579)
  • Migrated zcash_client_sqlite to schemerz (librustzcash#1575).
• Work on the Schemerz database schema migration library
• Figured out a ~2× improvement to finalization latency for Crosslink 2
• Progress on PCZT (partially constructed Zcash transaction) format in support of Keystone
• Reviewed and commented on Shielded Labs’ proposed ZIPs for NSM
• Zashi localization support
• Debugging and fixes for Android-related issues
  • Ignore address field in GetAddressUtxos response

Other

Brave is still cranking! The shielded wallet code will be audited in late October, and they are still working on implementing the full transaction history. It will then move into beta for four weeks before being pushed into production. They are also continuing to work on adding FIL storage to the memo field, which will be launched later.

Some of the team met with NYM to review the current state and potential for integration with Zashi. While much is done, we have some concerns about adding latency, especially while syncing. We will explore this further in the coming months.

We plan to hire another core team member and are drafting the job description. This person will primarily focus on Zashi-related needs and developer ecosystem support.

I had previously planned to attend and speak at Devcon next month. I canceled my trip due to a heavy travel load, my desire to continue to focus on delivery, and anticipated funding and governance discussions coming soon. I will be in DC late next week to speak at the DC Privacy Summit. If you are in town, let me know.

Speaking of governance, @daira, @decentralistdan, @aquietinvestor, and I met with Justine (she’s awesome), who heads governance for the Optimism Foundation, to learn more about the current state of governance, their objectives, and lessons learned. She’s plugging me into some other communities and resources. I’ll share more on that soon.

We caught up with Radom and Raise about the progress toward adding support for Zcash. Raise is ready to go, but Radom’s development team has been backed up. We’re hoping to get an updated timeline as early as next week.

I have been in contact with Mercado Bitcoin about adding Zcash support. They have a proposal that includes payment for various marketing activities. I’ll evaluate it next week, but it’s not likely something we can afford. If anyone from ZCG is interested in taking a look, I have permission to share the information with you.

We’re seeing some nice moves in the market Zeeps!

Building for the humans today and the robots of tomorrow.

Onward.

[pacu]

I’ve been working with @mrkit2u at the Avalanche Summit to spread the word on the Zcash <> AVAX bridge aka “RedBridge”

I had great conversations with people that had met Kit, @josh, @zooko and other Zcashers at different events the past months and were hyped to work with Zcash related projects.

I was really amazed that someone really influential on the AVAX DeFi scene asked me: WHEN ZSAs!!!

This roadmap is super exciting and replenishing.

I love that in contrast with the ones of past years these one feels more collective and less ECC-only-no-trespassing . It really tells how @joshs has steered ECC and opened it to the community.

Onwards!

[mrkit2u]

Yeah, that was a great moment!

[aquietinvestor]

@joshs

It is noted that Shielded Labs is advocating for the Network Sustainability Mechanism to be implemented ahead of zcashd deprecation.

Hi Josh. Thanks for the feedback. It seems like there may be some confusion about the NSM and our intentions around its implementation.

Nate and I have a call with Daira Emma and Kris on Monday to discuss the concerns that were raised in Thursday’s Arborist call. After hearing their feedback, I will provide the community an update on our plans and an FAQ that addresses common questions about this project.

[joshs]

Great. I look forward to more open conversations.

[aquietinvestor]

@joshs

I have been in contact with Mercado Bitcoin about adding Zcash support. They have a proposal that includes payment for various marketing activities. I’ll evaluate it next week, but it’s not likely something we can afford. If anyone from ZCG is interested in taking a look, I have permission to share the information with you.

I’m happy to take a look and discuss the possibility of Mercado Bitcoin submitting a ZCG grant proposal. Please send me the information when you have a moment. Thanks!

[pacu]

@joshs

I have been in contact with Mercado Bitcoin about adding Zcash support. They have a proposal that includes payment for various marketing activities. I’ll evaluate it next week, but it’s not likely something we can afford. If anyone from ZCG is interested in taking a look, I have permission to share the information with you.

I met the Mercado Bitcoin guy as well at Avalanche Summit. He was pretty excited about working to bring Zcash into their platform. Count with me if I can be of any help with that. Also we need to hear from @Michae2xl and team from Zcash Brasil since they surely have valuable insight about it.

[daira]

My concern is that Shielded Labs appears to be underestimating the cost of protocol complexity. There needs to be a high bar for how much a change will benefit Zcashers in order to be worth a consensus change.

ZIP 235 (burning 60% of fees) for example, by its own calculation, only makes a difference of about 210 ZEC a year. That’s peanuts; is it worth the opportunity cost of doing that instead of something else within a given complexity budget? Or the potential of some security auditor spending time on that ZIP that they could have used elsewhere to find a more important bug?

I think the implicit argument must be that both the transaction volume and the ZEC price will increase, making the amount of ZEC that would be burnt more valuable. But an increased price raises the stakes for every other potential consensus change as well, and so the opportunity cost of making changes that frankly don’t really move the needle will stay high, regardless of price.

[Michae2xl]

Mercado Bitcoin is quite well-known in Brazil!

Adding Zcash to Mercado Bitcoin could be very beneficial for us, especially since we would have BRL as our fiat onramp and offramp. Additionally, we could integrate it into Zashi in the future, similar to what Coinbase has done.

I believe Mercado Bitcoin is based in São Paulo, Brazil, so I can either visit their office or make a call to them. Please count on me if I can assist with this! @joshs @pacu

[Shawn]

@jelly5649

I have pushed multiple times for us to have a forum similar to https://ethereum-magicians.org

That forum is very specific to the technical nature of EIPs, RIPs, ERCs and is organized as such. I would be happy to make a separate sub-category related to ZIPs if anyone would actually use it moving forward. It wouldn’t be retroactively useful though.

We have a much broader scope of things that are discussed here, everything from music, to price, to mining, to grant applications, to development updates, etc, etc… all of which are not allowed on that forum.

If anyone wants to find if there was discussion about a particular ZIP here there is always the search button…

[zhangduang66]

Will the ZEC and USDT mortgage lending functions be added next year?

[ceb9ceb4ceb9cf89cf84]

Excellent update. I am very happy to see all this effort, dedication, and desire for growth. Of all the cryptocurrencies, Zcash is my favorite. Seriously, the only one I have.

[nuttycom]

The best place for this sort of discussion is on the specific ZIP issues and/or pull requests in the GitHub - zcash/zips: Zcash Improvement Proposals repository. We prefer that discussions occur directly in the context of the changes being proposed, so that someone looking for the history of discussion on a ZIP can find it directly from actual history of the ZIP, and also so that the discussion doesn’t become disconnected from what is actually being specified.

[zerodartz]

discussions on github should be open to every user imo

[joshs]

Yes, Github isn’t enough imho. Most people don’t live there.

[aquietinvestor]

Hi Josh. I want to clarify a couple things from your recent updates:

@joshs

It is noted that Shielded Labs is advocating for the Network Sustainability Mechanism to be implemented ahead of zcashd deprecation.

I believe this statement misrepresents what I said on the Arborist call. We’re not advocating for the NSM to be prioritized over zcashd deprecation. My point was that if zcashd deprecation gets delayed, say to 2026, we don’t want that to hold up the implementation of the NSM if there’s consensus to include it in a future network upgrade.

@joshs

We should consider these options and consequences when designing the Zcash Sustainability Fund and Crosslink (PoW / PoS hybrid). FWIW, I’m don’t think that fees, distribution, and impact on long-term security and user incentives have been fully considered as we race ahead toward their implementation.

Shielded Labs is not racing ahead with the implementation of the NSM and Crosslink without considering fees, distribution, user incentives, and long-term security. We recognize these as important factors. Regarding Crosslink, we will discuss these aspects as we progress towards development, but our current focus is on the project scope. For the NSM, we’ve intentionally separated implementing its basic functionality from fees and disbursements because we believe these considerations require serious discussion and should ultimately be decisions for the community to make after the NSM is operational.

For more information about the NSM, please see the post and FAQ at the below link:

Network Sustainability Mechanism (NSM)

We want to share some updates we’ve made to the Zcash Sustainability Fund (ZSF) to clarify its purpose and improve the community’s understanding of how it functions. Nothing material has changed under the hood; we’ve just refined our terminology and approach to make it easier for the community to understand. We have changed the name from Zcash Sustainability Fund (ZSF) to Network Sustainability Mechanism (NSM) because, as we’ve previously stated, the word “fund” creates confusion. The NSM is no…

[joshs]

@aquietinvestor

We’re not advocating for the NSM to be prioritized over zcashd deprecation. My point was that if zcashd deprecation gets delayed, say to 2026, we don’t want that to hold up the implementation of the NSM if there’s consensus to include it in a future network upgrade.

Thank you for the clarification @aquietinvestor. You are only advocating for a near-term network upgrade (ahead of ZSAs) if the zcashd schedule slips?

[aquietinvestor]

Correct, we are not advocating for the NSM to be prioritized over ZSAs. We would only advocate for the NSM to be implemented before ZSAs if (1) zcashd depreciation gets delayed, as depreciation is a dependency for ZSA implementation, or (2) there is some unforeseen issue or bug that precludes ZSAs from being included in the next network upgrade.

[dismad]

@daira

My concern is that Shielded Labs appears to be underestimating the cost of protocol complexity. There needs to be a high bar for how much a change will benefit Zcashers in order to be worth a consensus change.

@aquietinvestor

We would only advocate for the NSM to be implemented before ZSAs if (1) zcashd depreciation gets delayed, as depreciation is a dependency for ZSA implementation, or (2) there is some unforeseen issue or bug that precludes ZSAs from being included in the next network upgrade.

I’m concerned everyone is overly optimistic with zcashd deprecation timelines. When will CLI wallets that are usable with zebra be open to the public?

Until I see progress here, I’m not sure this timeline is realistic. I say this with the up most respect to the teams doing the work, I appreciate you. I just want a check on the pulse here.

[daira]

@nuttycom

The best place for this sort of discussion is on the specific ZIP issues and/or pull requests in the GitHub - zcash/zips: Zcash Improvement Proposals repository. We prefer that discussions occur directly in the context of the changes being proposed, so that someone looking for the history of discussion on a ZIP can find it directly from actual history of the ZIP, and also so that the discussion doesn’t become disconnected from what is actually being specified.

The importance of the discussion not becoming disconnected from the actual specification can’t be overemphasized. GitHub is where we write specs and that’s not likely to change.

@jelly5649

I can understand that, to some extent. Personally I don’t see anything of the Github stuff, but maybe it’s because I don’t know where to look? What about @joshs though, is he expecting more than the Github “discussions” then, are discussions not “open” on Github?

@joshs

Yes, Github isn’t enough imho. Most people don’t live there.

You don’t strictly have to use GitHub to participate in the Zcash standards process, but it really, really helps. I don’t think this is an unreasonable ask; in practice you need to have a GitHub account to interact with the vast majority of other open-source projects (usually they are even more GitHub-focused than Zcash is).