Hello friends! Another month, another rundown of Zcash Foundation activities. Spoiler: The most exciting announcements are at the end.
5/9
Coda and Dekrypt Capital announced the SNARK Challenge, sponsored by the Zcash Foundation and a few other organizations: https://coinlist.co/build/coda
“A global competition to speed up the SNARK prover,” with more than $100k in the prize pool.
Coda CTO Izaak Meckler made a video about the SNARK Challenge: Coda + Dekrypt SNARK Challenge: Coda Workshop - YouTube
5/9
The second installment of the Human Rights Foundation’s series on privacy and cryptocurrency was published: Privacy and Cryptocurrency, Part II: Bitcoin Wallets | by Eric Wall | Human Rights Foundation (HRF) | Medium
We funded this initiative, which is being written by HRF Privacy Technology Fellow Eric Wall. Background info: Human Rights Foundation Cryptocurrency Research - zcash foundation
The next installment is going to be about privacy-preserving cryptocurrencies like Zcash and Monero!
5/10
The Open Money Initiative, sponsored by the Zcash Foundation among other organizations, debuted the results of their research on cryptocurrency usage in Venezuela. OMI’s blog post: Announcing the Open Money Initiative | by Open Money Initiative | Open Money Initiative | Medium
CoinDesk article: https://www.coindesk.com/whats-holding-back-bitcoin-in-venezuela-this-group-is-investigating
5/14
Alongside Paige Peterson from the Electric Coin Company, Josh Cincinnati (the Foundation’s Executive Director) spoke at Consensus 2019. You can see the video here: Consensus 2023 Presented by CoinDesk | April 26-28, 2023 (scroll down to the video labeled “Electric Coin Company and Zcash Foundation” in the “Construct” section)
5/14
Also on the Construct stage at Consensus, Zcash Foundation board member Peter Van Valkenburgh said, “As a director of the Zcash Foundation I don’t want Zcash developers to build a system that maximizes the value of Zcash. I want them to build the best damn privacy coin they can. That’s the problem with a fiduciary duty of loyalty.”
Quote via Lane Rettig on Twitter: https://twitter.com/lrettig/status/1128691797495025664
5/21
“We are delighted to announce that Deirdre Connolly has joined the Zcash Foundation as a Core Engineer. […] At the Zcash Foundation, Deirdre will be taking ownership of the all-Rust implementation of Zcash and turning it into a production-quality project.”
More details: The Zcash Foundation Welcomes a Core Engineer - zcash foundation
5/21
The second Zcash Protocol Hangout happened, and the video has been published: Zcash Protocol Hangout — Blossom and NU3 ZIPs - YouTube
The group primarily discussed Blossom and NU3 ZIPs. Paige from the ECC (mentioned earlier) took notes: Zcash Foundation Protocol Discussion Round 2 (May 21, 2019) - Google Docs
The next one is likely to be planned for August.
5/23
We joined the social network Cent, and got a great response from the community: Hello Centians!
5/25
Bola-Ige Alabi-Efeshodiamhe repped Zcash at the Blockchain, AI & Digital Assets Summit in Nigeria: https://twitter.com/bolaigeaefe/status/1132307394254528512
5/29
New wallet! 
“The Zcash Foundation is delighted to announce Zepio Wallet, a shielded-first, cross-platform Zcash wallet that includes a full zcashd node. […] Zepio is currently available for macOS, Windows, and Linux.” Introducing Zepio Wallet - zcash foundation
Technical choices and development process: Announcing Zepio Wallet. A cross-platform shielded-address-first… | by André Neves | Medium
5/30
“ZF Grants now supports the Zcash mainnet! […] You can transact with real $ZEC on the platform.” ZF Grants Is Ready for Your Proposal - zcash foundation
People have already submitted proposals: ZF Grants - Browse proposals
On the Zcash Community Forum, a discussion of grant ideas: FAQ around grant ideas
That’s all for now!
You can receive these updates directly in your inbox (along with progress reports from grant winners) by signing up for the Zcash Foundation general mailing list: general Info Page