As usual, cross-posted from ZF’s newsletter.
Hello friends! If you missed the previous update, here’s a link. Otherwise, read on!
Governance
Zcash community members crowdfunded and created a written transcript of the recent Zcash Protocol Hangout about development funding. Check it out:
Thank you Michael Harms, @MoneyKnowledge0, and Zcash LA!
ZF News
In addition to attending Devcon 5 this week, executive director Josh Cincinnati will present “The Business Case for Privacy in Cryptocurrencies” at BlockChainJam in Tokyo on November 17.
Josh will overview the privacy technologies that are available on public blockchains, and explain 1) why so many people are motivated to work on these projects, and 2) how businesses and governments alike could benefit from embracing privacy in financial transactions.
Zero Knowledge Summit is coming to San Francisco later this month, on October 26! The Foundation is one of the event sponsors, and multiple employees plan to attend. Keep an eye out for us 
From the website:
This upcoming edition will be about zero knowledge research, SNARKs, universal trusted set-ups, recursive proof systems, cryptographic primitives, privacy, scaling and maths, but will also have a special focus on the use of ZK systems for interoperability.
Attendants will primarily be researchers, cryptographers, practitioners, founders and developers working on zero knowledge topics. If you fall into these categories, please do apply to attend HERE.
Ben Devlin, the engineer behind our FPGA acceleration project, recently presented his work at the Taipei Ethereum Meetup.
Ben uploaded a PDF of his slides, and the livestream is available on YouTube:
Ecosystem Highlights
Michael Harms published “How to Use zcash-cli — Easy Mode”:
The beta version of ZecWallet’s light client is live! Please note the upcoming name change:
ZecWallet will be called “ZecWallet FullNode” going forward. “ZecWallet” will now be a lightclient that cuts the amount of data downloaded by over 90%, while supporting the exact same features (coming soon!).
Community feedback on the beta is encouraging:
This ZecWallet light is pretty snazzy. The setup is sooo much faster than a full node. Once this is past the interactive/prompt stage it’ll open A LOT of doors for even entry/intermediate developers. I like how change defaults to zaddr
. Nice
Deloitte and QEDIT are hosting “the first-ever community workshop for the ZKProof standardization initiative in Europe” — October 28 in Amsterdam!
MC Hammer dancing with a ZEC coin, courtesy of @ChileBob:
ZEC Economy
This week’s spotlight on a merchant who accepts Zcash!
Do you enjoy tinkering with projects like 3D printing? You can buy parts and supplies with ZEC at Direct Voltage, an online retailer based in Illinois.
Here’s one of the products on offer:
…as well as many lower-priced items, covering a wide variety of electronics projects.
See PayWithZ.cash for more Zcash-accepting retailers!
Farewell, until next time! Thank you, as always, for your time and attention. Let us know if you have questions or feedback. General questions about Zcash are encouraged!