Over the last 8 years, Zcon has produced hundreds of presentations covering privacy, cryptography, governance, community building, engineering, and the history of Zcash.
As part of our work on watchz.cash, Zk Av Club is creating a curated collection of the most important Zcon presentations ever recorded.
Before we publish our list, we’re inviting the community to participate in the Zcash Playlist Challenge: 25 Most Important Zcon Presentations.
The Challenge
Create a YouTube playlist containing your 25 Most Important Zcon Presentations.
To help participants make their selections, we have published the Zcon Video Selection Framework, which outlines the criteria we use when evaluating videos.
Your goal is not simply to choose your favorites.
Your goal is to predict which 25 videos Zk Av Club will ultimately select for our official Top 25 collection.
How to Enter
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Create a public or unlisted YouTube playlist containing exactly 25 Zcon videos.
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Order the videos from #1 to #25.
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Create a submission document containing:
- A link to your playlist
- A screenshot showing the complete playlist order
- A Zcash payment address for prize distribution
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Publish the submission document somewhere publicly accessible and copy its URL.
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Send a shielded transaction to the contest Orchard address with the URL of your submission document included in the transaction memo:
u1ngmmxvupjaus3gx50p05fhvvl6c8q5wj0z2jk5k729q2j0gx86wva62v9e6yzdurgmy5gkmse4r7cmngh5njkdazrzvt630acvn72552 -
Reply to this contest thread with:
- The transaction ID (TXID)
- A link to your YouTube channel
The playlist order shown in the submitted screenshot will be considered final and cannot be changed after the submission deadline.
Eligibility Rules
- Only videos from official Zcon conferences are eligible.
- For a full list of official Zcon videos, see the Zcash Foundation YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@zcashfoundation/playlists
- Each participant may submit only one playlist.
- Playlists must contain exactly 25 videos.
- Videos may not be repeated within a playlist.
Scoring
After the submission period closes, Zk Av Club will publish our official Top 25 Zcon playlist.
Points will be awarded based on how closely your playlist matches ours.
Base Points
- Correct video included anywhere in your playlist: 1 point
Bonus Points
Additional points are awarded when a video appears in the correct ranking position.
- Exact position match: +3 points
Example:
If a video appears as #7 in both your playlist and the official playlist, you receive 4 points total (1 base point + 3 bonus points).
Winners
After the submission period closes, Zk Av Club will publish our official Top 25 Zcon playlist and score all entries according to the contest rules.
The participant (or participants) with the highest total score will be declared the winner(s).
In the spirit of community participation, if multiple participants achieve the highest score, each winner will receive the full advertised prize amount.
Prize
1 ZEC (edit 2026-06-10: see below for more details)
Start and End Dates
Submission transactions must be sent between July 1 and July 16 (UTC) in order to be valid.
Judging
The official Zk Av Club Top 25 playlist will be selected using the Zcon Video Selection Framework (link at top).
Factors include:
- Historical significance
- Educational value
- Long-term relevance
- Presentation quality
- Influence on the Zcash ecosystem
- Representation across different eras and topics
Why Participate?
The Zcon archive contains more than 200 presentations spanning nearly a decade of Zcash history.
This challenge is an opportunity to revisit those talks, discover overlooked gems, and help identify the presentations that best represent the story of Zcash.
Good luck! May your predictions be better than ours.
Edit 2026-06-05
Zcash Playlist Challenge Prize Pool: Minimum 3 ZEC
Participants with the highest scores will each receive 1 ZEC. Prizes will be awarded until at least 3 ZEC has been distributed. Ties are not broken, so more than 3 ZEC may be awarded if multiple participants share a winning score.
Thanks to 
