From Grassroots Education to Builders: Introducing the Zcash Privacy Developers Residency Programme
A journey from taking Zcash to schools, to building a national community, and now empowering developers to build the next generation of financial privacy applications.
The Zcash Privacy Developers Residency Programme is not where our journey begins. It is the next chapter of a journey that started with a simple question:
How do we move Zcash from being something people hear about to something people understand, use, build with, and experience in their everyday lives?
Over the past few years, that question has taken us from grassroots education and community events to the creation of Zcash Ghana, and now to our first Privacy Developers Residency Programme.
Chapter 1 — Taking Zcash to Schools:
Our journey began with grassroots education.
In 2023, we organized the maiden “Taking Zcash to Schools” event at WittyHub in Effurun, Delta State, Nigeria. The event brought together students, developers and representatives from technology hubs to learn about Zcash, financial privacy and potential real-world applications.
The event recorded 30 attendees, with participants downloading and experimenting with the Zingo wallet during the programme.
This was more than an event.
It was an experiment in answering a fundamental question:
Can education become the foundation for Zcash adoption in Africa?
Our answer was—and remains—YES. Taking Zcash To Schools
https://oga4sky.medium.com/taking-zcash-to-schools-maiden-event-930a390f81bf
Chapter 2 — Building Zcash Ghana:
That grassroots effort eventually evolved into Zcash Ghana.
On June 30, 2025, Zcash Ghana officially launched through the creation of its X/Twitter presence. We received the blue verification label in July 2025 and hosted our first Zcash Ghana X Space that same month.
In August 2025, with the support and donations of members of the Zcash community, we organized our first physical meetup in Accra.
From there, the community continued to grow.
We subsequently received support from ZecHub for our community activities during Q4 2025 and later received a Zcash Community Grant for our Q2 2026 activities.
These opportunities enabled us to organize more:
X Spaces
Community meetups
Educational workshops
Wallet onboarding sessions
Shielded payment demonstrations
Community engagement activities
During our first year, we were able to onboard more than 500 new users to the Zcash ecosystem.
Read: Zcash Ghana - Our First Year Journey
We are deeply grateful to everyone who supported this journey.
But One Question Remains…
During this journey, we repeatedly encountered an important question:
“Is Zcash actually being used as a currency?”
That question recently appeared again in the wider crypto community, with discussions questioning the real-world use of ZEC for payments and commerce.
We don’t see that question as an attack.
We see it as a challenge.
A challenge to educators.
A challenge to developers.
A challenge to community builders.
A challenge to merchants.
And a challenge to everyone who believes that financial privacy should be normal.
Because awareness alone isn’t enough.
People need applications.
Businesses need payment tools.
Developers need infrastructure.
Communities need education.
is Zcash used as currency anywhere
And this is where our next chapter begins.
Chapter 3 — From Users to Builders
As our community grew, we began asking ourselves a bigger question:
What happens when we move beyond educating people about Zcash and start empowering developers to build with it?
Awareness is important.
Adoption is important.
But sustainable adoption also requires developers, applications, infrastructure and real-world utility.
We therefore decided to take the next step.
The Zcash Privacy Developers Residency Programme
We are now launching the maiden edition of the Zcash Privacy Developers Residency Programme.
This is a 3-week intensive privacy blockchain developer programme designed to equip participants with practical knowledge and hands-on experience building privacy-preserving applications on the Zcash Protocol.
And this first edition is truly special.
15 Resident Developers
Our pilot cohort consists of 15 resident developers from Ghana, Nigeria and Togo.
They have come together with one mission:
LEARN. BUILD. COLLABORATE. AND CREATE REAL-WORLD PRIVACY SOLUTIONS ON ZCASH.
What Will the Residents Learn?
The programme covers key areas of the Zcash development ecosystem, including:
Blockchain Fundamentals
Understanding Financial Privacy
Zcash Architecture
Development Environment
Wallet Development
Shielded Payments
Zcash SDKs
Backend Development
Full-Stack Development
Privacy Payment Applications
Security
Testing
Production Development
Open-Source Development
Startup & Grant Writing
Demo Day Preparation
The programme combines:
Technical lectures
Hands-on coding
Shielded transaction experiments
Team projects
Mentorship
Testing and deployment
Community participation
Demonstrations
Final project presentations
A Hybrid Residency
This is not going to be a closed-door programme.
The residency operates in a hybrid format.
The resident developers will participate physically, while facilitators, developers, ecosystem builders and community members from around the world can participate virtually.
Key sessions will be livestreamed and recorded, allowing the wider Zcash community to follow the learning and development journey.
The wider community will also have opportunities to participate in selected activities, tasks and project evaluations.
The Residency Website Is Now Live
We are pleased to announce that the official residency webpage is now available:
Zcash Privacy Developers Residency Programme
The website will serve as a central point for programme information, schedules, activities and future updates.
Why This Residency Matters
We believe Africa should not only consume privacy technology.
Africa should build privacy technology.
The goal is to create developers who can go beyond learning concepts and actually produce working solutions.
We want residents to leave the programme with:
Practical Zcash development skills
A deeper understanding of financial privacy
Working privacy-focused applications
Open-source contributions
Startup and product ideas
Connections with the global Zcash ecosystem
The confidence to continue building on Zcash
Ultimately, we want to see privacy-preserving applications emerge from Africa and serve users across Africa and the rest of the world.
From Education → Adoption → Development
Looking back, the progression is clear:
2023 — EDUCATION
Taking Zcash to Schools
2025–2026 — ADOPTION
X Spaces
Meetups
Workshops
Wallet onboarding
500+ new users
2026 — BUILDING
Zcash Privacy Developers Residency Programme
This residency is therefore not simply another event.
It is the evolution of the work we have been doing.
We Need the Zcash Ecosystem
Building a stronger Zcash developer ecosystem requires collaboration.
We welcome:
Developers
Facilitators and trainers
Ecosystem builders
Entrepreneurs
Educators
Sponsors
Community members
Privacy advocates
to participate, mentor, support, collaborate and help us make this pilot a success.
Support the Residency With a Shielded Donation
We are also inviting members of the Zcash ecosystem and privacy community to support the residency.
Contributions will help us continue providing resources, infrastructure, developer support, learning materials and community activities for the residents.
Shielded support can be sent to:
u12f4nh046n9dd0lt7fgmfs4ervdf58v025h5k74v3mmclkfkggwgazk2nhutmtu2hx8vkg4lug0z78rek2w8vqw2wdafctfvy50e09p0tt72n4grhn74u722q0v70twa67q97ljfk7nj48zha5xrp9hhsm6q38mmekmht73hp2y5am2gm
Every contribution, regardless of size, is an expression of confidence in the next generation of privacy-focused builders.
Thank You to Everyone Who Got Us Here
From the early Taking Zcash to Schools initiative…
To the growth of Zcash Ghana…
To our first year of community activities…
To hundreds of new users introduced to Zcash…
And now to 15 developers from Ghana, Nigeria and Togo sitting together to build privacy solutions.
This journey has been made possible by people who believed in the vision and supported us along the way.
We sincerely appreciate:
ZecHub for supporting our early community activities.
The Zcash Community Grants programme for supporting the scaling of our activities and our efforts to bring Zcash education, onboarding and developer engagement to more people.
And most importantly, every volunteer, donor, developer, facilitator, community member, attendee and supporter who has contributed to this journey.
The Next Chapter Begins Now
We started by asking people to learn about Zcash.
Then we helped people use Zcash.
Now we are empowering developers to build with Zcash.
From schools → to communities → to users → to builders.
The journey continues.
15 developers.
3 countries.
1 privacy-focused mission.
Build the future of financial privacy with Zcash.
Privacy is Normal.
Shielded by design.
Built for everyone.
Visit the official Residency Website
Powered by Zcash Ghana × ZOERDHUB
The Zcash Privacy Developers Residency Programme is proudly powered through a collaboration between Zcash Ghana and ZOERDHUB, bringing together community-building experience, developer education, privacy advocacy, technical resources and physical infrastructure to create a platform where African developers can learn, build and innovate on the Zcash Protocol.
Zcash Ghana brings its growing community, Zcash education, financial privacy advocacy and ecosystem engagement experience, while ZOERDHUB provides the innovation hub, technical environment and infrastructure needed to host and support the residency.
Together, both organizations are working to create a practical pathway from Zcash education → user adoption → developer development → real-world privacy solutions.
Photos taking at ZOERDHUB facility to be used for the Zcash Privacy Developers Residency
One collaboration. One mission.
Empowering the next generation of African developers to build the future of financial privacy with Zcash.
Privacy is Normal. Build on Zcash.
The goal isn’t simply to run a residency.
The goal is to create builders who create utility.
And ultimately:
Massive adoption of the Zcash Protocol through education, development and real-world applications.
The Journey Continues
From a small educational event in Nigeria…
To the growth of Zcash Ghana…
To hundreds of people learning about financial privacy…
And now to developers sitting down to build privacy-preserving applications.
We are grateful to everyone who has supported this journey—from community members and volunteers to ZecHub, the Zcash Community Grants committee, the Zcash Foundation, Zcash ecosystem builders, developers and everyone who has attended an event, joined an X Space, donated, shared a post or simply encouraged us.
This residency belongs to the wider Zcash community.
And we invite you to join us for the next chapter.
**From awareness to adoption.
From users to builders.
From Africa to the world.**
**Privacy is Normal.
Shielded by design.
Built for everyone.
From, “Taking Zcash To Schools” (Saturday 2nd Sept. 2023), which is exactly 3 years ago
To, Zcash Privacy Developers Residency Programme (1st Sept. 2026)
Shielded ZEC support can be sent to the wallet:
u12f4nh046n9dd0lt7fgmfs4ervdf58v025h5k74v3mmclkfkggwgazk2nhutmtu2hx8vkg4lug0z78rek2w8vqw2wdafctfvy50e09p0tt72n4grhn74u722q0v70twa67q97ljfk7nj48zha5xrp9hhsm6q38mmekmht73hp2y5am2gm
Thank you and see you at the Zcash Privacy Developers Residency event next week.
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