Following Zcash Block Explorer’s launch per Schedule in August, I am happy to report that the developers initially sourced for building the Zcash integration with Thorchain are still available to bring native ZEC swaps & yield earning opportunities on the Thorchain network.
The prolonged delay in the planning stage of the Zcash Thorchain Integration Grant has turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
After the Ethereum Router code was exploited back-to-back within a week in July, Thorchain developers enforced severe measures to protect the Liquidity Provider Pools, validators and users. They halted the network, enrolled in to audits and and re-wrote major portions of the codebase. They have even set up a bounty funded by the RUNE currency, and taken measures to reward Liquidity Providers all whilst building the native, multi-currency DEX protocol with multiple front ends. More info here: https://www.runebase.org/news/thorchain-road-to-recovery-roadmap and implementation of a protocol level insurance via https://immunefi.com/bounty/thorchain/ - x.com
I strongly believe that Zcash will benefit with the exposure to a wide DEX user base who doesn’t have access/exposure to any native privacy focussed coin. Zcash has the first mover advantage here. And getting Zcash in to more user’s wallets will increase the ZEC distribution across the crypto community.
Why ZEC on Thorchain is important:
- NineRealms has an initial commitment from a partner to supply ZEC liquidity to Thorchain, to the amount larger than the Wrapped ZEC (9104 ZEC $55.66 | Wrapped ZEC (WZEC) Token Tracker | Etherscan) & RenZEC (11,280 ZEC $55.89 | renZEC (renZEC) Token Tracker | Etherscan), combined. Hence, we would be ready from Day 1 of deployment to enable native ZEC swaps functionality via the existing front-ends.
- Thorchain developers are working on a mobile SDK which will make integration with mobile wallets possible, further extending the reach of the swap functionality for Zcash.
- ShapeShaft with its millions of users has recently integrated with Thorchain for native swaps of BTC/ETH/ERC-20 tokens, so once ZEC integration is complete, then ShapeShift users would be able to provide liquidity to earn ZEC & swap ZEC via ShapeShift too. ShapeShift to Decentralize Entire Company
& per Andre’s points:
We are in touch with the Thorchain developers, monitoring the September restart of the Thorchain network along with the RUNE community who are very supportive. NOTE: None of my team members hold any RUNE yet and are not paid by Thorchain or anyone to extend the features of Thorchain. Our interest to deliver this integration is based on the study of the Thorchain decentralized architecture, the scalability, volumes processed and possibility of interfacing with Thorchain via mobile wallets & web apps.
Timeline: Over the next 2-3 weeks, we will study the updated/audited framework and re-evaluate the efforts to make ZEC integration happen. With a development start timeline of October 1st, we will aim to deliver the integrations in December, and based on the code reviews and integration of Zcash front-end code with existing DEX front-ends. We can target native ZEC swaps and interest earning capabilities by New Year or January.
Budget: The statement “compensation for this proposal is based on the value of the outcome for Zcash attaining increase in adoption on a DEX” did cause confusion to many; it was made per the combined pay for contributors working on a flat fee basis to finish all the outstanding issues till ZEC integration is live on Thorchain. I will update the breakdown & milestones with the revised estimates including the hourly costs for transparency in September to resume this opportunity to grow Zcash adoption.