Zcash community — here is my candidate video for the June 2026 ZCG election.
One note before anything else: the face in the video is an AI avatar, not mine. The words are entirely my own. We are in a privacy ecosystem, and choosing not to put my own face on the internet felt like the consistent thing to do.
Who I am. I am a builder. I have been around encryption since 2017, I run OTC transactions worldwide, and I fell properly in love with Zcash after a real de-anonymization problem hit my close environment. Since then I have been all-in on the privacy idea. For the past months I have been building ZChat, a shielded messenger, and we hope to show the community what we have made within a month or two - maybe alongside the Ironwood update.
Running for ZCG means I give up the ability to apply for grants for my own projects. I am fine with that.
My answers to the three questions:
1. ZCG’s budget grew roughly 10x — from about 2.6M to around 24M ZEC-value per year. What should change?
A 10x increase in resources should be matched by real growth on three fronts: grow the Community Grants team’s capacity, grow the number of projects supported (guided by ecosystem input), and consider bringing forward next-year installments for already-approved projects so strong teams can start building now instead of waiting. The goal is to put the increased funding to work, not to let it sit.
2. What is Zcash’s biggest opportunity right now?
The worldwide push toward KYC and identity-everywhere. Every application - social, AI, finance - now asks for your ID and wants to know everything about you. With the volume of data leaks and AI-driven vulnerabilities we see, that exposure is dangerous, and not only from governments. This is Zcash’s opening: to be the privacy default for people who want to close their digital trail, while staying easy to use, fast, and reliable for the mainstream.
3. If you could change one thing about Zcash, what would it be?
The clarity of the ecosystem’s structure. Between Shielded Labs, Zodl, Community Grants, the Foundation, the forum, and others, the ecosystem is healthy but hard to navigate - especially for newcomers and devs trying to understand who does what. I would push for more unified communication and a clearer shared picture, while keeping the system decentralized and community-governed. No single head office, but an easier front door.
Questions are very welcome on my candidacy thread: Decentrathai for ZCG (June 2026)
Thank you for taking the time to get to know me.