TL;DR: I’m building a Zcash wallet that adds goal-based savings vaults — think Revolut Vaults or Monzo Pots, but fully non-custodial, shielded, and with on-chain commitment via Zcash memo fields. Looking for feedback, collaborators, and anyone interested in testing early builds.
The Problem
ZEC is a genuinely great store of value — private, fungible, censorship-resistant. But the wallet UX ecosystem today mostly mirrors Bitcoin wallet design: send, receive, history. There’s no first-class experience for intentional saving.
When people want to save for something specific — a trip, a down payment, an emergency fund — the habit doesn’t stick because there’s no psychological scaffolding. Nothing makes the goal feel real. You’re just watching a number change in a generic wallet.
Behavioral finance research is clear: earmarking money for a specific purpose dramatically increases the probability of achieving a savings goal. Apps like Revolut, YNAB, and Monzo have proven this works at scale in fiat. No one has built this for ZEC.
What ZecVault Is
ZecVault is a non-custodial Zcash wallet with a “vault” layer on top. Here’s the core mechanic:
Vault Keys
Each vault is a separate shielded Zcash address derived from the user’s master seed. You assign a goal to it: Trip to Japan, Emergency Fund, Engagement Ring. You set a target amount and a deadline.
The private key lives locally on the device — so technically, the user can always access the funds. We’re not custodial. But the wallet itself enforces the commitment: withdrawal before the goal deadline requires a deliberate, friction-heavy “Break Vault” flow. Think: typing the goal name to confirm, a 24-hour soft lock, a clear display of how much progress you’re abandoning.
This is the core insight: you don’t need a smart contract or a custodian to create meaningful financial commitment. You just need intentional UX friction.
Memo-Field Anchoring
On first deposit to any vault, ZecVault writes a structured memo to the Zcash blockchain:
Goal: Trip to Japan · Target: 10 ZEC · Deadline: 2025-06-01 · Created: 2025-04-01
This memo is encrypted (only the vault key holder can read it), immutable, and permanent. It’s your on-chain commitment record — no server, no third-party, just the Zcash memo field doing what it was designed to do. I think this is an underused primitive that ZecVault can bring real attention to.
Goal Templates & Themed UX
Goals come with templates that change the UI. A Ring vault looks different from a Trip vault looks different from an Emergency vault. Progress bars are themed, milestones trigger celebrations, and the UI is designed to make the goal feel tangible — not abstract.
Contribution modes include: manual deposits, auto round-up (round any outgoing ZEC transaction up to the nearest 0.1 ZEC and send the difference to the active vault), and recurring scheduled contributions.
Tech Approach
Fully open-source. Built on:
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librustzcashandzcash_client_sqlitefor the wallet core -
React Native + Expo for mobile (iOS + Android)
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Tauri for a companion desktop version
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No backend storing user data —
lightwalletdfor chain sync, everything else is local -
Vault addresses are deterministically derived from BIP39 seed — full recovery from one backup
What I’m Looking For
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Technical feedback — especially from anyone who has worked with
zcash_client_backendor built Zcash wallets. The vault address derivation path is something I’d love input on. -
UX feedback — Is the “friction as a feature” approach too aggressive? Not aggressive enough? Have you tried saving in ZEC and hit friction points?
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Collaborators — Looking for a mobile dev (RN experience) and ideally someone who knows the Zcash protocol deeply. Open to ZCG grants to fund development.
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Community signal — Would you use this? What goal would you save for in ZEC? Genuine answers help enormously.
Why ZEC, Not Another Chain?
A goal savings tool built on transparent transactions misses the point. Your savings goals are personal — nobody needs to know you’re saving for a ring, or how much your emergency fund holds. Zcash’s shielded transactions mean your vault is invisible to blockchain observers. The memo field gives you immutable personal records without exposing anything. This product genuinely couldn’t work as well on any other chain.
Next Steps
I’m targeting a closed alpha in 8 weeks covering the core wallet + single vault flow. If you want to be an early tester or have technical questions, reply here or reach out directly. I’ll be posting progress updates in this thread.
Thanks for reading. The Zcash community is the only ecosystem where I’d build this — the values align completely. Let’s make ZEC the currency people save with, not just transact with.
