I’d like to share 3 interviews I conducted of users that deleted Zecwallet after trying it. Edited and reproduced here with consent.
UserA
Zecwallet: Why did you download Zecwallet?
UserA: I downloaded Zecwallet because I wanted to donate to Signal. I liked how they were sticking it to WhatsApp.
ZW: Why did you choose Zcash to donate?
UserA: Because I don’t want them to know it was me donating. I wanted to keep it anonymous.
ZW: Because the government could decide to harass you in the future?
UserA: Not the government. I didn’t want Signal to know I was donating.
ZW: Oh? Why didn’t you want Signal to know?
UserA: A few years ago, I donated [a large amount] to Wikipedia, you know, because I read Wikipedia a lot. But after donating, they now send me email every year asking for more money. And it makes me feel bad everytime if I don’t donate again. I want to donate only once. I don’t want a subscription donation. So, I wanted to hide my address from Singal.
ZW: So why didn’t Zecwallet work for you?
UserA: I downloaded and opened Zecwallet on my phone. But it started syncing. I don’t want to sync the whole blockchain just to do one donation. So I killed Zecwallet.
ZW: Did you end up eventually donating to Signal in any other form?
UserA: No
UserB
ZW: Why did you download Zecwallet?
UserB: I wanted to use the Baskin Robins Zcash offer (Editor’s note: A few months ago, Flexa was running a Basking Robins promotion if you paid with Zcash)
ZW: Why did you chose Zecwallet?
UserB: [A friend] told me Zcash was private, so I wanted to try it out.
ZW: Did Zecwallet work for you?
UserB: I opened it, and messaged my friend to send me some Zcash. She asked for my z-address and I sent it to her, and she sent me the Zcash. It didn’t show up at first in my wallet, but then later it showed up. But then when I sent the money to Flexa, it gave me an error.
ZW: What did the error say?
UserB: I don’t know, I can’t remember.
ZW: Something like “Not enough confirmations to send”?
UserB: Probably. I can’t remember.
ZW: Were you able to send the money after the confirmations?
UserB: No, I had already left [the mall] by then.
UserC
ZW: Why did you download Zecwallet?
UserC: I wanted to buy a [travel site] gift voucher with my Zcash profits to buy a plane trip. You can go to [buy gift cards with crypto] site to buy gift cards.
ZW: Why did you chose Zcash?
UserC: I wanted to hide how much money I had from [travel site]. You know, these [expletive] travel sites, they change the price based on your browsing history and cookies and how much money you’ve spent. So I wanted to hide the amount of Zcash profits I had from [travel site] so I get the best price.
ZW: Don’t you have to give your email address to book tickets?
UserC: Yeah, but they can’t see my balance with my email address! I don’t want them to charge me high prices just because of my balance.
ZW: Did Zecwallet work for you?
UserC: No, it gave me an error.
ZW: You weren’t able to create a wallet on your phone with Zecwallet?
UserC: No, the exchange gave me an error. It said ‘address is wrong’ or something like that.
ZW: You were trying to withdraw funds from your exchange to Zecwallet?
UserC: Yes. I didn’t want the [travel site] to see my Zcash balance, and if I withdraw from Exchange straight into the [travel site], they can see my balance. So, I wanted to withdraw to my z-address, and then send to [travel site] so they can’t see my balance.
ZW: Did you use your wallet z-address or wallet t-address?
UserC: I gave the exchange my wallet’s z-address, because z-address is the address that hides the amount, right? But the exchange said ‘wrong address’, so I thought I must have a corrupted Zecwallet or an old version or something, I don’t know. So I deleted Zecwallet, sorry.
Users using Zcash
As you can see, users will often use Zcash in interesting ways. They all have slightly different reasons for using Zcash, but the same foundational one - They want some level of privacy, some level of control over their identity and information, and for each of them, their idea of what constitutes “private” is slightly different. In each of these cases, the user had a legitimate reason to use Zcash, but Zecwallet did not work for them.
The interesting thing to me here is that for each of the users, Zecwallet failed them because of usability. Zecwallet and the light wallet protocol already meet their expectation of privacy, what’s failing them is that Zecwallet is not usable enough, is not user friendly enough.
There are 1000s of users like this - maybe millions - Who are eager for a more private crypto experience, but Zecwallet isn’t able to serve them right now.
What is Privacy?
When I first started working on Zecwallet, I had a very different understanding of what privacy is (Privacy = hide all data and metadata). After talking to dozens of Zecwallet users and learning how they use Zecwallet and Zcash, my understanding of what privacy is has changed.
In my mind, Privacy is consent.
Privacy is control over your own data. It allows users to hide their data when they don’t want it disclosed, and allows them to disclose their data when they want it disclosed. There is no one global, binary definition of privacy. Further, the users themselves are in the best position to determine their privacy needs, and determining what tradeoffs they want to make. We should trust that users can decide for themselves what is in their own best interest.
Users are uneasy with big tech because big tech makes these privacy decisions for them, and they want a way where they are in control of their own data, their own privacy, their own tradeoffs. This is Zcash’s competitive advantage. All other cryptos and fully transparent, offering users no privacy. Venmo, Paypal are fully transparent, offering users no privacy. Zcash, however, offers you control over your own transactions. Zcash allows you to make your own tradeoffs. Zcash allows you control.
We should strive to make wallets as usable and as friendly as possible, ensuring that users fully understand the tradeoffs they are making.
Where Zecwallet fits in
Zcash is already the most private protocol out there. It already features the most private way to access this protocol (zcashd + Tor). Zcash already has two world class teams building world class full nodes that offer unbeatable, hardened access.
I’d like Zecwallet to focus on UserA, UserB and UserC and the thousands of other users like them. I would like Zecwallet to improve usability, on boarding experience and utility for these users, users for whom Zcash already meets their privacy needs. There are a lot of such users out there, and I’d like Zecwallet to try and on board them onto Zcash.
I’m not saying we should not focus on hardening privacy - We already have world class minds working on that, and Zecwallet will benefit from their work and incorporate all the advances they are making.
I’m saying let Zecwallet work on improving usability for UserA, UserB and UserC and get them started on using Zcash.