Goal
Select 25 high-value Zcon videos from the ~210 presentations on the Zcash Foundation YouTube channel for the watchz.cash library.
The selected videos should:
- Represent the best of Zcash thinking, history, culture, and technical depth
- Be useful and understandable to new and existing community members
- Hold up over time
- Create a strong first impression of the Zcash ecosystem
- Encourage further exploration of Zcash-related topics
This is not meant to be a "greatest hits" list based only on views or popularity. The goal is to create a curated foundation archive.
Core Selection Philosophy
The best watchz.cash videos should generally satisfy at least 2–3 of these qualities:
1. Historically Important
The talk captures an important moment, milestone, or shift in the Zcash ecosystem.
Examples:
- Major protocol announcements
- Governance turning points
- NU launches
- Orchard / Halo / proof system evolution
- Privacy debates
- Early Zcash vision talks
These videos matter because they help explain how the ecosystem evolved.
2. Evergreen Educational Value
A viewer could still learn something useful from the talk years later.
Examples:
- Explaining zero-knowledge concepts clearly
- Wallet privacy practices
- How shielded transactions work
- Introductory cryptography concepts
- Human rights and privacy framing
- Digital cash philosophy
Avoid videos that are overly dependent on short-term news cycles or outdated tooling unless they are historically significant.
3. Strong Speaker + Presentation Quality
The talk is engaging and understandable.
Factors:
- Clear speaking
- Good pacing
- Strong visuals/slides
- Accessible structure
- Good audio/video quality
- Speaker charisma or clarity
Some technically important talks may still be worth including despite lower production quality.
4. Represents Zcash Values
The talk expresses ideas that are culturally important to Zcash.
Examples:
- Privacy as a human right
- Financial freedom
- Open source collaboration
- Cypherpunk values
- Internet freedom
- Self-sovereignty
- Public goods funding
These talks help define the emotional and philosophical identity of watchz.cash.
5. Ecosystem Representation
The final selection should represent multiple parts of the ecosystem.
The collection should avoid becoming:
- only protocol engineering
- only philosophy
- only governance
- only privacy activism
The final set should include balance across:
- Core protocol
- Cryptography research
- Wallet UX
- Governance
- Community
- History
- Privacy/human rights
- Open source infrastructure
- Scaling
- Education
- Ecosystem tools
Categories
One useful approach is to intentionally allocate slots.
Example:
| Category | Suggested Slots |
|---|---|
| Zcash history & vision | 3–5 |
| Intro / educational | 4–6 |
| Core protocol & cryptography | 5–7 |
| Privacy & human rights | 3–5 |
| Governance & ecosystem | 2–4 |
| Wallets / UX / adoption | 2–4 |
| Exceptional wildcard talks | 2–3 |
This prevents over-selection of one type of content.
Scoring System
A lightweight scoring system may help reviewers stay aligned.
Suggested rubric:
| Criteria | Score |
|---|---|
| Historical significance | 1–5 |
| Evergreen value | 1–5 |
| Accessibility | 1–5 |
| Presentation quality | 1–5 |
| Cultural/value alignment | 1–5 |
| Rewatchability | 1–5 |
Maximum score: 30
Suggested thresholds:
- 24–30 = strong candidate
- 18–23 = possible inclusion
- below 18 = probably exclude
Important:
The scoring system should support judgment, not replace it.
Some talks may deserve inclusion because they are culturally or historically essential even if they are difficult or niche.
Exclusion Criteria
A talk is probably not suitable for watchz.cash if:
- It is extremely tied to outdated short-term announcements
- It requires deep context to understand
- The speaker quality is poor enough to make it difficult to follow
- The information is obsolete and no longer historically useful
- It duplicates another stronger talk covering the same material
- It feels promotional rather than educational
Recommended Selection Process
Phase 1 — Inventory
Build a spreadsheet containing:
- Title
- Speaker
- Year
- Link
- Duration
- Topic category
- Short description
Phase 2 — Initial Filtering
Quickly eliminate:
- broken uploads
- duplicate talks
- low-quality recordings
- overly niche or obsolete content
This should reduce the list significantly.
Phase 3 — First Pass Review
Each reviewer watches talks independently and assigns scores.
Suggested workflow:
- Watch at 1.25x or 1.5x speed when necessary
- Write 1–2 sentence notes
- Tag standout moments
- Flag historically important talks
A shared spreadsheet works well here.
Phase 4 — Discussion & Debate
This phase matters.
The goal is not just to average scores.
Questions to ask:
- Which talks define Zcash?
- Which talks would make someone excited to learn more?
- Which talks preserve important ecosystem memory?
- Which talks are still understandable today?
- What important perspectives are missing?
The final list should feel intentional and curated.
Phase 5 — Final Programming
Once selected:
- Organize into collections/playlists
- Add descriptions and metadata
- Add topic tags
- Consider intro blurbs explaining historical context
- Prioritize thumbnails and titles that make talks approachable
Strong Candidate Types
These types of talks are likely to perform well on watchz.cash:
Foundational Explainers
"What is Zcash?"
"Why privacy matters"
"How zk proofs work"
These help onboard new viewers.
Big Historical Moments
Launches, transitions, breakthroughs, governance milestones.
These preserve ecosystem memory.
Exceptional Speakers
Certain talks become memorable because the speaker is compelling.
Strong storytelling matters.
Talks That Age Well
The best videos often feel timeless.
Examples:
- philosophy
- cryptography fundamentals
- human rights framing
- economic freedom
- privacy principles
Additional Ideas
Create Multiple Collections
Instead of forcing everything into one list:
- Essential Zcash
- Zcash History
- Intro to Zero Knowledge
- Privacy & Human Rights
- Zcon Best Talks
- Deep Technical Talks
This allows different audience entry points.
Add Context Layers
A short written intro above each video could dramatically improve usability.
Example:
"This 2019 talk introduced Halo, a major breakthrough that later enabled recursive proof composition in Zcash."
Context helps older talks feel alive.
Consider Runtime Distribution
A library of only 45–60 minute talks may feel heavy.
Aim for a mix:
- short explainers
- medium-depth talks
- landmark long-form presentations
Recommended Outcome
The final 25 videos should collectively:
- explain what Zcash is
- preserve important ecosystem history
- showcase major technical ideas
- express Zcash culture and values
- remain useful years from now
- make viewers want to continue exploring
The collection should feel like a carefully curated museum exhibit, not a random dump of conference recordings.