Zcash Shielded News is a community article format based on the weekly Zcash Ecosystem Digest Newsletter.
Providing insight on current events and informing the community about important news in the Zcash ecosystem.
Check out the best Highlights below
ZCG RFP: Community Note Taker 2025
Squirrel is stepping away from the role to focus on ZecHub full-time and the ZCG is seeking an independent contractor to attend these calls and take concise notes summarizing discussions, key decisions, and action items.
The contractor also needs to create a summary thread on X highlighting the main points and outcomes as well as post on the Zcash Community Forum.
Since these discussions are highly technical, it's fine to refine notes using the YouTube recording after the call. However, post-meeting actions should be completed as quickly and efficiently as possible to ensure the community gets timely updates.
Notes will be submitted via Github and if you want to submit for the role, its necessary to send a PDF format to contact@fpriv.org with the subject Note Taker RFP Response 2025 by March 14, 2025, 11:00pm UTC.
Required Information:
A brief bio including your experience contributing to the Zcash ecosystem and experience relevant to the Scope of Work.
An acknowledgement that you understand the Scope of Work, you have reviewed the resources provided, and you are able to provide the same high standard of work.
Your per-meeting rate in USD (to be paid monthly in Shielded ZEC).
🔗| Learn more
Zcash Community Grants (ZCG) Meeting Minutes 3/3/2025
ZCG shared on this Tuesday the next notes from the last meeting in 3/3/2025.
🗣| Attendance:
Zcash Privacy Academy Course
A $7,000 grant request was submitted to fund an educational online course on financial privacy and Zcash usage, with rewards in ZEC for participants.
However, the proposal was unanimously rejected. Artkor argued that AI and neural networks now serve as primary research tools, making traditional educational materials less impactful unless they come from established creators with dedicated audiences. Other members, including Jason, ZeroDartz, Brian, and Gguy, agreed and voted to reject the proposal.
Zcash RPC Request Builder
A $15,000 grant proposal was submitted to develop an open-source web application for simplifying interactions with Zcash RPC nodes. The tool would provide a user-friendly interface, real-time input validation, and support for all Zcash RPC methods.
However, the proposal was unanimously rejected. Artkor and Brian noted a lack of demand for such a tool, with Brian suggesting it would be more useful if focused on Zebra. Gguy and ZeroDartz pointed out that similar tooling already exists, and Jason agreed, leading to a full rejection.
Brainstorm Session Follow Ups
Least Authority
ZCG voted to approve Least Authority’s latest invoice.
ZCG has directed Least Authority to prioritize the coin holder voting audit.
Let’s Make This ZconVI Epic! ZK AV Clip Contest
The Zcash community is excited for the upcoming ZconVI and the return of the Clip Contest, which has become a tradition. The contest encourages members to create video clips from the conference to help promote Zcash on social media.
A prize pool is available, with contributions from the community, and a panel of judges will review submissions. Everyone is encouraged to participate by creating clips, sharing the contest, or contributing to the prize fund to make this Zcon memorable.
The prize will be securely held in a shielded Zcash address while the prize-raising games run for one week.
During the first presentation of ZconVI, I will share the viewing key, unveiling the total prize. Once the ZconVI livestreams begin, the competition officially kicks off—let the race to clip and win begin!
Here`s the rules wrote by Ryan Taylor:
Official ZconVI Clip Contest Rules
Maximum 19 clips per entrant
All clips for one entry must be on one page
All clips must playback on your submission page
Clips must be:
Less than 60-seconds long
Aspect-ratio 9:16 || vertical
H.264 encoded
WE WILL NOT DM YOU FIRST
Ryan reserves the right to disqualify any contestant at any time for any reason
- If you are suspected of using multiple accounts to submit entries, all of your entries will be disqualified
Top 3 Creators Win
Judging will begin 48 hours after the end of the ZconVI Community Recap (Friday) on Sunday 2025.03.09 at 23:45 UTC.
To start the process, the ZK AV will hold a Zcash Coinholder Vote which will help inform judges to crowd favorites.
The pre-selected judges will provide Ryan with their top three entries, and he will use their votes to determine the final winners
Your ZconVI Clip Contest winners will be announced during the Zcash Global Friday Lounge on 2025.03.14 at 16:00 UTC.
Prize Breakdown
The total contents of the prize address will be split as follows:
1st = 50%
2nd = 30%
3rd = 20%
Learn How to Participate
Create an account on free2z.com
Make a new zPage with “ZconVI Clips” in the title
Download a Zcash wallet that supports the shielded memo feature
- Optional: collect funds for Zcash transaction fees from ZEC Faucet
Send a Zcash transaction to the prize address (at the top of this post) and include a memo with:
Link to your ZconVI Clips zPage
A Zcash address to receive messages and your prize if you win
- ALERT: This Zcash address must match the Zcash address on your zPage
Before the deadline on Sunday, 09 March 2025: Add your ZconVI video clips (max 19) to your ZconVI Clips zPage
Bonus fun: Download the Zcash vote app and vote for yourself and your friends
ZconVI Clip Games shielded prize address viewing key
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 Height: 2834208
Our starting prize value from community contributions is 108.22 ZEC to which I will now add my matching contributions from the shielded prize-raising games.
_🔗| More infos here
Good luck!_ 😃
Lighting up neural pathways | ECC Update
On the latest ECC update, Josh spent the week connecting with people who were attending EthDenver, also meeting with people from DCG, Agoric, NEAR, Brave, Grayscale, Anvil, Coin Center, Silk & Shielded Labs.
ECC planned the second day of ZconVI (today, you can watch here ) with all kinds of updates, including R&D and friends like @zmanian, Maya_Protocol and FlexaHQ.
Here`s some udpates on how ECC lit it up this week:
Zashi
📱| Zashi Design
Zashi Vault mockups - further iterations
Adhoc engineering edits and requests
Made progress on Shielding UI and redesign of the Balances screen
🧑💻| Q&A and Dev Support
QA Checklist & testing
User Support
Zcon Coordination
Social Media & Content
Zashi Website & Discord
🍎| Zashi iOS
Analytics Update
Unique Installs: 6.56k
Total Downloads: 7.83k
AppStore Rating: 4.9*
User Metadata topic resolved for now:
local store in an encrypted file
simple remote for 1 particular case: deletion of Zashi app
Was blocked on 1.4 encryption keys, therefore focused on another task:
App Navigation Redesign
Tab navigation removed from Zashi
New Home Screen UI implemented
WIP: Stack Navigation PoC: to handle complex scenarios
Preparation of 1.4 release 🚀
🤖| Zashi Android
Analytics Update
Total Install Base: 3.67k
Total Installs (incl. Open Beta): 15.1k
PlayStore Rating: 4.489*
Released Zashi through Github and F-Droid
Zashi F-Droid Deployment
Finalized 🚀
Zashi 1.4 Release:
- Reviewed and tested several PRs related to:
- Transaction History Redesign
- Transaction Metadata
- PCZT flow improvement
- Shielding transaction
- Adopted the latest SDK v2.2.8
- Code cleanups after the Transaction History Redesign
- Tax File Export feature finalized
SDK
Reviewed, tested, and merged SDK PRs related to PCZT, Shielding transactions, and Transaction Metadata
WIP: Research for cloud seed backup
🦓 | Zcash Core
Specification work:
ZIP 32 updates and ZIP 325: Account Metadata Keys
In progress – ZIP 230: Version 6 Transaction Format
In progress – ZIP 227: Issuance of Zcash Shielded Assets (+ ZIP 317 updates)
In progress – drafts for zBloc and community + coin-holder voting proposals.
Released the full stack of librustzcash crates. These include previous bug fixes, PCZTs (allowing Keystone to use released crates), and new metadata key generation for ZIP 325.
Reviewed the Rust implementation of zcash_script.
In progress:
Exposing metadata key generation, more PCZT-related methods, and lightwallet connections over Tor to the SDKs.
Working on Transparent address rotation (needed for both zallet and Zashi).
🌐| Other
Paul hosted a PGP focused on digital identity. You can watch the recording on
ECC’s finalizing draft ZIPs for the zBloc and Community + Coinholder Funding Mechanism.
🔗| Check the full update here.