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
A few days ago, the ECC published the quarterly update of the 2025 roadmap, along with its goals and timelines.
This roadmap is divided into:
Zashi Development
In Q2, the Mobile Team's main goal is to launch Zashi 2.0 by the end of April, featuring a full redesign of the home screen, app navigation, onboarding, and wallet experience—a major upgrade that justifies the version bump. They're also working on adding transaction submission over Tor for enhanced security.
Once Zashi 2.0 is out, the next focus will be DEX integration, starting with transparent swaps via Maya DEX and the Near Intents platform, addressing a long-standing user request.
Some important features had to be delayed to Q3, including:
Auto-shielding
Address rotation
Export funds feature
Multi-account support
Seed phrase backup
Zashi Design
The Zashi Product Design team is fully supporting development efforts this quarter, with top priorities being the UX/UI design for transparent swaps and cross-chain payments in the app. They also plan to finalize designs for multi-account support and update the Zashi website during April and May.
If time allows, they may also tackle additional priorities like:
Coinholder polling (which depends on upcoming community decisions about dev fund distribution)
Seed phrase backup
🔍✨Zashi Discovery
In Q2 2025, ECC’s product marketing research will focus on DEX integrations, especially exploring Maya and NEAR Intents to enable cross-chain payments and possibly ZEC swaps within Zashi, in response to strong user demand.
Later in the quarter, Zashi Vault might become a key research topic, though its progress depends on external factors.
Another major focus is on- and off-ramps, with a potential integration with Banxa being evaluated, alongside other options like Coinbase and debit card support, to improve fiat-to-crypto conversions.
The team may also explore improved key recovery methods, though not all features listed in the “Discovery” phase of the roadmap will necessarily move forward to development.
🦓 Protocol
ECC’s protocol engineering efforts this quarter and beyond will focus on building a strong foundation for future Zcash protocol development, working closely with the Zcash community and other teams like Zcash Foundation, Qedit, Shielded Labs, and Zingo Labs.
The main priorities this quarter are:
Deprecating zcashd
Deploying Zcash Shielded Assets (ZSAs)
For a deeper dive, ECC’s R&D Engineering Manager, Daira-Emma Hopwood, has shared a detailed roadmap covering topics like:
ZSAs
zcashd deprecation
Memo bundles
Scalable liberated payments
Governance
Quantum resilience
PoS transition support
This week Kit from Avalanche gave us some updates about the bridge between ZEC & AVAX.
The update outlines the recent progress and upcoming tasks for building red·bridge, supported by Avalanche Foundation’s InfraBUIDL() program. Key milestones include:
Completed:
- Demo Bridge with Functional UX (with enhancements coming soon).
Ongoing Work:
Threat Model for ZavaX Oracle: Undergoing revisions after feedback from the initial audit by Least Authority.
ACP-77 Architecture Revisions: Facing challenges due to limited documentation on this new technology and slow responses from experts.
ZCG Milestone 4: Building a proof-of-concept bridge for ZEC to ZEC.rbr on testnets, with a one-validator Subnet and UX/UI design.
Upcoming Milestones:
ZCG Milestone 5: Deployment to Zcash and Avalanche testnets with a 3-validator Subnet and CLI support.
ZCG Milestone 6: Integration of the bridge into Metamask and publication of source code to a public GitHub repo.
First and second audits, including fixes from the audits.
Incentivized testnet with RBR rewards.
The most challenging milestone is working on the inter-chain messaging protocol (ICM) for custom VMs, as the documentation is sparse, especially for new technologies like FROST. The team is also considering proposing additional documentation as a milestone if no one else handles it. This could delay their schedule by a month but is crucial for progress.
🔗| Link
In this week’s ECC update, Josh shared some thoughts about the current sentiment of the community.
There's growing anxiety about a potential Zcash delisting from Binance, especially for users who rely on it as a primary on/off-ramp. While the concern is valid, the core message is that Zcash is unstoppable private money, and any centralized barrier like a deslisting is just an obstacle to flow around.
The focus is on resilience through building - DEXs like NEAR Intents and Maya, bridges like red-bridge, and tools like Zallet (a new Rust-based wallet) & Zashi (with a revamped UX) -- as steps toward a decentralized, privac-preserving future.
ECC reaffirms its commitment to creating a full decentralized stack that cannot bestopped by centralized gatekeepers. Josh`s message is about determination: relentlessly build, flow, and innovate, with the community working together to make Zcash truly unstoppable.
ECC Progress this Week
**
📱| Zashi Design**
Advanced designs for Multi-Account Support
Created opt-in/opt-out designs for Crash Reporting
Finalized Wallet Status Widget designs with refinements from Product and Dev feedback
Continued work on Crosschain Payments designs
🧑💻| Q&A and Dev Support
Testing Firebase & Zashi internal builds (focus on Wallet Status Widget)
Social Media Management
Content Creation
User Support
Community Engagement
🍎| Zashi iOS
📈 Unique Installs: 7.26k
⬇️ Total Downloads: 8.68k
⭐AppStore Rating: 4.9*
Zashi 1.5.2 🚀
Removed Firebase Crashlytics from the project & crash reporting system with it
Released 1.5.2 to production
Zashi 1.5.3
Prepared next build, preventing sending screen from getting stuck due to failed biometrics check
Updated Send feedback button title
Zashi 2.0: Wallet Status Widget
Implemented Home Screen Widget UI with full state support,including bottom sheet.
Integrated NetworkMonitor for Disconnected state and SyncError handling
Adopted FFI 0.15.0 for progress reporting, now reflected in the widget
Added "Remind me" logic for Wallet Backup and Shielding reminders
🤖| Zashi Android
📈Total Install Base: 3.707k
⬇️Total Installs (incl. Open Beta): 17.208k
⭐PlayStore Rating: 4.519*
Zashi 1.5.2
Finished Zashi 1.5.2 and production SDK 2.2.11 releases
Removed the Security Warning screen from the Zashi FOSS app
Released one more Zashi FOSS 1.5.2 just for the GitHub Releases and F-Droid
Zashi 2.0
Prepared Estimate Wallet Birthday Height feature and expanded gRPC support over Tor in the SDK.
Updated Home Screen and Wallet Status Widget designs, implementing related business logic and bottom sheets.
Refined UI with new color flexibility and added tools to speed up development
Continued work on Wallet Status Widget improvements
Refactoring:
Refactored code to reduce duplication and enhance reusability and extensibility, including unifying proposal handling and improving local preferences usage
Applied single responsibility principle by breaking down god classes into logical components
Made minor improvements for handling status messages more effectively.
🦓| Zcash Core
Released the v6.2.0 candidate for zcashd, updating deprecated RPC interfaces (now disabled by default) and introducing a required config flag to acknowledge zcashd's deprecation and upcoming migration needs.
Zallet now supports sync via Zaino integration and async wallet operations, enabling work on
z_sendmany. Encrypted key-store is complete,z_getnewaccountsupport has been merged, and initial work onwallet.datmigration using the ZeWIF stack is underway.Some improvements to wallet sync reporting have been made available to the light client SDKs.
🌐| Other
Zcash holders can now earn yield on their ZEC by providing liquidity to the Rhea Finance DEX, thanks to a collaboration with the NEAR community.
A major regulatory threat that would have required collecting PII from Zashi (and possibly Zallet) users was successfully overturned, thanks to strong bipartisan support. A hard-fought win that also protected DEXes from similar impact.
Leads from Zcash Foundation (Alex), Shielded Labs (Jason), and Josh meet biweekly to coordinate on core development. This week’s discussion focused on funding governance ZIPs and evaluating community sentiment.
They also met with Jonathan from Qedit to align on ZSA go-to-market efforts. While ZSAs will soon be enabled in the protocol, finding issuers remains a key next step.
Don’t forget to review and weigh in on the governance-related ZIPs. Polling will begin April 17th. (Today)
On 1st Abril, the Zcash Foundation posted their Transparency Report detailing expenses and progress of the team during the last months.
Check the Key Points of the Report.
»» Q4 Engineering Summary 🧑💻
In Q4, the Zebra team made significant progress in preparing for and successfully activating NU6 on mainnet, which occurred on November 23, 2024. This included addressing audit findings and releasing Zebra v2.0.1 with the mainnet activation heights. In support of zcashd deprecation, they enhanced Zebra’s regtest mode and aligned RPC behavior closely with zcashd to ease transition for users.
The team also collaborated with QEDIT to begin supporting Zcash Shielded Assets (ZSAs) within Zebra, particularly in the zebra-state crate. Additionally, Zebra was updated to support TEX transactions and migrated away from the outdated jsonrpc crate, reducing technical debt.
The FROST team focused on making FROST production-ready for Zcash, finalizing work on the FROST server (frostd) and client (frost-client) in preparation for audit and wallet integration in early 2025. They worked with ECC to define the PCZT format, enabling offline shielded transaction creation and easier FROST integration. They also released FROST v2.0.0, introducing share refreshing for trusted dealer setups, and collaborated on the frost-secp256k1-tr crate to support Taproot-compatible and ZSA-related signatures.
DevOps efforts included optimizing Zebra's cached state usage in testing, laying groundwork for long-lived testnet and mainnet nodes to improve network stability, and refining CI processes to better balance security with accessibility for external contributors.
»» Zcash Foundation | Use of Funds 💰
During Q4 2024, ZF's operating expenses averaged approximately $240,273 USD per month. The breakdown of resource allocation is as follows:
General overhead refers to costs not related to labor. These include: accounting, HR account fees, custodial service and banking fees, insurance, legal fees, incorporation fees, operating accounts, website expenses, and trademark enforcement expenses.
Team compensation encompassed all compensation and benefits paid to ZF staff and contractors. ZF does not operate any form of retention bonus or deferred compensation scheme. ***Unaudited and subject to change.
»» Zcash Foundation | Programs⚙️
»»» Q4 ZF Financial Snapshot 📝
»»» ZCG | Grants & Expenses 🏦
The Zcash Community Grants program (ZCG) funds independent teams entering the Zcash ecosystem, to perform major ongoing development (or other work) for the public good of the Zcash ecosystem. Some key areas of funding include: core infrastructure, wallets, interoperability, apps, ongoing services, integrations, research, and community. During Q4, ZCG approved 7 grants totaling $807,580 USD. ZCG also canceled 1 previously approved grant totaling $40,000 USD.
Of the newly-approved grants, ZCG paid out $215,380 USD for initial payments and milestones.
ZCG also paid out $679,497 for grants and IC agreements approved in previous quarters.
ZCG utilized $24,725 of their discretionary budget.
At close of Q4 2024, ZCG had outstanding liabilities of $2,036,480 for approved grants & IC agreements.
Paid Q4: $894,97
Outstanding Liabilities: $2,036,480
»»» ZCG Metrics YTD - 2024 📉
28 Grants Approved YTD
72 Grants Reviewed YTD
18 Open Grants
19 Days Proposal Submission to Decision
2.5% of Discretionary Budget Used Q4.
»» ZCG Approved Grants | Q4 ✅
Zingo Labs | Build Zaino to Deprecate Zcashd & Decentralize Zcash - $279,800
Zcash Brazil | Zcash Global <> Zcash Brazil - Q4 - $12,780
Zcash Espanol | Zcash Global en Español | $9,000
ChainSafe | Upstream enhancements to librustzcash - $16,800
Hahn | Coin Voting 2.0 - $200.000
ChainSafe | WebZjs Browser Library & Broswer Wallet Maintenance - $168,000
Blockchain Commons & Zingo Labs | Zcash Extensible Wallet Interchange Format (ZeWiF) - $121,200
»» ZconVI 🦓
ZconVI, a virtual conference for Zcash enthusiasts and experts, took place from March 4–7, 2025. This 4-day event focused on learning, collaboration, and innovation, emphasizing the theme of "synergy through decentralization." It showcased the joint efforts of various organizations in shaping and delivering the event content.
ZconVI featured a collaborative structure, with each of the four days curated by a different Zcash ecosystem organization. Zcash Foundation, ECC, ZCG, and ZecHub, leading a day focused on topics like privacy, scalability, governance, and community empowerment. Each day included a co-curated panel session, highlighting cross-organizational collaboration.
»» Zcash Dev Summit 🔆
Each day of ZconVI was led by a different Zcash ecosystem organization, fostering collaboration across the community. Topics ranged from privacy and scalability to governance, interoperability, and global perspectives on decentralization. Daily co-curated panels showcased joint efforts and shared insights.
»» Community Focus 🌐
Blogs Posts:
Inviting Nominations for the Zcash Foundation Board of Directors
Consulting the Zcash Community on Appointing New Zcash Foundation Board Members
Opening Nominations for the Zcash Community Grants Committee