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!
Starting the week with important news for ZEC on exchanges! 🥳
Back in 2018, Gemini made history as the first licensed exchange to support Zcash ($ZEC), later becoming the first to offer shielded withdrawals. Today, they’ve done it again. Gemini is now the first exchange in the world to enable Unified Address support, marking another milestone for Zcash privacy and usability.
A Unified Address (UA) works like a universal travel adapter for Zcash. It streamlines the experience by replacing multiple address types with a single one, making Zcash easier to use. With a UA, one address can seamlessly interact with all value pools Orchard, Sapling, and Transparent, without added complexity.
Zashi Wallet has upgraded its built-in Tor support, giving privacy-focused Zcash users more protection than ever.
What’s New:
Now via Tor: Submit ZEC transactions, fetch transaction data, connect to APIs (NEAR & Maya coming soon), and get ZEC-USD rates.
Why It Matters: Without Tor, wallet interaction with lightwallet servers can be correlated with an IP address. Routing through Tor hides your network identity, adding another layer to Zcash’s already top-tier privacy.
Powered by Arti: A faster, more reliable Rust-based Tor client developed by the Tor Project with Zcash Community Grants funding.
Note: Tor is a beta feature, may affect performance, and is restricted in some regions. You can toggle it in Advanced Settings.
For Zashi, privacy isn’t a marketing term, it’s a principle. This update brings us closer to true financial sovereignty.
Tor, created by the U.S. Naval Research Lab in the 1990s and released in 2002, uses layered encryption (“onion routing”) through volunteer relays to hide users’ IP addresses and protect privacy online.
Zebra v2.4.2 is now live, bringing important security fixes, bug resolutions, and several new features.
This update addresses a database corruption bug from v2.4.0 that affected address index RPC calls, and introduces deserialization for block and transaction types, a new gRPC method for monitoring mempool changes, new RPC methods like invalidateblock and reconsiderblock, and enhanced RPC outputs.
IPv6 is now the default listen address, and shielded addresses can be configured for mining. A major database upgrade from v26 to v27 means downgrading is no longer possible, so users should back up their v26 folder before upgrading; the process can take hours on smaller machines. The ldb checkpoint backup tool is no longer supported, the debug_like_zcashd mining config option has been removed, and the cm_u field byte order in certain RPC responses has been fixed.
Full details and upgrade guidance are available in the release notes.
Zcash Community Grants has published its latest summary of the most recent committee meeting regarding the pending grant applications under review.
Attendance 👥
Alex (FPF resource, notetaker)
Open Grant Proposals 🔓
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- MFKDF2 enhances key security with multi-factor authentication for non-custodial wallets, aiming to replace seed phrases and improve Zcash usability. ZCG unanimously approved a $39,000 grant to make it production-ready.
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- PGP (Pretty Good Policy)* for Crypto hosts policy-focused events on cryptocurrency and privacy tech. ZCG unanimously approved $20,000 (Dan abstained) to sponsor upcoming meetings and the DC Privacy Summit, citing strong value, impact, and the organizer’s proven track record.
Jays - 2 Month Content Initiative ✖️
- A $4,000 proposal for a two-month Zcash content initiative was unanimously rejected by ZCG, with members suggesting the requestor seek potential funding through ZecHub instead.
BTCPayServer - Orchard and UA ✔️
- ZCG unanimously approved $15,000 to upgrade BTCPayServer for Orchard and Unified Address support, closing a key privacy gap and enhancing Zcash’s shielded transaction ecosystem.
Blockworks: Empire Podcast Sponsorship ❓
- ZCG is considering a $60,000 title sponsorship of the Empire podcast (100K monthly listeners) to boost Zcash brand awareness through ads and newsletter placement. Most members see it as a marketing experiment worth trying, though some question the budget. A decision is expected by Aug 6.
Brainstorm Session Follow-Ups 💡
Pacu / DevRel Engineer
- ZCG has extended Pacu’s agreement for another year, recognizing his valuable contributions and impactful work across the Zcash ecosystem.
Ledger
- Ledger has fixed the issue that caused ZEC to be bricked or stuck on its devices. They will soon submit a plan for retroactive funding to add shielded support and provide ongoing maintenance.
Grantee Code Quality
- Gguy announced new code quality standards for ZCG grants, now built into the application process to ensure high-quality contributions and avoid merge issues.
Two years ago, Josh left ECC but remained committed to Zcash, pushing for focus, better governance, and user growth. Instead of burning bridges, Josh helped build them, linking Zcash to the broader crypto world.
Zcash now supports Tor, Keystone Wallets, Flexa Spending, and Gemini's unified address withdrawls. Partnerships with Maya, NEAR, Metamask, Brave, Penumbra, Namada, and Ledger expand access, while developers align on an 18-month roadmap and advocacy grows in Washington.
By connecting products, communities, and organizations, Josh is helping create an unstoppable Zcash machine.
ECC Weekly Progress
Zashi
Progress made: ✔️
Zashi 2.1 w/ Tor protection was released!,
Development and internal testing of swap and pay with NEAR intents.
Upcoming: ➡️
NEAR Intents integration & testing for ZEC Swaps and Payments.,
Continued design work on multi-account and stablecoin support.,
Meeting with Coinsbee on integration exploration.
🍎 │ IOS Analytics:
📈Unique Installs: 9.21k (prev. 8.96k)
⬇️Total Downloads: 11.1k (prev. 10.1k)
⭐AppStore Rating: 4.9*
🤖 │ Android Analytics:
📈Total Install Base: 3.8k**(prev.** 3.83k)
⬇️Total Installs (incl. Open Beta): 21.3k (prev.20.7k)
⭐PlayStore Rating: 4.314*
Zcash Core 🦓
Progress made: ✔️
Figured out PS2H multisig key generation (BIP 48 & 129).,
Drafted PCZT spec (zips 1063) released zcash_protocol with NU6.1 support, and merged halo2 ZSA changes.
Upcoming: ➡️
Releasing Zallet Alpha.
Finish Specification work for NU6.1.
Finish support for send max and trusted/untrusted confirmations policy.
Others 🌐
Josh participated in the quarterly Agoric board meeting and got an early demo of their new product, YMax.,
ECC continued working on an application for a retroactive grant for coinholder voting.
Other Highlights:
Who are you when no one is watching? Spaces with ZecHub - @zkulture_xyz
Achievement unlocked: for the first time ever, over 20% of all ZEC are shielded! - @shieldedlabs