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!
For a while now, the ZK AV Club team has been running workshops on all things audio-visual sharing know-how on streaming, live transcription, clip cutting, clean recordings, and more.
The new initiative is all about “Passing the Mic 🎤**”** to the community, so people can get creative with their own projects. The idea isn’t performance it’s about passing on real skills like the ones above.
To make it extra motivating, ZK AV Club is offering 200 EUR in ZEC for anyone who puts together a workshop that helps strengthen the ecosystem and keeps knowledge from fading away over time. Pretty cool, right? 😊
And the steps to join in are super simple:
Choose a topic from the Foundry sessions (or twist one into something new)
Make it clear, useful, and impossible to ignore
Lock the date, rehearse, and go live
Apply today and ensure your community is ready before the need arises.
Some examples that might help you 👇
1. Archive Like a Hacker-Librarian: Internet Archive with Command Line
2. Video Editing with ZK/AV and Zcash Brazil (In Portuguese)
3. Archive Like a Hacker-Librarian: Internet Archive with Command Line
If you’ve got questions, just hop on the 👾 Zcash Global Discord and drop by the ⚡┊zk-audiovisual-club channel—the team will be there to help you out.
On Aug 13, Jason MacGee (ZCG & Shielded Labs) posted related to NU7 has been delayed too long, not because of engineering, but because of project management and scope creep.
Instead of waiting for every feature to be ready, he proposes that Shielded Labs deliver a smaller, faster NU7 that focuses on the Network Sustainability Mechanism (NSM), Explicit Fees, and key transaction format changes.
The idea is simple: ship what’s ready, keep development momentum, and avoid endless delays.
By front-loading essential changes, future upgrades become easier and more predictable. Jason stresses that the decision should rest with the community, and a coinholder poll is planned to give everyone a direct voice.
Last week we published in the newsletter the second-to-last update, Zebra 2.4.2, which brought security and bug fixes, new RPC/gRPC methods and features, IPv6 enabled by default, improved support for shielded addresses in mining, and a major database upgrade.
Recentely**, Zebra 2.5.0** went live on August 7, 2025, bringing a major milestone: the implementation and deployment of Network Upgrade 6.1 (NU6.1) on the Zcash Testnet. The upgrade successfully activated on August 11, 2025.
NU6.1 introduces lockbox disbursement, first tested in a private testnet and now ready for community validation before Mainnet activation.
This release also includes a breaking RPC change: the valuePools field in getblock and getblockinfo has been updated—deferred is now called lockbox to match zcashd.
Another big improvement is a new per-crate release process. Each Zebra crate now has its own changelog and versioning. This makes it easier for developers to manage updates and adapt to changes without being tied to the overall Zebra release.
Don't waste time, update your Zebra now. 🚀
This week, Pacu explains that the Zcash ecosystem is currently juggling several major efforts at once: the deprecation of Zcashd, the development of Z3, and preparation for NU7.
He compares it to three trains moving side by side each must reach the destination together, and people often need to “jump” between them while they’re in motion. This metaphor shows just how complex and interdependent these projects are. The takeaway is clear: '‘we need to carefully plan every move, protect contributors, and keep every project maintained to succeed as a whole.'‘
🔧 Project Progress
Outreach → Paused until Zallet Alpha readiness is defined.
Zebra → Performance improvements in progress (BatchVerifiers adoption, maintenance to keep it lean and fast).
Zaino (ZingoLabs) → In progress with restructuring, tests, block explorer support, and Lightwalletd replacement.
In-Memory Backend → Pending review (PR #1634).
Zallet Full Node Wallet → In progress, working toward alpha readiness; PR review bottleneck but support from contributors is helping. Call for testers/devs is still open.
Block Explorer Support → Testing; fixes applied for shielded coinbase transaction display and an API outage affecting CoinMarketCap.
If you want to learn more, here is the way → forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/zcash-z3
This week, Josh brought a good approach about IA between the humans and how privacy could be compromised with them. Here's a small summary about it:
AI may lead to dystopia or utopia, but in both scenarios, privacy and decentralized digital money will be essential.
In dystopia, elites wield AI and surveillance to control the masses, making unstoppable private money vital for survival and resistance.,
In utopia, privacy and disintermediated money underpin freedom and individual sovereignty.,
Though AI feels like an unstoppable force, we are not passive. By learning AI, connecting, questioning, and intentionally creating, we can help shape a freer future, building utopia rather than accepting dystopia.
Take some time to read this amazing post. It won’t take much of your time, right?
ECC Weekly Progress
Zashi
Progress made: ✔️
Tested NEAR Intents integration & gathered internal feedback
Updated UX to highlight: Swap from ZEC, Pay with ZEC, Swap to ZEC
Finalized requirements for releasing Swap from ZEC
Improved transaction progress reporting (15min → ~1min)
Upcoming: ➡️
Finalizing new updates & requirements
Ongoing internal testing & bug fixes
Push “Swap from ZEC” to beta ASAP
🍎 │ IOS Analytics:
📈Unique Installs: 9.39k (prev. 9.21k )
⬇️Total Downloads: 1.3k (prev. 11.1k)
⭐AppStore Rating: 4.9*
🤖 │ Android Analytics:
📈Total Install Base: 3.85k (prev. 3.8k)
⬇️Total Installs (incl. Open Beta): 21.6k (prev.21.3k)
⭐PlayStore Rating: 4.304*
Zcash Core 🦓
Progress made: ✔️
Progress on P2SH & multisig support in core libs + Zallet.
Hotfix released for zcash_keys bug in transparent key encoding (librustzcash#1910).
Upcoming: ➡️
Release the Zallet Alpha.
Finish all specification work for NU6.1.
Continue reviewing ZSA changes.
Others 🌐
Josh was in California this week to explore a partnership opportunity.
Josh met w/ Alex & Jason McGee to discuss feedback on Shielded Labs NU7 Proposal.
They started engagement with the Ledger on PCTZ support for Zcash.
They are planning & organizing the DC Privacy Summit and September PGP event.
Continued work on an application for a retroactive grant for coinholder voting.