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!
Fact of the Week: Zerocash 💡
Before launching in 2016, Zcash was originally called “Zerocash”, an academic protocol developed by researchers from MIT, Johns Hopkins, and Tel Aviv University. The project evolved from Bitcoin’s open-source codebase, but replaced transparent transactions with zero-knowledge proofs, creating the first fully private cryptocurrency.
📩 IN TODAY’S EDITION 📍ECC Q4 2025 | Roadmap • ECC outlined Q4 goals: improving Zashi privacy and usability, reducing tech debt, and advancing ephemeral address work. ⚙️ Crosslink: Updated Staking Design for Zcash• Shielded Labs revealed a new PoW–PoS model with 5-day epochs for faster, more flexible staking. 📝 ZCG | Nominations for ZCG Seats Open Soon• Three ZCG seats open for nominations on Nov 17; voting follows in December. 👤 Zcash Community Grants Meeting Minutes 10/27/25• Approvals for Coin Voting, ZecDev Launchpad, and Zaino; other proposals deferred or rejected. 🏛️ Registration Period: Coinholder-Directed Retroactive Grants Program (Q4 Round)• Registration open until Nov 10; voting starts Nov 13 for ZEC holders in Orchard. 🚀 Growing Up. ECC Update• ECC reflected on Zcash’s progress toward decentralized privacy and ecosystem growth.
Recently, ECC shared its updated roadmap, reinforcing its mission to empower people with economic freedom by advancing privacy, consent, security, and human dignity. This quarter, the team is focused on reducing technical debt, improving privacy and usability for Zashi users, and ensuring smooth dev fund management.
Key Priorities
Ephemeral Transparent Addresses: Temporary transparent addresses for each swap to ZEC using NEAR Intents, enhancing privacy and reducing transaction linkability.
Transparent Address Rotation: Automatic generation of new transparent addresses whenever previous ones receive funds.
Keystone Resync & Disconnect: Allowing Zashi-Keystone users to easily unlink and resync their devices.
P2SH Multisig Support in Keystone: Strengthening Zcash Dev Fund security and enabling Keystone signing for any wallet integrated with PCZT.
ECC moves fast and adapts as it learns. The roadmap is a guide, not a rulebook, designed to evolve as new insights and opportunities appear. Each quarter, the team reviews goals and timelines to stay aligned with community needs and market realities.
Twice a year, ECC meets in person with Zcash community developers to collaborate on plans and share ideas. It’s all part of building privacy that truly works together.
Nominations for three Zcash Community Grants (ZCG) seats open on November 17 and close on December 1. This is your chance to help shape the future of Zcash by encouraging great candidates to step forward or even nominating someone yourself!
This election will be the first to use SIV, replacing Helios. Elise (ZF) has been working hard to customize the new system for the community, and more details will be shared as the nomination date approaches.
Last week, Shielded Labs shared an updated look at Crosslink, the hybrid Proof-of-Work (PoW) and Proof-of-Stake (PoS) design that adds finality to Zcash. Crosslink aims to strengthen network security and stability while keeping Zcash’s core focus on privacy.
After community feedback, the team recognized that the original staking design was too rigid, especially the 30-day unbonding period and 10-day epochs, which made liquidity difficult. The new proposal shortens these to a 5-day epoch and a 1-epoch unbonding period (5–10 days total). This means stakers can access funds faster while keeping privacy and security strong.
How It Works
Staking happens within the Orchard pool.
Users “lock” ZEC to delegate it to a finalizer and earn rewards.
When unstaking, funds are released after one 5-day epoch.
Staked amounts are transparent so the community can verify totals, but privacy is preserved through batching and stake amount rounding (quantization).
Next steps: Shielded Labs plans to launch a testnet prototype by the end of the year.
Feedback from the community will guide further refinements. Crosslink is designed to bring more users into active participation, making staking accessible, private, and aligned with Zcash’s long-term mission.
Participants 👥
Alex (FPF, notetaker)
Open Grants 🔓
🔹 Zcash React Native | $79,200
Goal: Develop zcash-rn, a full-featured React Native SDK for shielded mobile apps using Zcash.
ZCG Feedback: Useful idea, but no current developer demand. Could be revisited later if needed.
Status: Rejected. ❌
🔹 Coin Voting: Maintenance & Improvements | $314,000
Goal: Maintain and improve the Zcash Coin Voting System to enhance usability, reliability, and accessibility.
ZCG Feedback: High priority. Better UX can increase participation in governance. Quarterly updates and billing plan approved.
Status: Approved async. ✅
🔹 Cordial Systems | $55,000
Goal: Integrate Zcash transparent transactions into institutional wallet infrastructure (Cordial Treasury).
ZCG Feedback: Transparent integration is already supported and not complex; funding unnecessary.
Status: Rejected. ❌
🔹 ZD Models | $25,700
Goal: Create 3D-printed Zcash collectibles and NFC items for community engagement.
ZCG Feedback: Creative but commercial; outside grant scope.
Status: Rejected. ❌
🔹 ZecDev Launchpad | $25,000
Goal: Developer toolkit for Zebra-based Zcash development, enabling local testing and CI automation.
ZCG Feedback: Approved with milestone adjustments and name change, to be managed with Pacu’s feedback.
Status: Approved. ✅
🔹 bytebell.ai | $30,500
Goal: AI copilot to organize technical knowledge across docs, code, and chat.
ZCG Feedback: Interesting concept, but overlaps with general AI tools; limited Zcash benefit.
Status: Rejected. ❌
🔹 Zcash Ukraine Regional Initiative | $6,000
Goal: Expand Ukrainian-speaking Zcash community with education, posts, and events.
ZCG Feedback: Commendable effort, but needs stronger traction and proven community impact before funding.
Status: Rejected (encouraged to reapply via ZecHub). ❌
🔹 The Social Mask | $50,000
Goal: Privacy-first journalism platform using Zcash for secure publishing and funding.
ZCG Feedback: Valuable idea but too ambitious for current ecosystem needs. Suggested integrating with existing platforms.
Status: Rejected. ❌
🔹 Zcash Extension to Ethereum | $250,000
Goal: Build a confidential bridge between Zcash and Ethereum using Zero-Knowledge Proofs.
ZCG Feedback: Still under discussion; further technical input needed.
Status: Open. 🕓
🔹 Zcatch: Zcash Explorer & Services | $20,700
Goal: Build a next-gen Zcash explorer focused on shielded and transparent insights.
ZCG Feedback: Promising proposal; early stage, needs further review.
Status: Open. 🕓
Brainstorm Session Follow-Ups 💡
Web3Privacy Summit (Argentina, November)
- ZCG approved attendance for Ryan and Robmar, covering travel and lodging. Booth coordination and swag planning in progress.
Ledger
- FPF continues discussions with Ledger to complete KYC and finalize grant terms.
About a week ago, Jason McGee (Shielded Labs & ZCG) announced that registration is now open for ZEC holders who want to take part in the Q4 2025 Coinholder-Directed Retroactive Grants Program.
To join, holders just need to move their ZEC into the Orchard pool or refresh their notes sometime between Block 2,908,100 (April 30, 2025) and Monday, November 10 at 11:59 PM UTC.
Voting kicks off on Thursday, November 13, and Jason will share simple step-by-step instructions before it begins.
He also reminded participants to keep things safe after registration closes, move your ZEC out of the wallet you’ll use for voting. That way, when you enter your seed phrase to vote, your wallet will be empty and your funds stay secure.
Jason is also calling for community members to help run voting servers for the new Coin Voting 2.0 system. It uses a blockchain powered by CometBFT, and having at least four independent validators keeps the process fair and tamper-proof.
If you’re interested in helping run a voting authority or just want to learn more, reach out to Jason. Transparent ZEC holders can still join the poll by signing a transaction, just like in previous votes.
This week marks 9 years since the founding of Zcash! We’ve come a long way. From the early days of cryptographic innovation to today’s cross-chain growth & privacy evolution, we’re stronger and more focused than ever.
**🔎 Diving into ECC updates
**
Highlights
Shielded Pool Adoption: Now at 4.97 ZEC, showing major growth in private, off-exchange usage.,
Swap Activity: Daily records on Near intents ($100m) and $143+ ZEC swapped via Zashi since launch.,
New Trading: ZEC trading now live and active on Solana,
Ecosystem Fund: 74k ZEC ($30M+) available for retroactive funding to contributors.
Zashi
Recent Updates:
Built and tested a prototype of ephemeral transparent addresses on Android.
Designed logic for resetting the transparent gap limit and identifying funds.
Explored Help Scout for Zashi docs and updated app store designs.
Continued privacy discussions with Coinbase.
Worked with legal to remove a fake Zashi site.
Coming Soon:
Implement ephemeral transparent addresses with the Core Team (top priority).
Finalize flows for fund discovery and gap limit reset.
Review designs for Reset/Resync, Transparent Address Rotation, Ledger, and Multi-Account.
Wrap up Duress/Decoy Wallet designs.
Zashi | Adoption Numbers
🍎 | IOS: 20.4k unique installs (1.5k increase),
🤖 | Android: 8.55k base (0.7k increase),
🔁 | Swap Analytics: Swap volume (to date): 253k ZEC (+112k) | Avg volume per day (to date): 7.5k ZEC (+1.5k)
Zcash Core 🦓
Recent Updates:
Merged ephemeral address and account deletion updates into librustzcash and mobile SDKs.
Released Zallet 0.1.0-alpha-2.
Merged ZIP 321 specs for ZSA Custom Assets.
Improved CI for dependency checks in zcash/zips
Coming Soon:
Review lightwalletd transparent I/O and Orchard crate updates.
Integrate and test ephemeral addresses in Zashi.
Add Keystone P2SH integration.
Plan next Zallet release.
Other 🌐
ECC’s Q4 Roadmap. (shown above)
Josh appeared on the The Rollup this week. Check out the clips: Your TAM is not bing enough & NEAR unlock for Zcash.