Over the past two weeks, we celebrated Zcash’s 10th anniversary, made progress on ZecHub Wiki 3.0, expanded ZECBounties opportunities, and introduced new blockchain data visualizations.
We also welcomed a new DAO member, discussed plans for a Penumbra validator, and continued supporting educational content and developer initiatives across the ecosystem.
October Milestone Report & DAO Updates
Our October milestone report was published, covering the month’s activities, community contributions, and DAO governance decisions.
Several funded initiatives are moving forward. Zcash East Africa will continue its operations through the end of the year, while Dre is preparing developer workshops and a two-day in-person hackathon. Els is also preparing to participate in Confluence 2.0, which has experienced a slight scheduling delay.
We also welcomed ReturnIfLost as a new DAO member, with plans to contribute to the Penumbra ecosystem through validator infrastructure.
Celebrating Zcash’s 10th Anniversary
To celebrate a decade of Zcash, we organized the ZX campaign through the main Zcash account.
The campaign explored different ways the number ten appears throughout Zcash’s history, with a series of posts published over ten days.
We concluded the celebrations with a three-hour community call, bringing contributors and community members together for discussions and a poker tournament.
Thank you to everyone who participated and helped make the anniversary celebrations possible. 💛
ZecHub Wiki 3.0
Development of ZecHub Wiki 3.0 continues, with Vito focusing on modernizing the interface and improving navigation.
The Wiki has evolved considerably since its original Notion-based version. As more contributors joined and educational resources expanded, we introduced new features such as dashboards, wallet listings, and blockchain visualizers.
With the current interface approaching two years old, the next version aims to provide a cleaner design and a more accessible experience for readers.
Vito and Dismad have now established a shared development environment using Tailscale, allowing them to review the updated interface and prepare for testing.
The redesign is approaching its initial testing phase, bringing us closer to a broader rollout.
Wiki Contributions & Blockchain Data
Several improvements were made across the Wiki, including updates to community projects, blockchain statistics, and educational resources.
Dismad introduced new functionality to the Chain State dashboard, using an indexer alongside Zebra to retrieve and visualize blockchain data.
The dashboard provides interactive charts with adjustable time ranges, logarithmic views, and detailed information about Zcash’s shielded pools.
A new Shielded Coinbase visualization was also added, showing which blocks contain shielded coinbase activity and identifying the associated pools, including Sapling, Orchard, and Ironwood.
These additions make it easier to explore publicly available blockchain data and understand how shielded activity has evolved over time.
We also fixed the display of existing infographics in the Wiki gallery, making them accessible again and opening the door for additional visual educational content.
Translations & Security
Bloxster continued coordinating Wiki translations, including work on additional languages and collaboration with global ambassadors to review translation quality.
Tokidoki also returned to help review incoming pull requests and provided useful security disclosures.
With a growing number of contributions across our repositories, maintaining documentation quality and reviewing submissions remain important priorities.
ZEC Bounties Updates
Following the improvements introduced in October, the volume of spam accounts and excessive task suggestions is now largely under control.
Contributors can submit pull requests for review, while established participants can unlock the ability to create task suggestions based on their contribution history and verified badges.
Zcash Team & New Opportunities
The Zcash team on ZECBounties is now funded, opening opportunities for contributors to create content for the main Zcash account.
The first task has already attracted 13 applications, reflecting strong interest from the community.
We’re also planning outreach to additional ecosystem projects to encourage more teams to join the platform and create opportunities for contributors.
Improved Contributor Communication
A new chat feature on ZECBounties allows contributors to communicate directly with reviewers about task suggestions, corrections, and other issues.
This should help reduce unnecessary messages in general Discord channels while keeping task-related discussions organized.
Contributors submitting pull requests for paid work are also encouraged to consult the bounty pricing guidelines and include their expected compensation.
As AI-assisted development increases the volume of submissions, clearer communication and expectations will help us maintain an efficient review process.
Content & Community Contributions
We continued publishing regular editions of Zcash Ecosystem Digest, Zcash Shielded News, Arborist Call summaries, and ZecHub Sync updates.
Omega Wolf contributed new social media content, while Montanari continued working on ZecIllustrated, with additional posters prepared for publication.
Our next content focus will include practical tutorials demonstrating how to make payments with Zcash.
Caston, a new contributor with experience in the privacy ecosystem, has created a video covering CipherPay, which we plan to publish soon.
We want to highlight real-world shielded payments and make it easier for people to understand how Zcash can be used in everyday transactions.
Penumbra Validator & Shielded Assets
We welcomed ReturnIfLost, who shared plans to help establish a Penumbra validator.
Penumbra is a privacy-focused Layer 1 blockchain supporting shielded asset swaps and interoperability through the Inter-Blockchain Communication protocol (IBC).
The initial plan involves preparing the infrastructure, syncing a full node, and eventually launching the validator. ReturnIfLost estimated approximately two weeks for the initial infrastructure preparation.
We also discussed the possibility of building a Penumbra dashboard, similar to our existing blockchain data tools, and allowing community members to support the validator through delegation.
The conversation expanded into the broader future of shielded assets, including Zcash Shielded Assets (ZSAs), Namada, Anoma, and interoperability between privacy-focused networks.
Supporting multiple approaches to shielded assets could help strengthen the broader privacy ecosystem while creating opportunities for future integrations.
Developer Tools & Ecosystem Projects
A new TypeScript SDK, Zcash.js, was added to the SDK section of our developer resources.
We also discussed creating a quick-start guide to help developers begin using the SDK, with potential bounty tasks to support the documentation.
Dave shared progress on Can I Shield It, including a countdown to the upcoming NU7 network upgrade. His work on visualizing recent shielded pool deposits was also highlighted as a potential addition to our tools section.
The discussion also touched on wallet transparency and open-source software, emphasizing the importance of reviewing code and understanding the trust assumptions involved when using browser-based wallets.
Additional ideas included expanding Zec Bounties through integrations with other ecosystem platforms and improving access to opportunities across different projects.
What’s Next
Our priorities for the coming weeks include beginning testing for ZecHub Wiki 3.0, expanding the funded Zcash team on Zec Bounties, and producing more educational content focused on real-world Zcash payments.
We’ll also continue reviewing community contributions, improving developer resources, and supporting upcoming hackathons and regional initiatives.
With new contributors joining and more projects exploring privacy-focused technology, our focus remains on making Zcash education, development, and community participation more accessible.