Most people in the world don't know about the 2016 cryptographic ceremony that
launched Zcash. Here are a collection of resources to help people understand this
fascinating moment in history.
Read the official z.cash page on the Zcash parameter generation.
Note that the
forthcoming Halo2 upgrade
will make the "trusted setup" ceremony a thing of the past.
There were six participants in the original 2016 ceremony:
- Andrew Miller
- Peter Van Valkenburgh
- John Dobbertin (pseudonym)
- Zooko Wilcox
- Derek Hinch
- Peter Todd
Recently is was revealed that Edward Snowden participated in the ceremony as "John Dobbertin".
Zcash Media Snowden Reveal
Naomi Brockwell on The Snowden Reveal
Note: the upcoming privacy pool is call Orchard, not Orchid!
Forbes on The Snowden Reveal
Note: there is no "Zcash company" valued at $2 billion
This is the total market capitalization of theZECtoken!
Radiolab Episode on the Ceremony
This is a fun podcast that aired before the Snowden reveal.
Electric Coin Company Video Explainer
This video from ECC explains the original ceremony.
Andrew Miller deepcut
This is a home video of Andrew Miller's part of the ceremony that few people have ever seen:
Other first-hand accounts
Peter Van Valkenburgh, participant: https://gist.github.com/valkenburgh/8cf1d1e0a93daff5f051def361d9722d
Peter Todd, participant: https://petertodd.org/2016/cypherpunk-desert-bus-zcash-trusted-setup-ceremony
Morgen Peck, journalist: http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/computing/networks/the-crazy-security-behind-the-birth-of-zcash