Here are the updates from this week:
- Zcash hit its millionth block.
- Open-source wallet apps localized into 5 additional languages.
- ECC published the Transparency Report for Q1 2020.
- MGRC met this week. Here are the minutes 3 from their first meeting.
- There are now 23 places where you can pay with shielded Zcash.
- Zooko quoted in Coindesk Op-Ed, The Web Wasn’t Built for Privacy, but It Could Be and DC was interviewed on Staking Defense podcast.
- ICYMI, here are recordings from past events
- 10/6 – Gardening Club (video will be posted early next week)
- 10/7 – Deep dive on Halo2 with Zero Knowledge Seoul
- 10/7 – Zcash webinar with Blockchain Academy (Brazil)
- 10/8 – Arborist Call (video will be posted early next week)
Mark your calendars,
- 10/13 – CoinDCX Youtube Livestream (India), link
- 10/13 – Can Privacy and Regulation Coexist? with Gemini and Perkins Coie, link
- 10/14 – MetalPay AMA, registration link
- 10/19 – ZKP Privacy Conference hosted by Dystopia Labs
- 10/27 – Zeal calls are back!
- 10/28 – Zcash 4th Birthday
- 11/3 – November Gardening Club
- 11/5 – November Arborist Call
- 11/18 – Canopy Activation
Documentation
- Zcashd forking and connecting to upstream instructions
- Debian packages build instructions
- Updated a broken link via community feedback form
DevInfra
- Phase 1: Travis CI full support for native Mac
- Phase 1: Public and private namespacing mechanics for production Tekton
- Kustomize implementation of prior kubernetes BlockExplorer
- Updated mainnet and testnet seeders staged for deployment
- Phase 1: Grafana alternative cloud solution
Core
- Updated almost all our dependencies (including ZeroMQ)
- Removed OpenSSL
- Merged several upstream Bitcoin Core PRs
- Check out these PR Statistics from last quarter
Security
- Finalizing Jesse deprecation
- Handled two internal security responses
Wallet
- Localization to ECC wallet in five languages (iOS and Android)
- Security improvements around seed handling (iOS)
- Fixed rust interfacing issue (iOS)
- General app maintenance (iOS)
- Better use of viewing keys and less reliance on seeds (Android)
- Discovered and patched a critical issue in dependency library (Android)
- Proposed protocol for autoshielding
Community Shout Outs – Shout out to PaywithZcash for maintaining a directory of Zcash merchants. Shout out to rex4539 and linuxion for submitting community PRs.
This week in privacy, DOJ announces a new Cryptocurrency Enforcement Framework. The framework includes some troubling statements around anonymity enhanced cryptocurrencies or “AECs.” Jerry Brito from Coincenter weighs in. Did you know about “keyword warrants”?
Other headlines: “Do Not Track” is back. The Markup reports on algorithms violating fair housing laws. EFF shared tools for police surveillance and school recordings raise questions from a privacy lawyer. I came across this 2015 paper that explores privacy as a public good – it would be fun to think about how privacy fits into Ostrom’s principles.
In crypto news, crypto crackdowns continue, John McAfee was arrested earlier this week. Belarus dissidents use bitcoin.
