Zcash was built to give people the power to transact freely. Privacy and self-sovereignty are at the heart of that mission. Now, through the Maya Protocol integration, Zcash unlocks decentralized liquidity, cross-chain interoperability, and new ways to use ZEC.

Why This Matters

Zcash and Maya are built on deeply aligned principles. Zcash defends privacy and personal agency; Maya champions decentralization and open, permissionless access. Together, these values empower users to control their money and their data.

With ZEC now live on Maya Protocol, Zcash gains native access to a permissionless, decentralized, cross-chain liquidity network for truly decentralized asset swaps. This means ZEC holders can swap between assets with multiple chains without relying on centralized exchanges.

In a world where privacy is under attack and centralized exchanges are being pressured to delist privacy coins, access to decentralized liquidity isn’t just nice to have—it’s essential. Unlike centralized exchanges, which require personal information and can delist assets under regulatory pressure, decentralized networks like Maya allow users to trade freely. No accounts. No gatekeepers. Just self-custody and freedom of movement.

Next: Maya + Zashi

ECC is already working to bring Maya integration into Zashi, our mobile wallet for shielded ZEC. That means:

• Cross-Chain Payments: Spend shielded ZEC across chains
• Maya-Powered Swaps: Swap ZEC for Maya-supported assets

Both of these features are high-priority items that are already on the Zashi roadmap for 2025.

Stay Tuned

Privacy, self-sovereignty, and decentralization form the foundation of a more open and equitable financial system. By integrating with Maya, Zcash becomes more accessible and resilient, strengthening these principles.

DEX access ensures that ZEC users have ways to move, trade, and spend—even in environments where privacy is unwelcome. It’s a crucial part of future-proofing the Zcash ecosystem and giving people more ways to use private money on their terms.

In the coming months, we’ll share more updates on the Zashi-Maya integration. If you believe in private, decentralized money—this is just the beginning.

Onward.

This is a daily technical analysis by CoinDesk analyst and Chartered Market Technician Omkar Godbole.

Prices for privacy-protecting digital currency Zcash (ZEC) have moved past a key resistance or supply zone, hinting at bigger gains ahead.

Since February, ZEC has traded sideways, with sellers dominating above $40. Meanwhile, dips near $25 have consistently found support, keeping the price within a narrow range.

On Sunday, buyers finally managed to chew through the long-held supply zone of $40-$43, hitting a high of $45.80 on crypto exchange HTX, the level last seen on Jan. 26, according to data source TradingView.

The so-called range breakout is like a spring uncoiling bullishly after building up demand during consolidation. This release of stored energy often results in a sharp, rapid move higher.

Technical analysis theory suggests adding the range width, or the spread between the upper and lower range boundaries, to the breakout point. In ZEC’s case, the measured move method points to a rally toward $60.

Price moves through long-held resistance levels, as in ZEC’s case, often draws bids from breakout traders. These entities seek to enter positions when the price of an asset moves beyond a defined support or resistance level, aiming to capitalize on a continued move higher or lower.

ZEC’s peer, monero (XMR), recently broke out of a bigger and more prolonged range play with a bullish golden cross, surging to highs above $300. Readers should note that chart patterns do not always work as intended.

The Zcash community has spoken. Recent polling results signal a clear path forward for the future of the Zcash Development Fund (Dev Fund). After a thorough and collaborative process, the community expressed strong support for continuing the Dev Fund under a model that balances funding decision-making power between coinholders and the broader community—and for making this a top priority ahead of other upcoming consensus changes.

This decision marks a pivotal moment for Zcash, reinforcing its commitment to decentralization, inclusivity, and resilience. As the current funding model approaches its expiration in November 2025, the next phase will focus on implementing a coinholder grant polling mechanism and preparing for a potential network upgrade to support the transition. Here’s a closer look at the journey so far, the results, and what comes next.

A Community-Driven Process

This consensus-building process began months ago, driven by a shared desire to align Zcash’s funding model with its core values of decentralization and community governance. Building on the success of the 2020 Dev Fund established through ZIP 1014 and the consensus reached in August of last year, the community sought to evolve the model further. The focus was on empowering both the community and ZEC coinholders to have a direct say in how funds are allocated.

The process was highly collaborative, involving multiple groups within the Zcash ecosystem to ensure a broad range of voices was heard. Independent surveys were distributed to members of ECC’s Zcash Ad Hoc Caucus (ZAC) and ZF’s Zcash Community Advisory Panel (ZCAP). The ZecHub DAO independently decided to poll its membership as well. 

The community also leveraged a first-of-its-kind coinholder voting mechanism. This allowed ZEC holders to directly vote on their preferred funding proposals.

The process and options considered were discussed publicly on the Zcash Community Forum, providing full transparency of the ongoing dialogue.

The Polling Results: A Clear Mandate

The results of the polls were remarkably consistent. Across all four polls, one model emerged as the clear favorite: the Community and Coinholder Funding Model (C&C). This model proposes a balanced approach where both the community and ZEC coinholders have a say in funding allocation.

The strong support for prioritizing the Dev Fund extension across all four polls demonstrates the community’s recognition of the importance of sustainable funding for Zcash’s continued development, even if it means delaying NU7 (the next network upgrade).

What the Results Mean for Zcash

Taken together, the polling results affirm the community’s desire to extend the Dev Fund using a model that shares governance between coinholders and community members. The Community and Coinholder Funding Model (C&C) will serve as the basis for the next phase of Zcash’s development. 

The strong support for prioritizing the Dev Fund extension also signals the community’s willingness to adapt timelines to ensure the new model is implemented thoughtfully. While NU7 may be postponed, the community is committed to enacting these changes on or before the current Dev Fund expires in November 2025.

Next Steps: Building a Decentralized Future

With the community’s mandate in hand, the Zcash ecosystem is now focused on the next steps to bring this vision to life. Key priorities include:

• Developing the Coinholder Grant Polling Mechanism: Building on the success of the voting system used in this process, the community will formalize a mechanism for coinholders to participate in grant allocation decisions. This will ensure that ZEC holders have a direct voice in how funds are distributed.
• Planning for a Network Upgrade: Implementing the new funding model will require changes to the Zcash protocol, necessitating a network upgrade. The community will develop a timeline to ensure this upgrade is completed on or before the November 2025 expiration of the current Dev Fund.
• Continued Engagement: The Zcash Community Forum will remain a hub for ongoing discussions, ensuring transparency and inclusivity as the new model takes shape. Community members are encouraged to stay involved and share their perspectives.

A Milestone for Zcash

By coming together, the Zcash community has demonstrated its ability to navigate complex decisions while staying true to its values of decentralization and privacy. 

As we look ahead, the Zcash ecosystem is poised to become more decentralized, inclusive, and resilient than ever. The new funding model will support the continued development of Zcash, helping it remain a best-in-class tool for protecting individual privacy, security, and human dignity in an increasingly chaotic digital world.

The work ahead is critical, but Zcash’s future is grounded in the unity and resolve of its community. Stay tuned for updates as we finalize the details of the new funding model and prepare for the next chapter in Zcash’s evolution. Together, we’re building the future of unstoppable private money.

Onward.

Here are your weekly Zcash updates:

• Zcash is now supported by a US publicly traded company. That’s pretty amazing.
• “Privacy will become a more popular investment theme.” Barry Silbert namedrops Zcash in his first interview in eight months.
• Former CIA director Michael Morell published a paper on Bitcoin’s use in illicit finance. The paper was commissioned by Crypto Council for Innovation (whose members include Coinbase, Fidelity Digital Assets, and Square). While this may seem good for Bitcoin, the paper makes some concerning conclusions about mass surveillance and crime. Check out Josh’s thread for more context.
• New Release 4.4.0 allows zcashd to be configured to optionally expose an HTTP server that acts as a Prometheus scrape endpoint.
• This week, ECC announced Halo Arc and Unified Addresses. Both of these announcements signal a new era for Zcash – one that is shielded by default, without the trusted setup and without the challenges of multiple address formats.

Mark your calendars –

In the news (besides Coinbase), Oklahoma is launching a state-wide ALPR (automatic license plate readers) program using mass surveillance as a way to collect more revenue.“Policing is not about crime control or public safety but about the regulation of people’s lives — their movements and modes of being in the world.” AI researchers boycott Google after the firing of Timnit Gebru.

The Winklevoss twins will be on the May cover of Forbes .Nigierian artists dabble with NFTs. MEV (miner extratable value) is a growing concern (and fascinating topic!) for Ethereum. Don’t miss the March Roundup from ZKMesh.

That’s all for this week folks!

Here are your weekly Zcash updates:

Mark your calendars –

• May 25 – Zeal Call with special guest Julia Angwin. Subscribe to ECC’s Youtube 1 channel for the latest updates and new content.

Community shoutouts: Shoutout to narodnik for your merged PR. Shout out to Finstreet, ZOMG grant recipient producing a weekly Zcash update in Hindi. And finally, shout out to Harry Halpin for presenting on the usability of privacy and cryptocurrency (featuring ZecWallet and Tor) at the Usable Security 2021 Workshop.

Dev Infra

• Testers complete and in production for: Debian 11, Debian 10, Debian 9, Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04 cross for Windows, Arm, and Darwin, CentOS8, and Arch.
• Updated CI Builder deployments to simplify and cleanup, PR

Core

• Progress on the Orchard circuit, major refactor of the Core / Chip / Layouter Abstractions
• Working with Mary Maller on security review documentation
• Test vectors coming along nicely for NU5: PRs #18, #21
• Property testing framework for Sapling and Orchard components included as part of an update for ZIP 225 support
• Progress on incremental merkle tree design, more efficient, less space intensive, makes updating witnesses significantly faster

Wallet

• Added getAddressUTXO call to darksidewalletd
• SDK, ECC Wallet, and ECC Testnet Wallet Releases
• iOS Testnet Wallet created
• Balance details screen and t-address display promoted to main feature
• Wallet rescan fix deployed on both platforms to ECC Wallet
• Community Wallet collaboration is accelerating and productive.

Hey everyone! Welcome to another community forum update. If you have any questions feel free to drop a comment here, or tag me in the Zcash Community Discord @januszgrze#6095.

ECC updates

• We welcomed Carter Jernigan full-time as a Principal Android Developer!
• ECC will kick off a monthly Twitter Spaces next Tuesday, April 5th, at 4:30pm EDT. The latter half of the call will be a community AMA. Bring your questions!
• NU5 activation and Halo Arc release delayed for remediation of consensus bug in testnet. Blog post here.
• The Cypherpunk Zero NFTs were airdropped to everyone who purchased the Mighty Jaxx collectible toy. More drops coming soon. Stay tuned.
• Paul Brigner will be attending TPI’s “What Does the EO Mean for Crypto Policy?

DevSecOps

• Repaired Gitian build issues
• Addressed issue with Cloudflare and Github access, which should improve build reliability
• Improved security of webhook intercepts from external locations
• Implementing Tekton lab curriculum
• Continuing transition to Freshdesk for incident/issue management
• Began preparations for demonstration of new CI/CD paths

Core

• Released zcashd v4.7.0-rc1!
  • This has been a huge lift involving many changes to the zcashd wallet and RPCs needed to support Orchard and Unified Addresses / Viewing Keys.
  • Kudos to DevSecOps for (extra) exhaustive testing of the RC and helping identify and fix a few key issues!
  • Kudos to Core for the incredible amount of work going into the release and NU5 in general!
• We’re planning to release v4.7.0 by tomorrow which will fix our currently fractured testnet
• Produced a new version of the protocol spec that fixes a type error for Orchard incoming viewing keys, and clarifies consensus rules around coinbase transactions. (zips#594)
• Added / updated several tests and performed documentation cleanup for Orchard and Unified Address concepts and terminology (zcash#5752, zcash#4745, zcash#5719)

Wallet

• Android:
  • Wallet:
    • Wallet Initialization work
    • ZEC payment requests support (inprogress)
    • Send-Flow input validation (in progress)
  • SDK:
    • MavenCentral Deployment automation
    • Dependency updates and CI Enhancements
  • Onboarding Honza (Jan) from TangibleCodes
• iOS:
  • Wallet:
    • User Preferences Storage component
    • Keychain secure storage component
    • (internal) Build 0.0.1-17
    • Integrate real Seed from MnemonicSwift
    • Update Badge Icons
    • Send Flow / Request ZEC UI components (in progress)
  • SDK:
    • Zcash-light-client-ffi: build librustzcash master branch + integration (in progress)
    • Zcash-light-client-ffi: build librustzcash master branch + integration (in progress)
    • MnemonicSwift: v2.2.3 released
    • ZcashLightClientKit: Released 0.13.0-beta.2.
    • Rustless build
    • Swift Package Manager Support
    • 3 curated Test suites: Offline – Network – Darksidewalletd

In Zcash news, Zcashmedia had their funding approved to create an educational hub for all things Zcash. The Zcash Foundation dropped an awesome website, and ECC & Zcash were featured in an upcoming Flexa Payments commercial. Be on the lookout for the Wizard hat 

Due to the addition of a monthly Twitter Spaces, we will be making forum posts once a month.

As mentioned, if there’s any questions, let me know.

-Ian

This post originally published on the community forum

This has been long overdue but I’m excited to present the new ZcashCommunity.com website!

The goal with this redesign was to put more focus on community built content (on the front page!) while providing content that Zcash users can point to when discussing Zcash with their friends and family. The base redesign may be complete but a website like this is never truly “done”, it will continue to evolve over time with new content and pages. I would love more suggestions for content (videos, articles, etc..) to put on the education page!

Additionally, I would like to put out an open call to anyone in the Zcash community that would like to contribute to blogging. This site is yours to express yourself in long-form format, amplifying your perspectives about Zcash, Privacy, Web3, ZSAs, Halo, or whatever other things Zcashers are talking about at the moment. Perhaps you have a new project that you would like to write about to gain support? or you have an idea about how to help Zcash grow? If you are interested in writing here please drop me an email minezcash@gmail.com or ping me on Twitter, Discord, or the forums.

Meanwhile please look around and let me know if you see any broken links/typos etc… I hope you like it and find it useful.

Sincerely – Shawn