Zcash Open Development Lab

Builders of the Zcash protocol and flagship Zcash wallet, Zodl @zodl_app.
We envision a world without mass financial surveillance.

[Zcash Open Development Lab @zodl_co]

1M ZEC in Ironwood.

Be free, grandma.

[Zcash Open Development Lab @zodl_co]

Keeping my grandma locked in this cage until Ironwood hits 1M ZEC

[Zcash Open Development Lab @zodl_co]

Keeping my grandma locked in this cage until Ironwood hits 1M ZEC

[Zcash Open Development Lab @zodl_co]

Catch to the full conversation here spanning Josh's background in crypto, why Zcash, and the importance of private money: https://t.co/JPSni16T8o

[JAKE @0FJAKE]

YouTube: https://t.co/rQ6IauoVrF
Spotify: https://t.co/4z4g0tYUdf
Apple: https://t.co/IXJMHTeXge
X:

[Zcash Open Development Lab @zodl_co]

How Zcash went from Orchard to Ironwood in 60 days.

Josh Swihart (@jswihart), CEO of ZODL, explains how the ecosystem rapidly developed and deployed the new Ironwood shielded pool in conversation with @0FJAKE.

[Zcash Open Development Lab @zodl_co]

@Agzt_111 https://t.co/Aj3cf4i6VL

[Zodl Support @zodl_support]

@beyondlogic34 @zodl_co 🔜 We're aiming for next week with v3.9.0.

[Zcash Open Development Lab @zodl_co]

"When will the migration to Ironwood be complete?"

It's one of the questions we've received most since activation.

This article explains why migration is gradual, what the tracker measures, and where Ironwood's assurance actually comes from. https://t.co/OpR66FQY6h

[JAKE @0FJAKE]

NEW EPISODE: #246 - JOSH SWIHART (@jswihart)

Josh leads the team responsible for the development of Zcash ($ZEC). He is the founder of ZODL (Zcash Open Development Lab) which is also building @zodl_app, a privacy-focused self-custody wallet and the flagship wallet of Zcash.

In this conversation, we discuss the importance of privacy and the urgent need for private money. Josh tells the story of how he came to care about privacy in the first place, why Zcash is better than alternatives like Monero, and how the recent Ironwood upgrade closes the loop on the vulnerability discovered earlier this year.

I have personally held Zcash since 2019 and view it as one of the most important projects not only in crypto, but in the world. The alternative is increasingly scary - global surveillance in the age of AI.

I also view Zcash as one of the most asymmetric bets in the world. I think it is reasonable to estimate the near-term upside using the current market cap of BTC, which is over $1 trillion. The current market cap of ZEC is a little less than $8 billion.

Timestamps below. Links in first reply. Please enjoy.

00:00 Early Coding Roots
01:10 From Defense Tech to Data Mining
03:34 Creepy Crawler Wake Up Call
05:30 Crypto Meets Permanent Ledgers
06:36 Finding Zcash Purpose
08:48 How Surveillance Scales Today
18:01 Why Financial Privacy Matters
26:06 Choosing Zcash Over Rivals
31:08 Bitcoin Versus Zcash
43:02 Why Zcash Finally Took Off
50:46 Governance Drama and ZODL Spinout
56:41 Ironwood Security Sprint
01:05:41 Closing Thoughts and Thanks

[Zcash Open Development Lab @zodl_co]

Day 3 post-Ironwood activation:

• 500,000+ ZEC migrated, securing over $240M
• No network disruption
• Formally verified cryptography protects Ironwood funds
• Supply verification continues through Zcash's turnstile

Onward.

[Zcash Open Development Lab @zodl_co]

Follow migration in real time: https://t.co/jx0zkPtGVZ

[Zcash Open Development Lab @zodl_co]

Over $100M secured by Ironwood.

[Zcash Open Development Lab @zodl_co]

New Zallet beta build available. 🛡️

Download the latest version of Zallet, the Rust-based full-node wallet for Zcash, and help test our next release.

Feedback and bug reports are welcome on GitHub. https://t.co/DrRtW8FBtz

[Zcash Open Development Lab @zodl_co]

129,396 ZEC migrated to the Ironwood pool today, representing over $60M in value.

Zcash's newest shielded pool is formally verified, independently auditable, and now securing an increasing share of the network's shielded funds.

Follow the flows live: https://t.co/jx0zkPueLx

[Zcash Open Development Lab @zodl_co]

@KeystoneWallet

[Zcash Open Development Lab @zodl_co]

https://t.co/N3GWdyQipM

[Zcash Open Development Lab @zodl_co]

T-1 day until Ironwood is live on mainnet.

Formally verified. Independently audited.

Activating tomorrow, July 28th at block 3,428,143.

[Josh Swihart 🛡 @jswihart]

What is often lost in the noise is that there are people working relentlessly to push Zcash forward.

Private, trusted, hard money.

On the "inside," I get to see it every day. But you can verify it all.

The Orchard soundness vulnerability was disclosed to our engineers at 11:53 PM on Friday, May 29.

It was fixed in 5 days, requiring both a soft fork and a hard fork. That speed was only possible because the process was already there. Disclosure procedures and coordination channels were already in place. We were prepared.

Then we built the new pool, independently audited, with 60 pull requests of machine-checked proofs. We retired zcashd after a decade and rebuilt the stack:

Zallet, the new wallet, went from alpha to beta. 146 PRs
Zebra was hardened. 296 PRs
Zakura was brought to life. 442 PRs
librustzcash and the mobile SDKs updated. 460 PRs
Indexers were rebuilt.
Zodl rebuilt on top. 238 PRs across iOS and Android

And not just code. Comms. Coordination. Miner and exchange outreach.

To date:

51 people wrote code
1,391 pull requests merged
60 days
No weekends

Wartime mode.

14 of those 51 are ZODL engineers. They authored half the merged changes and 82% of the changes in the protocol and wallet repos.

Every consensus node has moved to zebrad or Zakura. The wallets have not. Some run on a bridge Valar built to buy time. There is still work to be done.

Orchard was fixed in 5 days and replaced in 60.

Ironwood activates in less than 36 hours. Track the migration: https://t.co/jLqaAbMmvl

Many people are working not for personal glory or price charts, but because this work is so important.

Freedom isn't free; it must be built.

[Zcash Open Development Lab @zodl_co]

T-2 days until Ironwood is live on mainnet.

Privacy shouldn't require sacrificing verifiability.

Ironwood ensures both.

[peacemonger 🛡 @peacemongerZ]

ZEC pools over the years

https://t.co/Opiqd3WmBr

[Zcash Open Development Lab @zodl_co]

Track Ironwood in real-time.

Your home for Ironwood activation is here, from live countdown to on-chain migration.

https://t.co/jx0zkPtGVZ

[Zcash Open Development Lab @zodl_co]

T-3 days until Ironwood is live on mainnet.

Supply verifiability is critical for a sound money system.

Ironwood provides on-chain verification, so any node operator can audit circulating supply from activation day forward.