crypto enthusiasts, macro hobbyist, forward party/libertarian, midcurve takes extraordinaire
Ironwood Pool
Joined February 2018
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It's not enough that zcash succeed. All current and future ZEC holders must win forever.
Zcashers have had a lot of discussion lately regarding governance. My intention with this post is not to influence anyone about their opinions on governance. I donāt think Iāll be effective in doing so anyways. My intention here is to improve the quality of discussion on future matters.
In order to do so Iāll first give you my opinion. My instinct as a relatively new (little more than a year) zcasher with no real insight into zcg is to gut it completely.
What gives me pause is that āI donāt know what I donāt knowā. I havenāt tried to engage with ZCG, and people who I respect and admire are proponents of it, so I am hesitant to follow my gut.
In the end the compromise that has come about is my ideal solution. If we need to go further or made a mistake, we should iterate, but Iām glad there is motion in general.
Now, the reason for this post is that while we came to my ideal conclusion, I was not happy with the process. A major flashpoint was targeting zcashers who were attempting to onboard users irl because they were sex workers.
If that gets you so upset Iām not sure why you are in the freedom money game. You could argue that the money shouldnāt be spent without coin holder approval, which is fine, but you didnāt do that. You targeted this one effort, when it should have been no different than any other expenditure. I then saw people on both sides of the issue treat each other like shit.
I canāt imagine all that negativity felt good. It didnāt feel good to watch it as an observer. You can have strong opinions about things without treating people poorly.
I sometimes agree on certain topics with people who treat others poorly, and sometimes disagree with people who treat others well. Iād rather spend my time and energy with the people I disagree with that are capable of treating others well.
Iām not asking any of you to be perfect moving forward. Iām certainly not. Iām just asking we all please take this as a learning experience to reinforce what not to do when we talk to each other.
If you did say something you regret. Maybe take the time to reach out and apologize. Not for your beliefs, or opinions, but how you treated someone in our community. We are stuck together, and we have a long way to go onboarding more people.
Onward. Together.
Just saw a random account talking about some of the dramatic exchanges from the recent Zcash governance discussion. Seems to be just an observer purely interested in the spectacle of it.
Do you want to know where else and what other communities are having such passionate discussions? Are worthy of simply looking at for pure entertainment?
Nowhere. Nobody really gives a shit besides avoiding the latest exploit, and scalping a few extra bucks turbo-gambling.
The passion is in Zcash now. I'm personally really excited.
Decentralization doesn't mean an absence of leadership. Zcash needed leadership this past week.
I'm really glad to have @aquietinvestor, @ebfull, and @zooko step up to be the leaders we needed in this moment.
The new ZCG compromise proposal is looking like everyone will be at least a little bit happy.
Onwards
I joined crypto a few months after Zcash was born. I've never seen a community of such stacked talent, intelligence, and general positive human values.
Thankful to everyone I follow that I'm able to learn so much from daily.
21m coins that no one can see, seize, or censor. Let's win for all humanity.
Best zcash post Iāve read in a very long time
nine years in crypto, zcash was always there
my journey in crypto had an unusual start: during my grad studies, i joined a chainalysis when they were a 20-people startup in copenhagen
my job: apply ML (aka AI before it was cool) to break the privacy in cryptocurrencies and blockchains like bitcoin, ethereum, etc.
i also read and analyzed dash, monero, etc. and
that's when i first learned about zcash ā and it completely blew my mind
the weakest point of all crypto and blockchains is how much data is leaked and published on-chain, combined with how much OSINT and privately gathered data (kyc) can be correlated with on-chain data
the fact that zcash essentially removed the need to publish any data basically meant that there was no data to analyze ā in other words zcash was at the frontier of crypto
it heavily inspired me to ditch AI and pursue decentralized protocols instead
from ethereum, through cosmos, many other L1s in-between, and anoma for the last 6 years, I wasn't formally involved with zcash ā yet somehow zcash was always there
because everything I've worked on shared Zcash' values of decentralization, privacy, and self-sovereignty
my mind was shaped by zcash (think like an attacker, analyze data flows from end-to-end, etc) and a whole lot of my work has been inspired by cash too, from custom protocols like Namada and the Anoma DOS to end user products like Namadillo, AnomaPay, and recently Zillions
and now that i think about it, i probably would've left crypto a few months ago if zcash wasn't around anymore
i've grown increasingly disillusioned with the industry: the hypergamblification brought by memecoins and the dominance of centralized protocols and products (combined with this brutal bear market)
like many, i've considered leaving this industry
because I didn't join to make casinos faster and more addictive ā i joined because of the initial ethos of this space, to build an alternative to the financial system, one that gives people real sovereignty over their money, data, and lives
in an industry where even ethereum is losing its roots, zcash remains true to its values and even today the community is full of ethos-driven and strongly aligned people (come to a zcash conference and you'll see, they feel like 2017)
zcash has been like a north star to me,
a reminder that the original vision of crypto isn't dead,
there are still people willing to build for principles rather than speculation
so yeah, it's been 9 years since I've joined crypto, and without zcash, i probably wouldn't be here anymore
happy 10th birthday zcash!
honored to be part of this community, and more excited than ever to contribute to what comes next
Some vigorous debating happening in Zcash lately. Not gonna even express an opinion.
Just remember most of the people you are arguing with probably agree with you on 90% of your other zcash opinions.
This is so true. I would even add that the value of ZEC is derived from it's people.
Bitcoiners have incorrectly been valuing bitcoin as a gold equivalent store of value when it is 100% not.
Money is a social construct. Therefore blockchains are just social constructs. They are valued on the two points below:
1. The tech that facilitates what the people want
2. The people both protecting what makes it valuable from new threats, as well as protecting it from changes to the shared cultural values.
It's really the same as any social human institution.
Bad times create strong men
(Zcash is in this area)
Strong men create good times
Good times create weak men
(Bitcoin is in this area)
Weak men create bad times
History is the same thing repeating in different ways. Anyone that understands the basic pattern can position themselves to win massively.
Zpartanš” retweeted
Worried about quantum computers? Worried about Al breaking cryptography? Join hashsma.sh and help strengthen cryptography before Al breaks cryptography!
Due to the warnings Iāve heard on this app over the last 24 hours, I have made the tough decision to reduce my exposure to the crypto industry.
I have decided to swap my transparent stable coins to shielded zec
Thank you for your support during this difficult time.
Intelligence value as a human attribute is cratering.
Finding humans that care about themselves, others around them, and their work is the truly scarce attribute.
Zcash builders are legendary.
They have been shipping constantly. In spite of:
The legal environment for privacy devs being the toughest to navigate in this space.
The price swings in both directions over the past year. It's difficult for even a basic market participant to focus on much else.
Truly cut from a different cloth. Appreciate you all across the entire space.
New Zcash ad just dropped. Chill in the shielded pool and tell no one.
Also so lucky to live in šŗšø where I have the tools to defend myself. People that would harm a pregnant woman and steal money from innocent people deserve to eat lead. This poor guy and his wife didn't deserve to be put in that position.
A British man and his pregnant wife were brutally attacked by 3 masked men who were being directed remotely by someone who knew about their cryptocurrency.
bbc.com/news/articles/c6eq84ā¦
When I was critical of NEAR yesterday, I think my frustration was a bit too blunt, based on some of the feedback the post got (both in agreement and disagreement).
There has been a lot of controversy lately, and I fear my criticism got mixed in with othersā. So let me actually state my current understanding and position.
First, the NEAR devs are amazing. Any issues that have occurred, they have been lightning quick to resolve, and always in a way that protects users. When things go wrong, you want devs who can restore things to the way they should be as quickly as possible, with no downside to users. NEARās devs have a proven track record of doing that. My criticism is not there.
I donāt have criticism when a service (NEAR Intents) refuses to process obvious stolen funds, as long as they havenāt been coerced by external parties and the funds are never seized. I think that fits my cypherpunk mental model. Requiring people to do the wrong thing, in this case: launder stolen money into otherwise neutral money is extremely oppressive to me. If the NEAR Intents validators, or whoever is involved, donāt want to do it, they shouldnāt be forced to provide that service. With the entire crux of this argument resting on this: As long as they DONāT SEIZE FUNDS.
What I do find concerning is this: NEAR has seized ownership of someoneās coins, and they are being withheld from that user while some form of process or check is occurring. This is extremely upsetting to me, and yet everyone is talking about all the other stuff. This user could be me, it could be you, it could be anyone. The selection appears arbitrary. NEAR has provided no answer on why the funds are frozen, and it is unclear when or how they will be returned to the user.
So the next time NEAR has an outage and my funds are frozen for technical reasons, I am going to immediately worry that I was arbitrarily targeted. That is my concern. When this is resolved, and NEAR explains what went wrong and ensures it canāt happen again, then I will trust NEAR Intents again.
Justice for Tim.
forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/mā¦
Another way to describe the purpose of crypto is to make ownership more pure. Zcash might be the purest form of ownership because with self custody nobody can take it from you, but with privacy itās even better because nobody even knows what to take in the first place.
Tokenized stocks make ownership of companies more murky. It increases the layers of separation between what you hold and what you actually want to own. In a way itās antithetical to crypto.
I think this is why metadao finally clicked for me. If companies or organizations offer ownership directly on chain, then thatās an entirely different product, and an actual improvement on the status quo.
I could be misunderstanding metadao. Iām kind of dumb. Iām learning more, but if thatās whatās happening then Iām really excited.
At the moment I have 5 figs of usdc frozen/gone from the Payy hack.
I also have 5 figs of ZEC frozen on a near intents swap. Maybe intents has been down for 2 hours? Nobody on this app is talking about it š¤·
Anyways, let me tell you why tokenizing stocks is the future. It just wasn't risky enough to buy on robinhood, I wanted to add self custody risk, increased counterparty risk, as well as 10 other forms of additional risk that can get me giga-wrecked. Amazing š
I continue to scale out of crypto. Even interacting with near intents feels like a gamble each time now, and that's the best thing outside of zec. Zcash is the only thing I care about here, because it's the only thing that needs these rails. I hope I can just spend it directly p2p everywhere someday. Truly the dream. Everything else is just regulatory arbitrage with a ticking time bomb to lose everything.
**near will probably fix their shit soon. Payy may even reimburse users. The average person probably doesn't want to do any of this however for unclear benefits.
Zpartanš” retweeted
Introducing Epoch, Shielded Labsā new research and engineering project focused on hardening Zcash from future threats:
AI-powered hackers
Quantum Computing risk
Adversarial governments
We plan to achieve this through formal verification of critical code and by deploying āpost-everythingā cryptography.
Epoch will ensure Zcash remains designed for the threats we face today and for whatever comes next. ā¤µļø
Update: my whiny bitching worked. The ZEC has landed in my wallet.
I am going to continue being concerned and critical until this is addressed: forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/mā¦
Hoping near comes through on that too
At the moment I have 5 figs of usdc frozen/gone from the Payy hack.
I also have 5 figs of ZEC frozen on a near intents swap. Maybe intents has been down for 2 hours? Nobody on this app is talking about it š¤·
Anyways, let me tell you why tokenizing stocks is the future. It just wasn't risky enough to buy on robinhood, I wanted to add self custody risk, increased counterparty risk, as well as 10 other forms of additional risk that can get me giga-wrecked. Amazing š
I continue to scale out of crypto. Even interacting with near intents feels like a gamble each time now, and that's the best thing outside of zec. Zcash is the only thing I care about here, because it's the only thing that needs these rails. I hope I can just spend it directly p2p everywhere someday. Truly the dream. Everything else is just regulatory arbitrage with a ticking time bomb to lose everything.
**near will probably fix their shit soon. Payy may even reimburse users. The average person probably doesn't want to do any of this however for unclear benefits.