ZF Engineering Update w/ FROST demo with Zcash Foundation Engineers & Manager - ZconVI
As Zcash continues to push the boundaries of privacy and scalability, core infrastructure improvements are critical to ensuring security, efficiency, and decentralization. The Zcash Foundation engineering team and engineering manager will provide an in-depth update on two key projects:
• Zebra: The alternative Zcash consensus node implementation, designed for security, performance, and decentralization. Learn about the latest improvements and what’s next for Zebra.
• FROST (Flexible Round-Optimized Schnorr Threshold Signatures): A breakthrough in threshold signing for Zcash, improving multi-signature privacy and efficiency. This session will include a live demo of FROST in action!
Join us for an update on how these engineering efforts strengthen Zcash, enhance privacy, and expand its capabilities for the future.
Slide Deck: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Y6qv...
New Docker Documentation for Zebra: https://zebra.zfnd.org/user/docker.html
DevOps demo for Zebra: DevOps demo: Using Zebra with Docker and CI/CD
ZIP 207: Funding Streams: https://zips.z.cash/zip-0207
ZIP 214: Consensus rules for a Zcash Development Fund: https://zips.z.cash/zip-0214
ZIP 236: Blocks should balance exactly: https://zips.z.cash/zip-0236
ZIP 1015: Block Reward Allocation for Non-Direct Development Funding: https://zips.z.cash/zip-1015
ZIP 2001: Lockbox Funding Streams: https://zips.z.cash/zip-2001
Technical Level: Intermediate
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
01:00 Introducing the panel
02:00 What we do
03:40 Zebra Highlights 2024/25
04:37 Mempool Improvements
06:30 Network and Security fixes
08:29 Regtest and Custom testnets
09:30 Docker
12:25 RPC Improvements
15:00 NU6
18:35 Zcashd Deprecation
20:54 A New Zcash Stack
22:34 Running the Zcash Infrastructure in Production
26:06 What's Next: Cleanup
27:48 What's Next: Performance Improvements
29:22 Questions about Zebra
32:48 FROST
38:03 FROST Highlights 2024/25
41:27 What's Next for FROST
43:05 FROST Demo
56:14 Questions about FROST
01:01:25 End
Speakers:
Pili Guerra is the Engineering Manager at the Zcash Foundation. She has 20 years of experience working in the tech industry as a software developer, solutions engineer, consultant and project manager. She has previously worked at the Tor Project as a Project Manager for the Tor Browser, Community and UX Teams. X: @mpguerra
Conrado Gouvêa is a cryptography engineer at the Zcash Foundation, where he participates in the Zebra (a Zcash node implementation) and FROST (a threshold signature scheme) projects. Previously he did research on efficient software implementation of cryptographic algorithms and worked in the industry developing software for cryptographic devices such as tokens and hardware security modules (HSMs).
Alfredo Garcia is a Rust systems engineer working in the Zebra team for the last 4 years.
Marek is an engineer at the Zcash Foundation.
Arya Solhi is a Zebra team member.
Natalie Eskinazi has worked as an engineer at the Zcash Foundation for 2 years and her primary focus is on FROST, a threshold signature scheme. Her previous open source work includes designing a messaging protocol and building decentralized democracy enhancing tools.
Gustavo Valverde is a DevOps Engineer, ERP Consultant, and FOSS contributor.
John Bruhling is the Community Support Coordinator at the Zcash Foundation. X: @autotunafish
@tripleyouwu
*This session was curated by the Zcash Foundation.
Livestream and video production support from Perrow Productions
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