The Zcash Foundation’s third annual conference, zconlite for users who are interested in privacy and crypto talks is ongoing. For those wondering why does it matter? How is Zcash trying to build a world where you can live free?  What stands in our (your) way, and more.

Opening statements were from Jack Gavigan, Exec Dir at Zcash Foundation. Big themes like ZOMG grants, UDA/ZSAs and shielded programmability are covered.

Elena Sofia expressed: All the panelists agree – there is an urgency to develop this on Zcash.

Ian Miers:  Zcash doesn’t exist in a vacuum.  We will have to compete with ZK-stablecoins and shielded assets not on Zcash. We don’t get to wait.

What are the most valid options for implementing UDAs/ZSAs from a technical perspective?  We already know how to do this, we already have the code and now thanks to Halo we don’t even have to do a trusted setup.

If we have shielded assets, we’ll create an incentive for ecosystem partners to take up shielded adoption.  If we have shielded only assets, we get customer demand.

Matt Luongo expressed:  “Fortune favors the bold.  You guys have the best team and community to do this. There’s no reason to let an economic question hold up development.

What are the biggest obstacles from a startup perspective? “I approach all these problems from a pragmatic startup POV. Is there product-market-fit? Do users actually want this?” “We need to find product-market-fit but we also need to make sure that people pay.”

Peter Van Valkenburgh:  This is open-source development, FOLKS! It’s rough & tumble. You got to be bold and you got to be fast.  Private UDAs will be built regardless. We want responsible people to build it like Zcash. We want peer to peer private electronic cash.

Why are UDAs so powerful? I like to see competition amongst monies, I am a Hayekian in that sense.  The synergy of something that is flexible like Ethereum and private like Zcash is really what I want.

Is the “top heavy” effect a valid concern? J.R. Willett – “depends on how you set up the economics.” “The underlying asset tends to benefit when the UDA increases in value…The bigger risk is network congestion…We saw this happen with OMNI, Ethereum, etc.”

Also, there are open positions on the ZF board. Members of the Community Advisory Panel can nominate candidates (and/or nominate themselves).

Those who are interested should follow zconlite. Also, Aastrong active and engaged community represents a force-multiplier for Zcash. If you have ideas for building on Zcash, there is funding available through ZOMG.