Zcon Sessions: Paul Puey on Shielded Wallet Adoption
Aug 16, 2023
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The conversation dives into the vibrant atmosphere of Zcon4, emphasizing networking among attendees. There's a focus on the evolving challenges of adopting Shielded Wallets and the importance of enhancing usability and privacy. The speakers compare Zcash to Monero, highlighting the need for improved mobile applications. They stress community engagement as crucial for Zcash's growth, advocating for input from all users to shape its future and tackle privacy concerns surrounding transparent addresses.
The discussion highlights the need for enhanced usability in Zcash by addressing complex address formats to improve user experience.
Emphasizing privacy, the conversation suggests eliminating transparent addresses to simplify transactions and strengthen adoption of shielded wallets.
Deep dives
Focus on Privacy and Usability in Crypto
The discussion emphasizes the dual focus on privacy and usability within the crypto landscape. The speaker explains that while their company initially built a Bitcoin wallet, it pivoted to a multi-asset application, prioritizing privacy features such as integrating Monero as a core asset. However, despite the advancements in privacy technology, there is an acknowledgment that the usability of protocols like Zcash remains a significant barrier. By improving usability, the aim is to enhance user adoption and enable people to transact seamlessly in privacy-centric cryptocurrencies.
Address Format Challenges in Zcash
The complexities in address formats, particularly in Zcash, are highlighted as a key issue impacting user experience. Users face confusion due to different address types, such as transparent and shielded addresses, which complicate transactions and may deter new users. The speaker points out that Monero's singular address format reduces friction and enhances usability, suggesting that Zcash needs to adopt similar simplifications. To truly boost adoption, eliminating the T addresses (transparent addresses) is proposed as a solution to streamline transactions and enhance privacy protections.
User Experience and Protocol Improvements
User experience issues, particularly concerning wallet syncing times, are presented as critical factors that Zcash needs to address. The lengthy synchronization times create frustration for users, often leading them to question the reliability and usability of the technology. The speaker argues that both user experience and privacy must be considered at a protocol level, with suggestions for immediate improvements to enhance the seamlessness of wallet operations. Engaging the community to voice concerns and advocate for these changes is seen as vital to encourage progress and facilitate wider adoption.
During the Zcash Annual Conference Zcon4, Ian Sagstetter (@iansagstette) sat down with Paul Puey (@paullinator) Co-Founder of Edge Wallet to discuss Shielded Wallet Adoption and the changes needed to increase peer-to-peer Zcash usage.