Right this moment’s launch represents one other child step towards our purpose of creating Zashi an easy-to-use, all-in-one consumer interface for securely storing, spending, and sending ZEC.
We’re excited to ship forex conversion and TEX handle help in Zashi iOS 1.1.5. (We’re ending work on Zashi Android 1.1.6 with these updates and can launch it quickly.) These options are for Zcashers who need usability enhancements that don’t compromise their privateness and safety. Listed here are the main points.
Forex conversion
Forex conversion is a normal function in most crypto wallets, so if you end up asking, “What took so lengthy to implement it in Zashi?” we get it. And right here’s the reply: In different wallets, querying an trade or a number of exchanges for the value of a coin will reveal the consumer’s IP handle, and their curiosity in Zcash, to these exchanges. This data can then be tied to different promoting metadata, and it turns into one other knowledge level in your basic profile that’s getting used to surveil you on the web.
This privacy-for-convenience tradeoff is ok for lots of customers, however we all know Zcashers anticipate extra — and we do, too. So our engineers carried out a mechanism in Zashi to fetch forex trade charges from a number of verified sources over the Tor community in order to not leak the consumer’s IP handle to these exchanges. No shortcuts on the subject of defending Zashi customers. To our information, Zashi is the one pockets that may shield your IP handle throughout forex conversion, however we’re trying ahead to different Zcash pockets builders adopting this innovation. 🙂
Proper now, Zashi’s forex conversion solely works for ZEC-USD. Different currencies will likely be added sooner or later.
The way it works: Change charges are displayed on the Account, Ship, and Balances screens. Zashi all the time triggers a refresh when a consumer navigates to the Ship display screen or relaunches the app, and the consumer can manually refresh the speed on the Account and Balances screens as soon as each two minutes by tapping on the $ price button. Zashi by no means shows an trade price older than quarter-hour.
Clear historical past
Zashi now helps recovering totally clear pockets historical past. Which means that should you imported your seed phrase from a pockets that allowed you to create totally clear transactions up to now, these transactions will now seem in your Zashi pockets historical past.
TEX addresses
Does Zcash want one other handle format? Prefer it or not, the reply is sure. Customers in numerous components of the world have entry to totally different exchanges, and plenty of exchanges have distinctive guidelines and necessities. TEX addresses clear up accessibility and value points for a whole lot of tens of millions of potential Zcashers.
TEX addresses are completely for exchanges (Zashi customers gained’t have a TEX handle of their very own), they usually make it doable for Zashi and different wallets to ship shielded funds to an trade like Binance, which requires clear deposits.
First, some backstory. The hassle to construct TEXes began early in January when Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency trade, began requiring that each one deposit transactions be totally clear, i.e., the supply handle is required to be seen to the trade. This provides Binance the knowledge it must return funds to the depositor if the trade decides it doesn’t wish to settle for the deposit.
A second motivator for this new function is that there are various exchanges that deal with Zcash as Bitcoin with solely slight changes to the code. However which means that transactions with shielded elements are sometimes not supported (they aren’t parsed appropriately) by these exchanges. In lots of circumstances, these exchanges can’t even detect transactions despatched from the shielded pool.
So when a consumer sends shielded ZEC, some exchanges can’t see the funds that have been despatched — both as a result of the trade isn’t set as much as acknowledge the transaction or as a result of, in Binance’s case, it chooses to not. In these circumstances, these funds can seem like misplaced. (The trade handle controls the funds however can’t see them.)
TEX addresses clear up these points by introducing logic that basically creates an adapter, an ephemeral clear handle, that shielded ZEC passes by means of earlier than arriving on the TEX handle. So, to the trade, the transaction has all the knowledge it must be recognizable, however the sender’s data comparable to shielded handle, historical past, and transaction data stays personal.
With TEXes, Binance is completely satisfied as a result of the transaction through which they obtain the funds has a clear supply handle, and the Zashi customers are completely satisfied as a result of they’re not revealing their supply of funds. Equally, within the case of the transactions which are being mis-parsed, these exchanges will solely see a clear handle and so there gained’t be any issues.
The way it works: When sending to a TEX handle from Zashi, shielded funds cross by means of a clear handle earlier than arriving on the trade. A brand new, never-seen-before and never-to-be-seen-again clear handle is used for this intermediate step. Your Zashi pockets handle and different particulars stay “disconnected” and due to this fact not seen to the trade or anybody else.
Word: If Binance or any TEX handle holder chooses to say no a deposit, there isn’t an automated strategy to re-shield the returned funds, regardless that they’re nonetheless managed by the Zashi pockets. ECC is engaged on an answer.
What’s subsequent for Zashi
Quick ECC priorities are launching the Coinbase Onramp and Flexa integration for fast Zcash funds. These two releases, like right this moment’s launch, handle real-world use circumstances and are prioritized in our roadmap as a result of Zashi customers have advised us they need them. The whole lot we ship in Zashi is with one goal in thoughts: to make it the only and greatest means to make use of Zcash.
