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_posts/2018-05-18-zcash-company-statement-on-asics.md

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+---
+ID: 3126
+post_title: Zcash Company Statement on ASICs
+author: Zooko Wilcox
+post_excerpt: ""
+layout: post
+permalink: >
+  https://blog.z.cash/zcash-company-statement-on-asics/
+published: true
+post_date: 2018-05-18 21:04:40
+---
+<span style="font-weight: 400;">We hear the distress and confusion from members of the community, especially those who have been mining Zcash with GPUs, about </span><a href="https://www.coindesk.com/bitmains-latest-crypto-asic-can-mine-zcash/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">the introduction of ASIC mining equipment</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span>
+
+<span style="font-weight: 400;">Recently the </span><a href="https://z.cash.foundation/blog/statement-on-asics/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Zcash Foundation announced</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> a plan to prioritize ASIC-resistance research. The </span><a href="https://z.cash.foundation/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Zcash Foundation</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> is an independently operated 501(c)3 whose </span><a href="https://github.com/ZcashFoundation/ZcashFoundation/blob/master/MISSION.md"><span style="font-weight: 400;">mission</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> is “dedicated to building Internet payment and privacy infrastructure for the public good, primarily serving the users of the Zcash protocol and blockchain.” We are happy to see the foundation take an active role in this issue and look forward to learning what they discover and the solutions they put forward.</span>
+
+<b>While the foundation conducts its research, the Zcash Company’s focus will remain on: </b>
+<ol>
+ 	<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">the safe and successful release of Overwinter (June, 2018) and Sapling (September 2018), and </span></li>
+ 	<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">equipping our growing ecosystem (including wallets and </span><a href="https://blog.z.cash/gemini-announces-support-for-zcash/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">exchanges like Gemini</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">) to integrate Sapling successfully. </span></li>
+</ol>
+<span style="font-weight: 400;">These two goals are paramount for ensuring that everyone has access to Zcash’s privacy features and can transact safely and securely with Zcash. Sapling will finally give a wide range of wallets, merchants and exchanges the ability to support shielded transactions. Usability will improve. Privacy will improve. And more people will have access. This is critical to our mission and time is of the essence. </span>
+
+<span style="font-weight: 400;">While the company is not taking a technical position at this time, should the foundation (or anyone else) propose an upgrade that has gone through the </span><a href="https://github.com/zcash/zips/tree/master/drafts/daira-zip-process"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Zcash Improvement Proposal (ZIP) process</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> and comes with the rationale, engineering and planning required for a safe network upgrade, we will consider merging it in and committing to its ongoing support.</span>
+
+<b>Our ultimate objective is broad inclusion. </b><span style="font-weight: 400;">We want to support hobbyists and professionals. We want to support the people who are invested and committed to the long-term success of the Zcash as well as people who simply transact. We want to support Zcashers in Venezuela, China, India, USA, France, Russia, Singapore, and other places around the world who each have their own unique constraints and needs. We want to support people who need a predictable and stable platform so they can make long-term plans on the assumption that Zcash’s rules and trajectory won’t change. And we want to support people who need an adaptive, innovative and evolving platform that addresses emergent challenges.</span>
+
+<span style="font-weight: 400;">If we are to keep Zcash open, accessible, and valuable to all kinds of people and groups, all around the world, a response must be thoughtful and well-reasoned, and this will take time. As we focus on releasing and supporting the adoption of Sapling, we will watch and engage to help get to a resolution that will benefit the long-term health of Zcash, the community, and ultimately empower everyone with economic freedom and opportunity.</span>