[ZcF-general] Zcash Foundation Update — August, 2018

[Sonya Mann]

Hello everyone! Happy Labor Day / International Workers' Day to all of you.
If you had a long weekend, I hope you enjoyed it.

August was a heads-down month for the Zcash Foundation, so this update will
be on the shorter side. Two items from previous months that are still in
progress, moving forward but not finished:

   - Technical hiring.
   - Website overhaul.
   - Finalizing the grants.

Speaking of those last two, we have a handy grants page now:
https://z.cash.foundation/grants/

While you're at it, sign up for our new proper newsletter:
https://buttondown.email/zcashfoundation

(I don't plan to replicate content between this list and that one. And
don't worry, we'll have our own URL for the newsletter archives before
long. I didn't want to wait to start gathering contact info, since email is
such a powerful marketing channel.)

Meanwhile, Antonie has been preparing the financial audit of 2017. She has
also undertaken early planning for Zcon1. We're not ready to announce
concrete details, but potential attendees will get much more advance notice
this year.

I've been primarily focused on meetups, collaborating with Paige from the
Zcash Company. I got to meet the New York and Sacramento volunteers in
person this month, which was illuminating.

The Foundation has an umbrella network on Meetup.com now:
https://meetup.com/pro/zcash-foundation

If you're in LA, go hang out and talk about Sapling on the 22nd:
https://www.meetup.com/lazcash/events/254133917/

And if you're near Boston, go to the Sapling activation party that Neal
Jayu is hosting in October!
https://www.meetup.com/Boston-Zcash-Users-Group/events/253859408/

Paige and I hope to get more Sapling activation parties rolling.

We've written an in-depth guide for organizers that is almost ready to
publish. It's just waiting on a couple of design elements.

Some miscellaneous items:

   - A discussion of Bitmain's transparency policy, and whether it's good
   enough, on the forum:
   https://forum.z.cash/t/bitmains-transparency-policy-over-zcash-asics-ended-after-just-one-month-and-nobody-even-noticed/30886
   - "Decentralized funding? An analysis of three programs" by Nadia
   Eghbal, which includes the Zcash Foundation:
   https://nadiaeghbal.com/grant-programs
   - BOLT! https://twitter.com/ja_akinyele/status/1029550602404200454
   - The Foundation helped sponsor the Zero Knowledge Summit, which is
   happening this week in Berlin: http://www.zeroknowledge.fm/summit

As usual, please let me know if you have any questions.

Sonya Mann
Communications Manager
Zcash Foundation
@sonyaellenmann <https://twitter.com/sonyaellenmann>