As we speak’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 below are the main points.
Foreign money conversion
Foreign money conversion is a normal characteristic 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 alternate or a number of exchanges for the worth of a coin will reveal the consumer’s IP handle, and their curiosity in Zcash, to these exchanges. This info 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 count on extra — and we do, too. So our engineers applied a mechanism in Zashi to fetch forex alternate 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 relating to defending Zashi customers. To our information, Zashi is the one pockets that may defend 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 at all times 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 $ charge button. Zashi by no means shows an alternate charge older than quarter-hour.
Clear historical past
Zashi now helps recovering absolutely clear pockets historical past. Which means should you imported your seed phrase from a pockets that allowed you to create absolutely clear transactions prior 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 elements of the world have entry to totally different exchanges, and lots of exchanges have distinctive guidelines and necessities. TEX addresses resolve accessibility and usefulness points for lots of of thousands and thousands of potential Zcashers.
TEX addresses are solely for exchanges (Zashi customers gained’t have a TEX handle of their very own), they usually make it attainable for Zashi and different wallets to ship shielded funds to an alternate 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 alternate, began requiring that each one deposit transactions be absolutely clear, i.e., the supply handle is required to be seen to the alternate. This offers Binance the knowledge it must return funds to the depositor if the alternate decides it doesn’t wish to settle for the deposit.
A second motivator for this new characteristic is that there are various exchanges that deal with Zcash as Bitcoin with solely slight changes to the code. However which means transactions with shielded elements are sometimes not supported (they aren’t parsed accurately) by these exchanges. In lots of instances, these exchanges can’t even detect transactions despatched from the shielded pool.
So when a consumer sends shielded ZEC, some exchanges can not see the funds that have been despatched — both as a result of the alternate isn’t set as much as acknowledge the transaction or as a result of, in Binance’s case, it chooses to not. In these instances, these funds can look like misplaced. (The alternate handle controls the funds however can’t see them.)
TEX addresses resolve 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 alternate, the transaction has all the knowledge it must be recognizable, however the sender’s info resembling shielded handle, historical past, and transaction info stays personal.
With TEXes, Binance is blissful as a result of the transaction wherein they obtain the funds has a clear supply handle, and the Zashi customers are blissful as a result of they’re not revealing their supply of funds. Equally, within the case of the transactions which might be 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 alternate. 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 subsequently not seen to the alternate or anybody else.
Be aware: If Binance or any TEX handle holder chooses to say no a deposit, there isn’t an computerized strategy to re-shield the returned funds, despite the fact that they’re nonetheless managed by the Zashi pockets. ECC is engaged on an answer.
What’s subsequent for Zashi
Instant ECC priorities are launching the Coinbase Onramp and Flexa integration for fast Zcash funds. These two releases, like at present’s launch, handle real-world use instances and are prioritized in our roadmap as a result of Zashi customers have informed us they need them. Every little thing we ship in Zashi is with one goal in thoughts: to make it the only and finest means to make use of Zcash.
