WARNING: this is very long, but it concerns the binary disto of zcash that is running on the majority (or close to it) of its full nodes, all end users, actual people, not exchanges, etc, and its uncertain future.
Currently, anyone running zcash4win who upgrades to WinZEC at
WinZEC.com, which is running a version 1.1.0 zcashd.exe binary as its full node, is fine for when Overwinter activates in, what, a week or so,
@paige??
But, unlike with legacy Zcash4win which is not longer distributed but still run by MANY users, I did NOT turn off or monkey with the auto-deprecation feature in the zcashd.exe v1.1.0 in WinZEC (nor did I change the client ID to BeanStalk, it uses default MagicBean since it will commit suicide after however many weeks). So with no future releases, it will eventually die sometime before Sapling.
Legacy Zcash4win nodes, if they do NOTHING, will be on a chain fork when Overwinter hits.
Zcash4mac users are already stuck with manually running the EXCELLENT command line toolchain build for macOS (binary or source) from
@kozyilmaz, but there is no currently distributed standalone binary jar file of the ubiquitous Swing UI Wallet that is both 1) compatible with Overwinter vintage zcashd and 2) macOS
There are also a bunch of fixes, aside from enhancements and features, in the only Swing UI Wallet java GUI by
@vaklinov that he currently maintains, the ZenCash version, that REALLY need to be back ported for Zcash, regardless of platform (Mac, Win or Linux), and there is very likely to be an unknown amount of work making all the ui elements and internal validations/data structures handle Sapling addresses and similar changes.
All of this will be quite a lot of work, as would additionally bringing a (currently theoretical and only a domain registration at the moment) MacZEC into being.
And now time for some difficult Real Talk™, and that is that WinZEC and its predecessors Zcash4win and Zcash4mac have never really paid for themselves. The only time aside from a few random, sizable donations/sponsorships that paid for 1-2 months of living expOenses, I have unfortunately rediscovered what other bitcoin (and other) wallet developers have since clued me in to, and that is that funding GUI wallet development through dev fees just does not pay enough for ongoing maintenance and support. If nothing else, users just Will Not Stand for paying a wallet dev fee more than the coins default TX fee, just as a general rule, because of human nature and psychology.
The ONLY time period that Zcash4win or WinZEC dev fees and donations actually were enough to cover modest, tucson-level living expenses, was late fall/early winter 2018, when bitcoin and zcash and everything else was mooning and transaction volume was high.
Since then it doesn’t even cover my cigarette smoking habit, which is you will note an order of magnitude or so less than rent in any tech-friendly city with any talent at all to collaborate with or hire, certainly not Denver.
So, SOMEONE either steps in and produces an easily installable, updated, will live long enough to see and work with Sapling, Mac and Windows GUI wallet, or there is going to be a chain fork in one case (zcash4win users), and then client death in another (WinZEC).
My reality has been funded of late almost completely by bounties, contracts and donations in the Komodo and HUSH platform communities, and there currently no time pressure comparable to all this looming Overwinter/Sapling stuff going on in that corner of the Zcash Fork Universe.
I have a branch of zcash 1.1.1 for windows that I and
@str4d have been working on back and forth between our forks, and he has said it is likely to land in upstream zcash in 2.0.x, and any interim command line builds of those branches would stick WinZEC users merely in the same boat as Zcash4mac users are currently: needing to manually run zcashd and manually launch the Java GUI front end.
If some person(s) and/or entitie(s) doesn’t pop up and offer funding for all of the above, I’m going to have to EOL (End of Life) WinZEC and just not do MacZEC…it just is not financially tenable without a substantial investment from SOMEWHERE in my reality right now.
Otherwise I will be financially forced to flat out EOL (End of Life) all my Zcash wallets, say “use the source and see the zcash forums and ZcashCo”, and focus 100% on Komodo and HUSH Land.
I mean if enough funding shows up, GREAT, I’ll redirect and get Right On That, most of the Komodo ecosystem stuff I am working on has a far longer time horizon, lack of urgency and level of effort compared the above effort needed for me to keep pumping out Windows and Mac GUI full node Zcash Wallets.
There are hard costs involved, dev memberships that need renewing to sign builds, build VM’s and/or HW for testing, etc., let alone living expenses and bandwidth bills for downloads.
So, funding shows up, or I nope out and just point everyone here for all their Windows and Mac GUI private transactions.
All y’all (ZcashCo) are fully able to afford investments in sister companies these days (don’t get me wrong I think the Agorics thing IS AWESOME, M. Miller is how I met Zooko online! I’ve ported HIS stuff to Windows!), and I GET IT that your are all Real Busy with Zcon0, Overwinter and Sapling, but as the man said in the movie, “show me the money, Jerry”. Or build it yourself, whatever.
Peace,
Anon
