Why I'm Bullish on ZCASH: A Midwit's Thesis The world is a topsy-turvy place, and the debasement trade resonates with me deeply as someone with a fundamental mistrust in the government and the fiat money system. Like any good zoomer, I've been diversifying-- into Pokemon cards and gold and silver bullion. Perhaps the most striking part of this rebalancing of my portfolio that I've undertaken over the last month or so (aside from how much fun I've had dealing with embodied, real world assets that I can hold in my hand) has been that these transactions have occurred via cash. I go to the bank, make a withdrawal, and leave. I can spend my money however I wish with no online record. It's almost shocking when this realization hit me that 99.9% of all financial transactions we undertake bear a permanent online trace. Whether to hide from good, bad, or indifferent eyes, privacy is normal and a human right. It's easy to be frog-in-the-boiling-water lulled into what can feel like the inexorable pull toward non-private, centralized control of not just the fiat money supply, but many advents and 'advances' in the crypto space, all in pursuit of the consuming 'god' of efficiency and performance. I feel like I've been primed in this way, both recently in the above and in my initial buy-in of the crypto thesis some four+ years ago, to become an outspoken ZCASH proponent and holder. Bitcoin and the entirety of crypto's cypherpunk ethos clicked for me not just in the frothy environment of discovering 2021 number-go-up technology, but in the wake of the Canadian truckers having their bank accounts closed and GoFundMe's seized, political commentators being debanked and banished from payment processors, and whistleblowers like Edward Snowden and Julian Assange being wrongfully forced into exile. ZCASH has clicked for me recently for a few reasons which I'll briefly expound on below. I'm cognizant of the fact that I'm buying into a trade thesis after a massive shill wave, and the folly of believing this time is different (there I recommend you ensure you are not borrowing conviction and don't construe this post as financial advice, but simply the ravings of a notorious midwit). But for a number of factors, I believe ZCASH is a rare opportunity I want exposure to 'set and forget' in my portfolio in what could be a category-defining technology and investment that provides, and is already providing, real net benefit to society-- the very net benefits that only crypto can provide, and in a more acute way than even Bitcoin, Ethereum, and others have been delivering on as of late. Here's my midwit's thesis on ZCASH: ZCASH's Value Prop is Easy to Understand It's encrypted Bitcoin. Transactions can only be viewed by senders and receivers-- miners solve ZK proofs and the ledger is inscrutable to the public. It functionally operates with the same fixed supply and regular emission schedule as Bitcoin, and is coming out of an eight-year consolidation after its second halving, which coincidentally saw Bitcoin have a meteoric rise as well once its supply inflation slowed. In case you haven't noticed, this makes it easy to bull post, i.e. 'who wouldn't want to hold encrypted Bitcoin?' 'You get a chance to buy encrypted Bitcoin at $200 and see if you could've held.' It's incredibly catchy stuff and the charge is led by high-character actors like @Cryptopathic who I have a tremendous amount of respect for and who have been in the trade for a long time for values over profit. With New Integrations, ZCASH Has Broader Private DeFi Implications Now, you can send ZCASH to your Shield (non-transparent/visible) address, swap on NEAR to Bitcoin or whatever coin you choose, with zero trace. Zashi, the native wallet, also just received a big UI/UX update and is compatible with @KeystoneWallet, my personal favorite open-source, airgapped hardware wallet provider. @0xMert_ has been banging the table for ZCASH to be brought to Solana, and I hope it will have a home on Monad in the future as well. This feels like the beginning of a Cambrian explosion of interest and integration for ZCASH as functional tech for storing, swapping, and transmitting value in a way that is uniquely private. Who wouldn't prefer their store of value and transactional digital asset holdings not be broadcast to the entire world? ZCASH Has Serious Normie Cult Potential This is the first coin in some time I've been excited enough about to text friends and family and encourage them to consider an investment to hold for the long-term, and that's because the thesis is something I truly believe in and would go to bat for outside of simply making a profit. ZCASH is worth believing in and it's all the more refreshing after a relentless onslaught of vaporware and value-neutral to straight up predatory meme trench warfare. ZCASH's thesis is exactly what my father-in-law, for instance, has desired out of Bitcoin-- truly private, uncensorable money. The price targets and bull posting, undergirded by real tech and fundamentals (plus it's a dino coin listed on major CEXs), makes it truly have breakout boomer potential to go sicko XRP mode, but this time for an actually good coin that CT can unite with them on. For reference, ZCASH at $1,000 would still be $15b lower in market cap than Cardano. ZCASH is Worth Believing In Decentralization, privacy, censorship-resistance-- these were, are, and still can and will be the clarion call of crypto. ZCASH embodies these principles. It's greatest opponent may very well be the governments of the world who would seek to assail personal rights to privacy in digital cash payment and self-custody, but this US administration if ever there was one would be the time to champion it to gain network effects to outstrip any future of governmental overreach (and go to war proverbially if it was attempted). If ever there was a coin for CT to unite over alongside Bitcoin, it would be ZCASH-- plus, it candidly feels good to throw in with @balajis and @naval, among others. This is one of the comfiest 'trades' I've entered into for some time. I plan to set aside the ZCASH position I've built and continue to stack on the side with a long time horizon. I'm excited to be excited about a different facet of crypto again. For further resources, I recommend going down the rabbit hole with @zooko's Twitter and podcast appearances being a good place to start on both the history and present-day recent improvements to the ZCASH network and user experience, along with following @_tm3k, the OG ZCASH ambassador. ZCASH is unstoppable private money.