Software Engineering Daily

Zcash is a payment and consensus system that allows users to transfer money to each other with strong guarantees of privacy. Zcash implements the same core features of Bitcoin, with the added functionality of shielded payments.

Shielded payments are private, and they are enabled by a novel cryptographic technique called zk-SNARKS: zero knowledge succinct non-interactive argument of knowledge. A zk-SNARK allows for the proof that a certain piece of information is valid without revealing any information other than the validity of that information itself.

Before you listen to this episode, it might be useful to go back to our previous episode about Zcash with Nathan Wilcox, in which he gives an overview of the technology. This episode is a deeper dive into how Zcash transactions work, and why zk-SNARKS are important.

We would love for you to fill out our listener survey at softwareengineeringdaily.com/survey. This will help us decide what other content to focus on.

Of course–you can also send me an email at any time, jeff@softwaredaily.com. And in the meantime, if you are completely sick of cryptocurrencies, check out our back catalog of episodes at softwaredaily.com, or by downloading our apps, which have all of our episodes including our Greatest Hits, which is a curated set of the most popular shows. The apps will soon have offline downloads and bookmarking.

Transcript provided by We Edit Podcasts. Software Engineering Daily listeners can go to weeditpodcasts.com/sed to get 20% off the first two months of audio editing and transcription services. Thanks to We Edit Podcasts for partnering with SE Daily. Please click here to view this show’s transcript.

The TEALs program is looking for engineers from across the country to volunteer to teach computer science in high schools. Work with a computer science teacher in the classroom to bring development concepts to life through teamwork and determination. If you’d like to learn more about the Microsoft’s TEALs program or submit your volunteer application, go to tealsk12.org/sedaily.

Come to QCon.ai in San Francisco, from April 9th – 11th 2018–and see talks from companies like Instacart, Uber, Coinbase, and Stripe. QCon is one of my favorite conferences, and if you haven’t been to a QCon before, make QCon.ai your first. Register for QCon.ai and use promo code SEDAILY for $100 off your ticket.

MapR provides storage, analytics, and machine learning engines. Use the MapR operational database and event streams to capture your data. To learn more about how MapR can solve problems for your enterprise, go to softwareengineeringdaily.com/mapr to find whitepapers, videos, and ebooks. MapR can leverage the high volumes of data produced within your company. Go to softwareengineeringdaily.com/mapr and find out how MapR can help your business take full advantage of its data. 

GoCD is a continuous delivery tool created by ThoughtWorks. GoCD agents use Kubernetes to scale as needed. Check out gocd.org/sedaily and learn about how you can get started. GoCD was built with the learnings of the ThoughtWorks engineering team, who have talked about building the product in previous episodes of Software Engineering Daily. It’s great to see the continued progress on GoCD with the new Kubernetes integrations–and you can check it out for yourself at gocd.org/sedaily.