Most people encounter Zcash and privacy tech through dense documentation, technical blog posts, or protocol discussions. There is very little consistent, friendly visual storytelling around shielded transactions, memos, or the risks of fully transparent chains.

For a solo creator trying to grow the Zcash ecosystem, this means:

– every meme, sticker, or explainer starts from zero;
– there is no shared cast of characters or visual language that other community members can reuse;
– Zcash’s genuine privacy edge is overshadowed by louder ecosystems with strong meme cultures and instantly recognizable mascots.

On top of that, I am bootstrapping everything myself with a small budget for AI and design subscriptions. Time and tools are spent reinventing visuals instead of iterating on a shared “privacy universe”.

This slows my ability to build: instead of iterating on top of a common visual identity, I am forced to design both the message and the entire visual context from scratch each time. The lack of a mascot-centered media layer for Zcash limits both educational reach and virality.
I want to establish ZealZcash as a reusable visual and media layer for the Zcash ecosystem, with a small but powerful universe of mascots:

– Zeal (zebra mascot) as the playful “guardian of privacy” and flexible, cartoonish brand unit that can fit almost any meme or explainer.
– Mr Zcash (coin mascot) as a neutral, serious presence – a calm embodiment of ZEC itself, without exaggerated emotions.
– Zcash-tan (anime-style avatar) as the human voice and face of digital privacy, capable of delivering short explainers and custom messages.
– Baby Zeal as the onboarding character for new users, focusing on basic privacy habits and friendly introductions.

Desired outcomes:

1. Privacy feels normal, not suspicious – through daily exposure to stickers, emojis, comics and short videos that present Zcash concepts in a friendly way.

2. Community members and ecosystem projects can easily reuse these characters via ready-made sticker packs, emoji packs, meme templates and short clips, instead of needing to design everything themselves.

3. A simple ZealZcash website acts as a hub for:
   – downloading asset packs,
   – learning about each mascot,
   – accessing educational comics and explainers,
   – submitting ideas and collaborations.

These goals will be met by continuing to ship concrete assets (sticker packs, emoji, videos, comics), publishing them openly for non-commercial community use, and iterating based on feedback from Zcash users and projects.