One of the weaknesses of the Zcash protocol is the need for a "trusted setup". If the trusted setup is compromised, a malicious party could mint Zcash at will.
For a variety of reasons, the first Zcash setup could only scale to a few participants. However, the Zcash team has devised a new "trusted setup" scheme that theoretically allows an unbounded number of participants.
Only one of those participants need be honest in order for "trusted setup" to be secure. Therefore, by participating in the ceremony, as long as you trust yourself to destroy your key, you can be assured that the setup itself is secure.
If you'd like to participate in the next ceremony, join the Zcash mpc channel here:
https://chat.zcashcommunity.com/channel/mpc
You can read more about the new protocol here:
https://z.cash/blog/new-mpc-protocol.html
For a variety of reasons, the first Zcash setup could only scale to a few participants. However, the Zcash team has devised a new "trusted setup" scheme that theoretically allows an unbounded number of participants.
Only one of those participants need be honest in order for "trusted setup" to be secure. Therefore, by participating in the ceremony, as long as you trust yourself to destroy your key, you can be assured that the setup itself is secure.
If you'd like to participate in the next ceremony, join the Zcash mpc channel here:
https://chat.zcashcommunity.com/channel/mpc
You can read more about the new protocol here:
https://z.cash/blog/new-mpc-protocol.html