The Financial Privacy Foundation (FPF) is excited to announce our first experimental grant program: The Financial Privacy Fund (FPF x FPF). This KYC-free* program will fund Zcash ecosystem engineering projects that are nearly complete, or projects that will immediately contribute to the ecosystem and can be completed within the defined funding and timeframe parameters. We want to see gaps filled or bridged as our Community navigates, and successfully integrates, the myriad current and planned Zcash ecosystem engineering projects.
FPF x FPF is launching with very modest funding aimed at perfecting the grant-funding process and hopefully launching future rounds. The maximum grant funding request will be capped at $25,000 and the total funding pool will be $50,000. There is no KYC requirement* and all grants will be paid upon successful completion of all deliverables.
Do you have a background in engineering and you don’t intend to submit a request for funding? Volunteer to be a member of the ad-hoc review committee and YOU can help decide which proposals get funded. Click here to learn more and to submit your interest in serving.
Applications are due April 22, 2024.
About FPF
The Financial Privacy Fund is a project of the Financial Privacy Foundation (FPF), an independent Cayman Islands-incorporated non-profit organization. FPF’s mission is to educate and empower individuals and communities to take control of their financial privacy and security, and to promote a fair and equitable financial system that respects personal privacy.
*FPF does not require KYC for grants under $50,000 USD. Citizens of Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Syria, and specific regions of Ukraine are not eligible to participate in FPF grant programs. If you have questions about eligibility please contact info@financialprivacyfoundation.org.
ZF and FPF have a grantor (ZF) grantee (FPF) relationship. FPF is an independent organization with independent programming and decision making power, however, the organization would not have been created without ZF’s support.
As of now I (Alex) am responsible for all FPF operations on a volunteer basis outside of my work at ZF.
The PDF with the questions says some responses are limited to 1000 words, but the actual online form limits these same responses to 1000 characters. That’s a bummer, because I wrote up the grant proposal based on the PDF, so I have far more than the form will allow.
Is the form buggy, or the PDF?
I think KYC-free grants are awesome. One way to make it more effectively anonymous would be to accept a Zcash address for communication instead of an email address. Maybe next time.
Good catch. I just increased the character limit to 5,000, the maximum allowed (it was 1,000 as you indicated). I’ll update the PDF this morning as well. Thanks!
The FPF x FPF grant program submission deadline has passed and twenty-four proposals were received by FPF. An initial eligibility review has been conducted and five proposals have been advanced to the review stage. The nineteen proposals that were not advanced to the review stage were rejected due to a variety of eligibility reasons, most often because they weren’t engineering related projects. Status updates have been sent via email to all submitters. FPF would like to thank every submitter for taking the time to submit a proposal to this experimental grant program.
FPF will update the Zcash community when the review process concludes.
@noamchom we have six community reviewers (4 devs and 2 non-devs with in-depth Zcash knowledge) from orgs and communities across Zcash. We’ll be announcing any awards in the next few weeks. Amber and Kurt aren’t included in the group of six reviewers but as FPF board members they will ultimately approve/reject whichever (if any) grants are submitted for approval.
FPF will be sharing future plans shortly once various meetings and discussions with potential partners have concluded.
We’ll be announcing any awards in the next few weeks.
That sounds like it may double the timeline given in the FAQ, which says:
The ad-hoc review committee will review and decide on grant awards within 20 calendar
days of submission deadline.
The submission deadline being April 22, I was expecting to hear an announcement of the awards by May 12.
I support extending the timeline if needed to make good decisions with the limited grant funds you have available. I’m just excited to hear the results, and was counting down the days.
After much deliberation, the FPF x FPF subject matter expert reviewers have decided not to fund any of the finalist proposals. This decision is not a reflection on the submitters or the quality of their proposals; every proposal received some votes for funding, but none achieved a majority approval. FPF sincerely thanks all the submitters and reviewers for their time and effort. The funds allocated for grants will be reserved for a future grants program.
The FPF x FPF Grant Program was an experiment, and we are generally pleased with the outcomes, even though it’s unfortunate none of the finalists were selected for funding. The decision to prioritize anonymity over community engagement didn’t yield the increase in unknown submitters we had anticipated. The approach taken also necessitated significant outreach to ensure every proposal received a fair and detailed review, which might have been accomplished more efficiently via a more standard community input and vetting process. These are valuable lessons for future funding rounds as we strive to keep operational costs in check while facilitating an impactful and community-focused grant program.
The grant process allowed us to demo and test multiple systems in real-time that were either previously unknown to us or underutilized. One notable example was the use of CryptPad for grant submissions. This free, open-source tool performed admirably and could potentially replace paid resources used by other Zcash entities in the future. We are committed to using as many free, open-source, privacy-focused solutions as possible, when such options exist.
Thoughts for future funding rounds:
Explore additional communication methods (example).
Consider some form of community voting for projects instead of a committee approach.
Find ways to exponentially increase funding impact (partner with other grant programs, require matching funds, etc.).
Implement region-specific programs to focus on local/regional needs.
Other ideas?
Please share your ideas and feedback below. We’re looking forward to sharing our thoughts soon on how FPF plans to provide unique and impactful support to the Zcash community.
Why not donate anon to builders who do meet criteria. You don’t even have to announce it individually, but maybe at the end of the year as a total donation.
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