Announcing ZF’s 3-Year Vision for Community Events

Ecosystem Updates Zcash Foundation
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The Zcash Foundation is excited to share our roadmap of events for the next three years. This tentative plan is designed to support learning, collaboration, and innovation across the global Zcash community.

While the overall vision is represented below, specifics may shift over time in response to factors like available resources, community needs, and partnership opportunities. Our hope is that by sharing this plan early, we can spark ideas, foster alignment, and invite feedback.

Funding

Our planned approach is to self-fund most of these events, depending on the status of our treasury and runway at the time. For Zcon specifically, we may explore co-funding options with Zcash Community Grants (ZCG) or the Zcash coinholder community, depending on the scope, timing, and alignment of it with broader ecosystem goals. Any funding requests will be made transparently and with a strong justification, ensuring alignment with the Zcash Foundation’s mission and resource stewardship.

2026 Plans

Q1

  • Zcomm: A one-day virtual gathering for community-led learning and inspiration. Members from around the world will share ideas and experiences, with possible session topics including how to organize a hackathon, host an in-person event, grow and manage an online community, or build local momentum.

The goal: help others turn great ideas into action.

Rather than focusing on specific Zcash-related content, Zcomm is centered on the “how”- how to educate, how to organize, how to engage. Think of it as a toolkit for community builders. For example, instead of a session on how to use a wallet, Zcomm might feature a session on how to create a tutorial.

:backhand_index_pointing_down: Vote in the poll below to help determine Zcomm topics. :backhand_index_pointing_down:

  • Zcash Dev Summit (Q1 or Q2): A gathering for developers, co-located with another relevant event where we expect strong Zcash dev presence. Exact location TBD.

Late Q3 or Early Q4

  • Zcon7: Our flagship annual conference—location TBD. Zcon7 will be a fully in-person event, designed to foster deeper collaboration, connection, and focus among attendees. To prioritize engagement and make the most of available resources, we will not be livestreaming the sessions. Instead, we’re partnering with podcasters and content creators to share highlights, interviews, and takeaways with the broader community. Whether you’re joining us in person or following along from afar, we’re committed to making Zcon7 impactful and accessible in new ways.

2027 Plans

  • Zcash Dev Summit (+ Hackathon - if there’s strong demand for one): A focused gathering for developers to collaborate on Zcash infrastructure, align on technical priorities, and exchange insights. If there’s a clear need to solve a problem or build a specific tool or feature, the summit will include a hands-on hackathon to drive that work forward.

  • Zcon8 (Virtual): An online edition of our annual conference, offering talks, panels, and community discussions focused on Zcash, privacy, and the community—accessible to a global audience from anywhere in the world.

  • Zcon Voices: Locally organized, regionally relevant. Zcon Voices is a community-led event series designed to spark conversation and education around Zcash and financial privacy within specific cultural and geographic contexts. Events will be presented in the local language and tailored to address local opportunities and challenges.

Community members will submit funding proposals, with ZCAP voting on selections using the same process as minor grants.

2028 Plans

  • Zcash Dev Summit (+ Hackathon - again, if there’s strong demand for one)

  • Zcon Voices and/or Zcomm (depending on feedback from previous years and need)

  • Zcon9 (Virtual)

We’re sharing this roadmap early to help community members plan ahead and explore how they might get involved. Stay tuned for more details—and if you have ideas or questions, we’d love to hear them!

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*Thanks to those who already voted in the Discord poll—your input is invaluable. We’re rolling the poll out again to make sure more voices are heard. Please take a moment to vote here!

:ballot_box_with_ballot: Which topics would you be most excited to learn about at Zcomm? Select up to 4 that would help you take action in your community.

  • Organize a hackathon or community challenge
  • Create viral video content (humor, animations, etc)
  • Host a podcast or livestream
  • Lead interactive workshops or roundtable discussions
  • Organize an in-person event or meetup
  • Host a bounty program
  • Create a tutorial
  • Build partnerships with aligned communities and orgs
  • Create memes, infographics, or accessible visuals
  • Grow and manage online communities
  • Record and livestream events
  • Launch a newsletter or blog
  • Conduct successful “live on the street” interviews
  • Translate key content into other languages
  • Host a Zcash booth/table at a conference
0 voters
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Would you consider looking for partnerships and sponsors first and then fall back to self-funding as a last resort?

Not only to save yourselves some ZEC, but also because people look at the who the sponsors are to gauge how reputable an event is. Yes, you can judge that as superficial, but that’s how 99% of the people think about stuff.

Monero trolls will say that we are GOV-coin or whatever crap anyway.

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We’re definitely open to sponsorships and partnerships, and would love to hear suggestions of organizations you think might be a good fit for us to pursue. In the past, we’ve explored this path but haven’t had much success generating interest—though of course, times change and it’s worth revisiting.

That said, it’s important to us that all attendees feel comfortable and not hassled by sales or overly branded experiences. We’d also need to balance the pursuit of sponsorships with the bandwidth of our planning team, which is already at full capacity.

If you (or others in the community) have specific ideas of potential sponsors or partners who align with our mission and values, we’d really appreciate those recommendations.

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Very valuable and important topics.

I am sure that this first Zcomm will be a success. From the Zk Av Club @ryan.taylor, @ZecHub and the various regional communities, we can provide a lot of support in this regard.

This will undoubtedly be very appealing to people both inside and outside of Zcash.

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Zcash Brazil supports and is excited about the good news. We will work to increase the reach of what the community has chosen.

Excellent initiative!

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As the Zcash Türkiye team, we would like to state that we will be happy to work on making the most accurate contributions in all progress.

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These events seem internally focused for folks who are already interested in zcash and want to learn more about the ecosystem. Are there planned events to expand awareness and extend the user base?

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Thanks for pointing this out! Our team does attend broader conferences, and many community groups focus on outreach to new audiences. We also support regional groups and ZecHub—including initiatives like Zcomm, which equips our community with tools for more effective outreach, and Zcon Voices, which helps local communities grow and expand their reach. At the same time, we hope events like Zcon and the Dev Summit continue to bring in people from outside the Zcash ecosystem to help bridge communities.

We also try to co-locate our events with other, mission-aligned conferences and gatherings, when possible. This not only increases visibility but also ensures Zcash is introduced to new audiences in contexts where our values and goals resonate. For example, our last Dev Summit was co-located with ZKProof, Real World Crypto, and HACS, which brought in attendees from outside the ecosystem and even from the periphery, helping us broaden our reach.

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