I would most likely approve this grant in full and place it in the protected slice for visionary research.
It passes my three non-negotiable rules:
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Net shielded-spending impact
Reproducible builds and verifiable compute are not glamorous, but they are a hard requirement for institutions, exchanges, and serious users to ever trust Zcash at scale. Without them, private spending stays fragile. -
Low risk + proven capability
Anton has already shipped real security tools (StageX, Ledn, reproducible OCI work). The $125/h rate and 128-hour estimate are reasonable and fully transparent. -
Loyal long-term builder / visionary research
This is exactly the kind of decade-ahead bet that belongs in the protected slice: it keeps Zcash ahead of supply-chain attacks and builds trust.
Because the total ask is reasonable and the risk is low, I would:
• Fund the full amount up-front (no need to tranche it further)
• Set one single milestone: reproducible builds for the main Zcash crates + open-source release by 31 March 2026
• Include the usual full clawback if the milestone is missed
This is the kind of quiet, high-leverage security infrastructure that makes private money actually unstoppable.