### Terms and Conditions
- [x] I agree to the [Grant Agreement](https://9ba4718…c-5c73-47c3-a024-4fc4e5278803.usrfiles.com/ugd/9ba471_6ff6db4095fd4c4ba21babec361e927e.pdf) terms if funded
- [x] I agree to [Provide KYC information](https://9ba4718c-5c73-47c3-a024-4fc4e5278803.usrfiles.com/ugd/9ba471_7d9e73d16b584a61bae92282b208efc4.pdf) if funded above $50,000 USD
- [x] I agree to disclose conflicts of interest
- [x] I understand that this grant program is only eligible for completed work, as it is a retroactive grant program. Applications for planned or partially completed work will not be considered. All completed work will be verified and accepted by its intended users or their representatives, who will confirm that the outputs meet the required quality, functionality, and usability before the work is listed as an option for Coinholder voting.
- [x] I agree that for any new open-source software, I will create a CONTRIBUTING.md file that reflects the high standards of Zcash development, using the [`librustzcash` style guides](https://github.com/zcash/librustzcash/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md#styleguides) as a primary reference.
- [x] I understand when contributing to existing Zcash code, I am required to adhere to the project specific contribution guidelines, paying close attention to any [merge](https://github.com/zcash/librustzcash/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md#merge-workflow), [branch](https://github.com/zcash/librustzcash/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md#branch-history), [pull request](https://github.com/zcash/librustzcash/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md#pull-request-review), and [commit](https://github.com/zcash/librustzcash/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md#commit-messages) guidelines as exemplified in the librustzcash repository.
- [x] I understand all grants are valued in USD but will be disbursed in Shielded ZEC. I acknowledge and accept that disbursement amounts may fluctuate based on the ZEC/USD exchange rate at the time of payment.
### Application Owners (@octocat, @octocat1)
@Connaugh
### Organization or Individual Name
Connaugh
### Additional Team Members
```team-members.yaml
My Background
Six years in tech marketing across biotech, AI and crypto, the last two and a half in zero-knowledge cryptography at Mina Foundation and o1Labs. There I built the ecosystem content programme and ran it at a consistent cadence for over a year, the first time that had been sustained in that ecosystem. It held because of process rather than effort: a repeatable pipeline built around the constraints of the crypto industry. I produced many different types of videos including: thought leadership, Ecosystem highlights, protocol upgrades, whiteboard sessions, fundraising announcements, whitepaper announcements and more.
I do research, scripting, editing, graphic design and distribution myself. That removes the handoffs that normally set the ceiling on how often a small team can publish, and it is the reason the cost per film and speed of delivery in this application is what it is.
My Responsibilities
- Sourcing and archiving video from across the Zcash ecosystem: co-founders, engineers, the ecosystem organisations, external advocates, and the institutional cohort
- Editorial. Finding the story inside each source, and threading claims across separate videos so speakers corroborate one another
- Verifying technical claims against primary sources
- Scripting and voiceover
- Editing, graphic design, sound design and packaging
- Publishing and distribution
- Series architecture and publishing cadence
```
### How did you learn about the Lockbox: Coinholder Retroactive Grants Program?
Through conversations with the Cypherpunk Technologies team, who directed me to the Zcash Community Grants team.
### Requested Grant Amount (USD)
$22,000
### Category
Media
### Project Summary
Zcash produces more high-quality video than almost any ecosystem its size, scattered across founders, engineers, the ecosystem organisations, external advocates and its institutional backers. I cut that footage and re-architect it into short, single-argument films designed for audiences who will never sit through a two-hour podcast: five films published between 28 July and 12 August 2026, reaching 45,811 impressions and 9,931 views from a standing start.
### Project Description
- Overview
Zcash has huge potential with its current video output. Every month the ecosystem produces a serious volume of video: protocol engineers explaining upgrades, co-founders on podcasts, the organisations building on Zcash, advocates from other ecosystems, and the institutional cohort that has arrived over the past year. The material is excellent. It is also long, spread across a dozen channels, and mostly reaching people who are already convinced.
I want to pull all the content into one place and re-edit it to tell the Zcash story with less friction. Each film pulls clips from across the ecosystem and threads them into a single argument, so that people who were recorded months apart, in different places, end up corroborating each other on camera. The technical claims stay in the mouths of the people who built the protocol. My job is the through-line.
- Origin
The work started with Ironwood. The upgrade was significant, and the explanation of it was scattered, with different aspects covered by different people in different places. Nothing assembled them. I built the first film to do that and shipped it within a week.
- Why the films are short
Each film carries one or two points, told once, properly. Three things follow.
The archive compounds. Crypto content dates fast, whether through protocol changes or shifts in the political situation. A long film dies as a whole when one section goes stale. A short film making a single point stays publishable, which means every film I make adds to a library I can keep drawing on instead of a back catalogue that decays.
Fragmenting the case widens the reach. Zcash is not one story. It is an institutional story, an apolitical money story, a cypherpunk story, a technical story about what the protocol does, the people, etc. Different stories and viewpoints are critical for reaching different audiences. Cutting to the point level lets each audience find the argument aimed at them, and lets advocates share the exact claim they care about instead of a film that is three-quarters about something else.
The format is what distribution rewards. Short, fast-paced explainer video is the dominant form outside crypto and thinly served inside it, where most output is either long-form conversation or low-effort promotion. The video direction of travel is visible: Ethereum has committed to an in-house media team, and a16z's video output over the past six months has moved towards short documentary work at a production standard the rest of the industry has not matched.
- Why this is worth funding
Having one person with a specialist background to run the entire video process will dramatically reduce costs and time. I want to commit to a cadence of 2 videos a week to really help grow the Zcash momentum. Because research, script, edit, design and distribution all sit with one person, these cost $3,000 each and ship published.
It multiplies work the ecosystem has already paid for. Every film is built from footage that already exists. This does not compete with the podcasts, talks, and engineering explainers being made across Zcash. It extends their reach to people who were never going to watch them in full.
It is already working. Five films, 16 days, no existing Zcash audience, and the numbers are set out below.
### Technical Approach (how you did it)
- Process
Every film runs the same five stages.
Research. I gather source material from across the ecosystem: podcast appearances, conference talks, engineering explainers, interviews. Each clip is logged against the claim it supports.
Editorial. I build the narrative before I open the timeline. Claims are threaded so that speakers recorded independently corroborate one another. Anything technical is checked against primary sources.
Scripting. I write voiceover into the gaps only. Source clips carry the mechanism, voiceover carries the consequence, which keeps the technical claims with the people who built the protocol and keeps me out of the way of them.
Production. Editing, sound design, and music in Adobe Premiere Pro. Motion and graphic design in Figma.
Distribution. Published to X, packaged and hooked for that feed specifically.
- Tooling and position on AI
Premiere Pro for editing. Figma for design. Claude for research synthesis and script structure. ElevenLabs for generated video assets, including a generated likeness of myself used as an on-screen presenter.
All narration is my own recorded voice. There is no voice cloning and no synthetic narration anywhere in this work.
I use AI at the edges and keep it out of the center. The edit is done by hand in professional software, deliberately. Template-driven AI video tools produce output that is recognisable on sight, and in an ecosystem whose entire value proposition is credibility, content that looks automatically generated damages the argument it is making. That is an editorial decision before it is a technical one.
- Equipment
Recording and production hardware, including a Shure SM7dB and mixing desk, is mine and self-funded. It is not claimed here.
### Time Period of Work Completion
13 July 2026 to 12 August 2026 working full time, weekends and evenings. Five films published over 16 days.
### Total Budget (USD)
$22,000
### Budget Breakdown
<b id="docs-internal-guid-9ca82308-7fff-cbd3-b6c2-8691135a86f8" style="font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal;"><div dir="ltr" align="left" style="margin-left: 0pt;">
Line | Amount | Justification
-- | -- | --
Compensation | $22,000 | Time only, priced per film + research. Launch film $6,000, covering the longer build and the research base it established. Four subsequent films at $3,000 each. Initial research week $4,000.
Technology / Software | $0 | Adobe, Figma and AI tooling subscriptions self-funded. Not claimed.
Infrastructure / Hosting | $0 | None incurred.
Services / Contractors | $0 | Sole producer. No third parties engaged.
Other | $0 | Recording and production equipment owned and self-funded. Not claimed.
Total | $22,000 |
</div></b>
### Previous Funding
No
### Previous Funding Details
_No response_
### Other Funding Sources
Yes
### Other Funding Sources Details
I have received no funding for this work from any source. I intend to explore different funding options within the Zcash ecosystem for future work. I believe I can dramatically scale video content and reach in the Zcash ecosystem.
### Success Metrics
<b id="docs-internal-guid-5272608b-7fff-9381-a6bf-a000cc713989" style="font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal;"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 7pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The account carried no Zcash audience when this started. Every figure below was built from a standing start. Snapshot taken 14 August 2026, 14:29 BST.</span></p><div dir="ltr" align="left" style="margin-left: 0pt;">
Film | Impressions | Views | Likes | Reposts | Replies
-- | -- | -- | -- | -- | --
Ironwood launch | 5,479 | 1,483 | 87 | 17 | 8
Scaling Zcash to Visa levels | 3,322 | 713 | 45 | 9 | 2
Zcash never upgraded its privacy | 8,018 | 2,679 | 123 | 27 | 4
You don't have a right to a bank account | 16,578 | 2,486 | 68 | 15 | 1
Zcash is much better than Bitcoin | 12,414 | 2,570 | 133 | 37 | 10
Total | 45,811 | 9,931 | 456 | 105 | 25
</div></b>
Reach grew across the run. Each of the three most recent films reached more people than either of the first two, and the strongest took roughly three times the impressions of the opener. Views tracked the same curve.
Films three and five drew the heaviest engagement of the set. Film four reached the largest audience by some margin on lighter engagement. The full set is reported here, including the weakest performer.
Five films is an early signal rather than a proven programme, and the figures are presented as such.
### Proof of completion
All five films published on X at @zkmarketer.
- Ironwood launch: https://x.com/zkmarketer/status/2082103793253335140
- Scaling Zcash to Visa levels: https://x.com/zkmarketer/status/2082880148924190798
- Zcash has never upgraded its privacy: https://x.com/zkmarketer/status/2084651572529627618
- You don't have a right to a bank account: https://x.com/zkmarketer/status/2085691623367696612
- Zcash is much better than Bitcoin. Satoshi would agree: https://x.com/zkmarketer/status/2087188128561795464
Analytics snapshot for each film, taken 14 August 2026, 14:29 BST.
### Conflict of Interest Disclosure
N/A
### Community Forum Posting
- [x] I understand it is my responsibility to post a link to this issue on the [Zcash Community Forums](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/about-the-retroactive-grants-category/52106) after this application has been submitted so the community can give input. I understand this is required in order for the community to discuss and vote on this grant application. Note: If you are unable to post on the forum (for example, due to new user restrictions), please leave a comment below, and we will adjust your posting permissions.