Decentralizing Zcash Digital

Community Collaborations
1

AN OPEN CALL FOR TASK FORCE APPLICATIONS


TLDR;
ECC is accepting applications for a community task force to foster more-decentralized ownership of Zcash-focused digital properties and assets. The deadline for applications is September 15.

References

Electric Coin Co. (ECC) is kicking off a process that seeks to reimagine ownership and management of Zcash-focused digital properties, i.e., the z.cash website, the Zcash technical documentation hub, the Zcash Twitter account, and the Cypherpunk Zero site and assets.

While ECC has historically maintained these sites and assets, we hope that, together with the larger Zcash community, we can build and enact a model of communal ownership and increased collaboration — with a greater diversity of contributors and a more representative voice for Zcashers everywhere.

We wrote a blog about it here and held a workshop at Zcon4 (video not available — long story).

The first step in this process is the formation of a community task force. From the blog mentioned above:

Phase 1 (Aug-Oct 2023)

Establish a transition task force composed of ECC representatives and qualified community members.

Beginning with a formal community application process, ECC will create a transition task force to contribute ideas and guide and oversee the transition. The task force should be comprised of representatives from ECC and up to three key members of the Zcash community. This group of unpaid volunteers will be responsible for prioritizing projects, developing the transition plans, engaging with the community, doing due diligence on trademark and legal implications, and ensuring a smooth and orderly transfer of responsibilities as appropriate. The task force should reflect the diversity of the Zcash community, ensuring that a broad range of perspectives, geographies, and expertise are represented, if feasible.


Task force representatives will be asked to:

  1. Develop criteria for evaluating shared-ownership models.
  2. Communicate ideas and proposals, and facilitate open dialogue and exchange of ideas.
  3. Select the most suitable ownership models and owners, with community input, aligned to community values, goals, and long-term vision.
  4. Develop a clear roadmap outlining expectations and responsibilities for new structures, including transition milestones, such as the handover or opening up of technical infrastructure and the establishment of new governance mechanisms.

Once the transition process is complete, the task force should formally conclude its work, acknowledging the successful transfer of responsibilities and assets to the new co-owner(s). Following this, a post-transition review may be conducted to assess the overall success of the process, identify lessons learned, and document insights for future reference. This review could provide valuable feedback for both ECC and the new co-owner(s), helping to inform future decentralization initiatives and ensure the ongoing resilience of the Zcash project.

Selecting task force members

The structures and processes of shared ownership are likely to be at least somewhat complex, and getting them set up properly is crucial, so we’re looking for candidates that have relevant experience in blockchain technology, digital marketing, web development, content strategy, or community management, with a demonstrated understanding of the Zcash ecosystem and privacy-focused blockchains.

Applicants should showcase a strong commitment to the Zcash community and its future growth, plus the ability to work effectively in a collaborative, multi-disciplinary environment. Strong written and verbal communication skills will be key for fostering transparency, progress, and outcomes.

If all of that describes you, please apply!

Time commitment

Applicants should be able to dedicate a sufficient amount of time (~5 hrs per week during October and November) to the task force’s activities, including meetings, research, and communications.

Application and selection

  1. Open call for applications: Interested candidates should complete this form by Sept. 15.
  2. Application review: An ECC team will score applications by Sept. 22 and shortlist qualified candidates for interviews.
  3. Conduct interviews: Interviews will take place during the week of Sept. 25. We’ll ask candidates about their motivation, vision for Zcash, and relevant experience.
  4. Final selection: During the first week of October, ECC will select and inform the community about whom has been chosen as representatives for the transition task force.

Feedback

This whole endeavor won’t be easy, but the proposed process is in place to ensure a fair and merit-based selection process, encourage community engagement and representation, and foster the selection of qualified and diverse candidates.

I have unanswered questions of my own, and I’m interested in hearing from you!

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Watch the video presentation by @adjychris on this proposal: Decentralizing Zcash Digital

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Thanks for the opportunity! I have applied and encourage others who care about Zcash to do the same.

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I have filled the form but never received any confirmation of anything once I have pressed the submit button. Hopefully it went through.

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I don’t believe it came through. You should get a confirmation message after you submit. Let me know if you continue to have this issue. We can figure out another way, if necessary.

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i equally submitted but did not get any confirmation email

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I got your application. :slight_smile: You won’t receive an email confirmation, you should just see a message in your browser after you submit.

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Following up. We have received 13 applications and will be reaching out to candidates this week. Thank you all! :pray: :pray: :pray:

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Is there another news about decentralizing Zcash Digital??

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Update coming this week. :slight_smile:

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Hi, everyone. I’m pleased to announce the task force has been formed! We are lucky enough to have a member from the Zcash Foundation, ZCG, ZecHub, and an independent contributor to the Zcash community.

Here’s the team:
@squirrel (ZecHub)
@decentralistdan (ZF)
@aquietinvestor (ZCG, Shielded Labs)
@artkor (long-time community member and evangelist)

Yasser Isa (ECC DevSecOps) and Richard Renno (from ECC’s web/design agency) will round out the crew and help with logistics and best practices. Our first meeting is scheduled for Wednesday. :grinning: Keep your eye on this space for updates.

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Awesome team, good luck! :zebra:

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Congratulations! I am sure they will do a good job!

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Awesome! Congratulations.

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Good news! Congrats and a lot of success in this journey to the new team! It’s a very exciting moment :metal:

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Below please find the 1st update from the Decentralizing Digital Task Force, going forward a summary of meetings will be shared with the community every other week and posted to this thread.

Attendees: @adjychris, @squirrel, @aquietinvestor, @artkor, @decentralistdan,Yasser Isa (ECC DevSecOps) and Richard Renno (from ECC’s web/design agency)

This week’s meeting began with brief introductions, an agenda review, and a consensus that meeting summaries will be shared with the community every other week and posted by decentralistdan.

Topics discussed during this meeting:

  1. Social Media Guidelines: Over the last week, the Task Force drafted a Zcash Digital Messaging and Style document in anticipation of inviting additional contributors to the @zcash Twitter account to provide guidance around social media and other content creation. A social media guidelines document was shared during the meeting. However, it has some gaps and questions regarding topics like threads, retweets, tagging, and scope. Everyone is encouraged to provide feedback on its content before the next week’s meeting.

  2. Library of Assets

a) Brand Kit Repository: Z.cash website needs a brand kit repository containing logos and colors that is accessible by everyone in the community. Richard is currently assigned to this task.

b) Zcash Assets Library: The team decided to create a list of potential library assets along the lines of Zecub assets, including posters and memes. Members were asked to begin compiling a list of possible assets to use from ECC, Zcash Foundation, Zcash Brazil, etc… and research on where to possibly list these assets on z.cash. Richard will explore how to integrate this into z.cash.

  1. Twitter Management: The team discussed their plan for managing the official Twitter account of Zcash. It was agreed that there was a need to build a process first that involves inviting contributors through central management systems such as Sprout Social where tweets can be approved before publishing them live on social media channels. Dan volunteered to further research platforms like Sprout Social, Buffer or Hoot Suite and provide a comparison report with clear pricing details.

  2. RFP for Minor Grants: The team debated whether they should draft an RFP (Request For Proposal) before transitioning to partial ownership of the official Twitter account to someone else in future. After further discussion, they decided not to focus on drafting an RFP at this stage.

  3. Events Calendar Automation: The committee agreed into looking into automating the process of pulling events from different sites that have published events and sharing the ability to contribute. It was emphasized that there is a need for standardization to avoid issues with changing formats. It was suggested exploring if it’s possible to pull events scheduled in Discord and feed them into a feed counter.

  4. Starting a Blog on Zcash: The group discussed starting a blog on Zcash, but there were concerns about launching one without knowing what’s already out there. They considered pulling content from other sources like ECC blogs, ZF blogs, and ZecHub newsletters as a starting point. They also discussed adding language filters and tags for better organization.

  5. Learn Content Forms: The group talked about creating forms for z.cash for Learn content, Ecosystem content, etc., that people could fill out when submitting requests or new information related to their projects or initiatives on z.cash.

  6. Read the Docs Migration: There was brief mention of potentially moving “Read the Docs” under z.cash since it relates to other topics being focused on during this meeting. Further discussion at next week’s meeting was proposed.

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Excellent this first step of our decentralization! :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:

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FYI, the media kit that used to be hosted on the z.cash website can be found here: https://zfnd.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/zcash-mediakit-2021.zip

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Your work is great!!! How about CZ-NFT? There was no updates??

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is it every other week dis week already?
id like to know more about cypherpunk nft stuff. i feel with NFTs gettin way more traction again its time the project got a new life.

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