Dev Fund Proposal: 5-Entity Strategic Council Approach

You misremember, it’s a 3 year term, which you can view on our bylaws. And not to speak for the board, but I know @amiller has expressed interest in the past for either shortening the board term and/or creating community mechanisms that are binding in our bylaws. (so I think you are mischaracterizing this)

This proposal creates a new single entity where all future funding power rests, which is why the selection criteria is so critical and a rather large potential downside to this and proposals like it. I don’t view the current trademark “disaster” as a disaster at all, but rather the Foundation operating as it should as a check on the ECC’s power.

I’m not at all personally opposed to diversifying the streams of funding and adding significantly more accountability to the ECC/ZF, but I am worried about any new structures that are created without prior precedent that could control all possible funding, as it seems such a thing is ripe to be gamed.

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just curious. if under some probable pressure ecc and/or zfnd will decide to cease their efforts and resign. who do you whink will step in charge for zcash? unstructured “community”, monero foundation, blockstream, sic grayscale? or maybe new productive entity will emerge from ranks of critics and proponents? i highly doubt so.

Ok, 3 years and not 4 years. I remember that i ask so far at least once for shorter election intervals (about 1 year ago) and you answered that it’s not for discussion and don’t plan to change this. (I have to dig it out which could take some time having in mind my huge post count).

And than i made Proposal & Possible Changes in the Foundation Governance as i think it’s more than not optimal, to say it diplomaticly, that ZF board members are as well share holders in the ECC, same goes now for ZF advisors and/or now/future employees/advisors. The connection is too tight in my opinion, hence a 3rd entity with no ties would be structural very different from the ZF.

Now see it from a point of view outside the ECC and ZF, for example my point of view:

What do we have right now?
The ECC, with unclear shareholders, a for profit company with limited accountability and transparency. At the same time a ZF close tied with the ECC as ZF board members are shareholders at the ECC. Both are the ZIP editors and ZIP voters. Both, at least for my taste are discussing, approving and allocating their own funds/wages/whatever.

Means in short, if we talk about “ripe to be gamed” you should as well, at least in my opinion, have in mind that the ECC and ZF “inter-connections” could be seen as such as well. But in this case the community would/is be gamed.

I have no doubt that with a multi million yearly budget there would be a queue and devs/organisations/interested people will stand in a line to continue on Zcash. Actually i have no doubt that the ZF will continue, even if funds are less while the main “funding problem” seems to be the ECC.

I as well have no doubts that some kind of dev funding must be there as i fully agree that voluntary funding, donations, full community driven won’t work out.

As an open suggestion for how this issue could be resolved if this is still a concern on the ZF side: if this winds up being the proposal with the most community support, I think it makes the most sense for the Foundation be this body even if it means giving up any/all claim to future dev fund rewards:

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This sounds like a slightly changed Founders Reward design.

Instead of having the founders (which are ECC share holders) having the ZF sponsored (current) it could be directly the ECC that donates to the ZF (future) in such case.

Out of curiousity. Do you really think you could get about $300-500k funding monthly from donations without donations from the ECC/founders?

you know why i underlined productive ?
zcash not a pawn shop. it’s a bit more complicated case…))
of course there would be (and it probably is) an enormous queue of people/orgs. everyone love funds, especially in sic crypto. problem is, i dont see any adequate possibility of replacement as of now.
p.s.: sorry for offtopic. mod can move my posts in any suitable branch.

As an economist i’am a huge believer that productivity and efficiency is achieved best within competition. I think that fully answers your concern, but i should have added it in my last response.

i agree with this. so far, i think i just have a slightly different view on what cryptocurrencies are. what for, on what fields and by which measures real competition here is going on. and how interests of involved parties in any crypto and in market in general are intersected.

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don’t think we’ll get this properly figured out anytime soon. exactly why i think it would be a good idea to kick the can down the road. gives two extra years to iron all this out. imo, the best ideas on ways to move forward haven’t even been hatched yet.

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I was able to dig out your response than back from January.

These comments left the impression on my end that the foundation is not very responsive in having shorter election intervals at all or are open for shorter community elections at all.

After you corrected me that the board member ship is 3 years and not 4 years (thx a lot!), it seems the period expires in March 2020. IF i remember correctly the ZF board was created in Martch 2017, or?

As there are only 6 months left until than it might be a good idea to prepare some election/voting tool that fits these elections as well IF the ZF board members are elected of course.

You’re confusing “board” with “board membership”. The creation date of the board only has relevance for the terms of its founding members (some of whom have already departed). The members who joined the board around Zcon0 will be on the board until around Zcon3.

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Sorry for the bit off topic. But didn’t the new/changed members replace old departing members for “just” the rest/vacant of time for a given position?

My reasoning here is that i see in the “Board minutes” that on 3rd February 2017 the “Initial Board Meeting” was held and in my understanding a board meeting can only be held if there are board members, not?

From 5th April 2017 Board Minutes:

  1. Need a new fifth Board Member
  • Board discussed potential candidates but did not reach a decision

Doesn’t this allready mean the board and board members worked latest in first April week, mostly as said allready in March or even sooner?

Additionally i wasn’t able to find any special rules for board members, but isn’t “for the unexpired term in respect of which such vacancy occurred or until the next election” the most common definition in such cases?

I’am sorry if i miss something, but my understanding is that the 3 years expire after the first 3 years the first board was created. I could be wrong and would appreciate in such case a link to the approciate documentation or document/protocol/

Anyway, how will the 2nd ZF board members elected anyway. As there have not been any elections so far i think this fits somehow even into the discussion and no matter what date it is, it’s coming more soon than late anyway, even bevor end of the founders reward, or?

Edit: After reading the

i think i’am right with the assumption that vacant/replaced positions are for the remaining period.

If the office of a Director becomes vacant for any reason, other than by removal of the Director in the manner described in paragraph 1 hereof, the Members shall choose a successor or successors which successor(s) shall hold office for the unexpired term in respect of which such vacancy occurred or until the next election of Directors.

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You can look through the history of ZF’s board here: Board Minutes: April 18, 2022 - zcash foundation

Edit: The board members who have directed ZF since 2017 (the beginning) are Andrew, Peter, and Matt.

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The process by which the new members joined the board around Zcon0 was an election, thus the new members have their own term and are not holding office of prior members.

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In case that’s right and it was an election it’s correct for 2 of 5 board members which still leaves the question when are the elections for the remaining 3 board members?

If my assumption is correct than new elections for 3 board members should be held in early 2020, which is just in some months from now, not?

About the “election” of the 2 board members by the community governance panel. For me it seems the community governance panel voted/elected/suggested/advised symbolic the 2 new members. By law and technicaly formal the remaining board members replaced the vacant places:

Reasoning:

Prior to the meeting, Yan Zhu and Naval Ravikant resigned over email. The remaining Board members unanmiously voted for Amber Baldet and Ian Miers to take the open Board seats.

which in my understanding of the Foundations Bylaws fullifies: If the office of a Director becomes vacant for any reason the Members shall choose a successor or successors which successor(s) shall hold office for the unexpired term in respect of which such vacancy occurred. But as said, i could be wrong here and even if i’am wrong it still leaves the question when and how are the elections soon for the remaining 3 board members be done/hold?

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This is correct. The legal process is that existing ZF board members approve new ZF board members — in the case of Amber and Ian, their election by the Community Governance Panel was then approved by the board.

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Thx for the comment, but for me some things are still not clear, does someone mind to give answers on these questions?

  • What does count for Amber and Ian, the symbolic election by the governance panel or the by law/technicaly formal replacement of open Board seats/places?

  • Is it correct that 3 board members should be elected in first months of 2020? Or even all 5?

  • How and when will these elections be held?

@boxalex I will answer your questions here but I really feel like this is a distraction from this thread, which is supposed to be about @avichal’s proposal. If you have further questions about the current state of the Foundation please create a separate topic.

The governance panel was always advisory, the board elects its own members according to the bylaws. From the original blog post about the topic which I think is relatively quite easy to find especially for someone who digs into old text as well as you do:

“Advisory? So these decisions are non-binding?” Technically yes; the Foundation Board can’t abdicate responsibility for the Foundation, although we want broad accountability and public input for matters that fall under the Foundation’s purview. That said, other ballot decisions may simply be advisory because we don’t (currently) have the authority to make those decisions—e.g., a ballot to redefine parameters in the Zcash blockchain in a future hard fork. (“the blocks need to be 1 terabyte, etc”) But the fact that the community might be strongly in favor of such a technical change should hold weight for the current maintainers of Zcash and for future work of the Foundation.

It was always advisory, was never not advisory, and will always be advisory until a bylaws change is introduced into the Foundation that makes decisions binding. To get back to @avichal’s proposal: if the Foundation is meant to be the Strategic Council, perhaps you might suggest changes to the Foundation bylaws to make some of these seats voted on in a binding manner?

Is it correct that 3 board members should be elected in first months of 2020? Or even all 5?

3, and I thought @str4d explained this extremely clearly. Matt, Andrew, and Peter’s seats are open in 2020, though I will note that there are not term limits and I suspect for continuity’s sake it’s possible they will choose to seek reelection (and frankly I hope though do, as whatever process is in place for NU4 won’t be ready by early 2020).

How and when will these elections be held?

Per the bylaws the voting will be done by members of the board. We may do another advisory panel, but again to get back on topic: I’d prefer talking about how the governance of the Foundation may change with regards to NU4 proposals like @avichal’s.

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This proposal has been published as ZIP 1009.

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