I think there are two questions here: What does the process look like, and what are the next steps?
Zcash governance relies on public discussion and polling to gauge sentiment and assess whether there’s rough consensus.
Anyone can submit a proposal through the ZIP process, and the community discusses it publicly. We’re at that stage now: people are putting forward ideas about what should happen to ZCG, and the community is discussing the benefits and drawbacks of each.
Next, we’ll work with the development organizations (Project Tachyon, Shielded Labs, Valar Group, the Zcash Foundation, and ZODL) to define the poll questions and possible answers, then share them publicly for feedback. Community panels (including ZCAP, the Engineering Caucus, ZecHub, and regional groups) and coinholders will then participate in the polls.
Afterward, the development organizations will publish and interpret the results to assess whether there’s rough consensus. If there isn’t, none of the proposals will move forward, and the protocol will remain unchanged. If rough consensus does emerge, engineering teams will coordinate implementation in the Zebra and Zakura node software, and the development organizations will work together to determine when to target a network upgrade.
Ultimately, the change takes effect as network participants adopt the updated software. That includes miners, exchanges, node operators, and users choosing which wallet software to run. If they choose different software, the network could fork.
I’ll reach out to the development organizations now to move this process forward and determine the timeline for polling.