GGuy for ZCG (December 2022)

GGuy · December 11, 2022, 7:48am

Hi everyone! I’m excited to inform y’all I’m nominating myself as a ZCG candidate.

TLDR; My goal as a ZCG member would be to help ZCG become more efficient at assessing grants while encouraging all members to embrace and fund more teams and ideas that can have a long term impact within the Zcash ecosystem. Zemo and Zcash Media are both examples where ZCG has ultimately lost an opportunity of supporting/encouraging/fostering amazing teams within the Zcash ecosystem. We don’t get these opportunities often so it hurts when we get it wrong. I hope I can help better outcomes in both of these areas.

Background

My name is Matthew and I live in Australia with my wife and 2 young kids. I’m a software engineer in the security space. My day job is working on a C++ implementation of the SSL and TLS protocol (i.e. the “S” in HTTPS). I sit next to a cryptographer who I work closely with in our team. I’ve been professionally writing code for over 17years but have been working in IT for longer. I have a very broad knowledge of programming languages and frameworks. I’ve worked in a review committee before with 7 members. I’ve also been an applicant to committees before, with dozens of separate submissions, so I empathise with applicants. I hope to draw upon all these things as a ZCG member.

Activities

Examples of my participation in Zcash ecosystem.

Holding ZF, ECC, ZCG accountable when required and advocating for change.

Drive adoption and awareness of Zcash in the real world.

Why GGuy For ZCG?

I believe ZCG needs to invest in more big projects/ideas/teams and work towards building long term contributors and teams that can learn, evolve, and scale. As Zcash scales so will the number of contributors and the size of the teams we require to grow, develop, and support Zcash. The sooner we start fostering large projects and larger teams the easier it’ll be for the Zcash ecosystem to scale Zcash to a billion users. Without a more vibrant ecosystem with many large teams there is little hope of Zcash ever reaching a billion users.

ZCG’s 2022 Performance

Unfortunately the following grants were rejected that I fought to be approved:

I think the rejection of Zemo and Zcash Media grants are two examples where we are pushing new teams away from the Zcash ecosystem. Long term if we keep pushing these projects and teams away from Zcash we are going to find it hard to scale Zcash and its applications to meet the needs and demands of its users as Zcash grows.

Fortunately I have been unable to find any grants that were approved that I would have fought to be rejected. Therefore I think ZCG could have approved more grants than they did in the past 12months.

Making ZCG More Efficient

I also think, as stated by others, ZCG can and should make decisions quicker. From an outsider’s perspective it appears there are 5 areas ZCG might be able to improve.

Approve grants out of cycle. There are a few grants that don’t need discussion.
Sometimes grants appear to be “pushed” to the next call when a decision can’t be made. I’ve worked in a review committee before and have seen this happen when too many members sit on the fence. Some committees won’t allow this and will force a vote. The answer is probably somewhere in between. Holding onto grants for too long adds burden to the committee and prolongs the process for the applicants.
We need open 2way communication between ZCG and other organisations (e.g. ECC and ZF). Currently, based on the minutes, it feels like sometimes the ZCG have to almost “vote” on whether or not they should ask someone at ECC for some info/opinion.
It’s probably not a constructive use of the ZCG or applicant’s time to debate finer details of an application. Assuming the ZCG member and application are both equal experts in said field then statistically the ZCG member is going to be wrong 50% of the time. It’s healthy and advisable to make suggestions to the applicant since the applicant may simply agree with the conclusions of the ZCG member. But I find it hard to imagine a scenario where the Zcash ecosystem benefits when an expert ZCG member and an expert applicant disagree on something but the applicant feels forced to jump through hoops because a ZCG member wants something a specific way.
Some of the issues in (4) probably stem from the fact the milestone system discourages pivoting. There is probably a lot of hesitation from both ZCG and the applicants to lock in the details as it’ll be painful to change in the future. Sometimes we should simply fund people and groups for the amount they ask and let them create value for the Zcash ecosystem by allowing them to pivot and innovate. There’s a good chance we will see better outcomes when we let the experts be experts!

My Voting History

Proposal Title	Approved / Rejected / Withdrawn	My likely vote
Eternity GameFi Protocol	Rejected	Reject
Crypto ATMS and Marketplace	Rejected	Reject
PredictRAM Web 3.0	Rejected	Reject
node-Tor	Rejected	Reject
Tokidoki as Full-time Moderator and Technical Writer	Rejected	Fund the individual
Bilingual Crypto and ZCash educational content & Podcast	Rejected	Reject
Zemo - Your Web3 Inbox	Application Withdrawn	Approve
Shielded Multi Signature Transactions	Rejected	Fund the individual
Zcash Media Launch Plan	Approved	Approve
Web Education 3.0	Application Withdrawn
Zcash Defi	Rejected	Reject
Ziggurat 2.0: Pre-flight testing for the Zebra RC, CI support, a GUI, and more	Approved	Approve
Zcash Promotional Song & Music Video	Approved	Approve
Free2Z	Approved	Approve
Filmmaker Pitch for Social Media Advertising Films and Photography	Rejected	Reject
Continent DAO	Rejected	Reject
Tao: Asynchronous Payment channels for stable coins	Rejected	Reject
Zcash Family Road Trip	Rejected	Reject
Crypto Learn Lab: An IRL Home for the Zcash Community	Rejected
Sponsored Turkish Newsletter and Marketing Campaign	Rejected
Greek Community Building - CryptoBlocks	Rejected
ZGo - The Zcash Register	Approved	Approve
Zcash Ecosystem Security Lead	Approved	Approve
Zecwallet and Orchard	Approved	Approve
ElectrumZ	Approved	Approve
Community Note Taker	Approved	Approve
Design SalesUnit Software on zCash	Rejected	Reject
Zcash Media 2022-2023 Grant	Application Withdrawn	Approve
Scalable Deployment of Zcach FPGA accelerator	Rejected	Reject
Zcon3 Viewing Party in Kampala, Uganda.	Rejected
DeFi for ZEC: Shielded ZEC DeFi wallet for Ethereum, BSC and Polygon	Rejected	Pivot?
CodeUp Blockchain Festival - Nigeria 2022	Rejected
Arti, a project to rewrite Tor in Rust: onion services and beyond!	Approved	Approve
YWallet & Warp Sync	Approved	Approve
Qenetex is currently a Meta cross-chain DeFi exchange	Rejected	Reject
ZK Bootcamp & Hackathon (event)	Rejected
Implement Orchard	Approved	Approve
Private Data Exchange	Rejected	Reject
Telegram Anti Scam Bot - Grant Request	Approved	Approve
ToDeFi: Torino Decentralized Finance Conference	Approved	Approve
Zcash Node - RFP for portable device for running Zcashd nodes - by Stagnum	Approved	Approve
Enhance The Zcash Wikipedia Page	Application Withdrawn
Subgroup membership testing on elliptic curves via the Tate pairing	Rejected	Reject
Orchard and UA for YWallet	Approved	Approve
Integrating BloodFuse on Zcash	Rejected	Reject
Creating HQ content for UKR/RUS Auditory + Creating strong community	Rejected	Reject
CryptoMondays DAO Partnership	Approved	Approve
Zcash and the Agri Value chain: Blockchain Workshop for African Farmers in Ghana	Rejected	Reject
The Zcash Podcast on the Digital Cash Network	Approved	Approve
Tookey	Rejected	Reject
Zcash Zodler Campaign	Rejected	Reject
Assuranc3	Rejected	Reject

Note: Ive left the items blank that involve referring the applicant to the global ambassador program.

aiyadt · December 11, 2022, 5:57pm

Love your enthusiasm Matthew. I would like to point out that Zcash Media proposal was withdrawn, not rejected as per your post. The committee was expecting a follow up proposal (shared publicly during Zcon3) to see ongoing clip releases of the recorded content, but that proposal never came to fruition.

I also appreciate the list of points to make ZCG more efficient. If you’re elected to the committee, you will get to see the other side of decision making and learn additional off-the-record details when evaluating grants that may change your thought process. I for one am content with every decision made by the committee this year, especially taking in to consideration the delay of NU5, ZEC price depreciation along with rest of the crypto investment interest withdrawal, the spam attack, the break down of light wallets, lack of orchard adoption, etc.

Judging from the inside, The ZCG have performed way better than than the setup from the ZOMG committee. And thanks to ZF for keeping the committee informed, providing compliance, legal and PR for grants, and hedging our grant liabilities for approved grants.

GGuy · December 12, 2022, 12:15am

I reject () your statement. I was clearly referring to their first version of the proposal not the second or third versions you are referring to. 37L withdrew the second version of ZCGs proposal because they weren’t happy with it. They wrote the second version of the grant because they were under the impression the first version would be rejected. Or are you suggesting there was a chance ZCG would have approved version 1 of their grant? Because if that’s the case I’d class that as a MAJOR communication failure of ZCG.

What value are you adding to this discussion by trying to correct me on this point @aiyadt? Or are you simply wanting to point out to the forum I’m wrong about something by debating technicalities?

Thanks @aiyadt. As a very active member of the forums I was able derived most of my votes from from my likes/non-likes/comment history at the time of the application. Most of these decisions were made very quickly. I agreed with ZCGs decision on 48 of the 52 I listed. Do you think any of these “off-the-record” details would have changed the way I voted? I suspect they wouldnt. If not then I don’t understand why these extra “off-the-record” would make me less efficient at submitting my vote. I hope I am given the opportunity to explore this .

I agreed with ~92% of the grant decisions ZCG made. This is great . BUT striving and advocating we make ZCG better is a trait I hope every ZCG member has. As a ZCG member I hope I can focus all my attention on things we can do better, not what ZCG has done well/right .

@aiyadt I whole heartedly appreciate everything you have done as a ZCG member. You appear to be one of the hardest working members and invest a significant amount of time to the cause. I truely thank you for your service .

But I plead that if you wish to continue this discussion we focus on ways we can improve ZCG rather then reflecting on your time in ZCG. Most of what you have stated above was defending ZCG’s performance while you were a member. Not once in your statement were you critical about your own or ZCG’s performance or offer any suggestions on how ZCG could improve. If you have any suggestions on how to improve ZCG I’m happy to continue this discussion .

aiyadt · December 12, 2022, 1:07am

Appreciate your clarification on the rejection claim statement. Factually, the grant proposal was withdrawn due to reasons shared with the ZCG. I understand you are very passionate about that grant, but your post above makes decision making look as easy as Approve or Reject, that was not how the decisions were made by the committee of five.

Less defense, more showing the progress made as your post reads as if you are not happy with the ZCG performance on 2 specific grants and that there’s some notion of “pushing teams away”. While in reality, ZCG committee members have consistently worked overtime and made themselves available to be in touch & encourage current and prospective grant applicants.

As for the suggestions on improving ZCG, the current committee has planned a transition meeting where we plan to share our learnings & feedback with the 2023 ZCG committee.

GGuy · December 12, 2022, 2:31am

Hello Zcash Community !

If you support my candidacy for ZCG, thank you . If not, why? Give me the opportunity to change your mind .

aiyadt · December 12, 2022, 3:17am

I support your candidacy
I believe your outspoken nature and technical background will be a welcome addition to the ZCG committee.

GGuy · December 12, 2022, 10:00pm

Hi Zcash Community ,

Your right to privacy extends to your right to vote privately. My DMs are always open if you’d like to chat .

GGuy · December 26, 2022, 6:37am

I see less then 50% of ZCAP members have voted. If you want to learn more about me but only have 10mins to spare I’ve clipped out my parts from the ZCG call.

GGuy · January 1, 2023, 10:05am

Voting has closed.

I’m really excited for all those elected to receive their results. Now that the election has closed I’d like to hear from more of you. Feel free to reach out to me on any of the platforms .

If you did vote for me, thank you. Are there any areas you disagree with my views or opinions?

If you didn’t vote for me why? Is there something I should reconsider If I was to ever decide to run again? I’m always trying to learn and better myself so always grateful to hear constructive criticism .

Finally, thank you everyone for this opportunity to be in the running to be a ZCG member. I’ve learnt a lot and am so grateful I’ve been able to get to know everyone a little better with all the discussions I’ve been able to have with people over the past few weeks. Good luck everyone and Happy New Year! 2023 is going to be a blast .