Michael and I have filed a revised ZCG application for 0xramp.
#408 (August 31) asked for $206,000 over twelve months and was declined.
This filing is $45,000 over 16 weeks, two part-time founders, no hires, category is integration and it directly addresses committee and community concerns about the previous application. We have also improved 0xramp a lot in this one month of non-funded work.
The proposed funded work here is the Zcash-only PAY path (Brazil static Pix today), in-app risk and recovery copy, public ZEC-attributed metrics, improved documentation that matches the live product, a tagged SDK v1, and one partner-confirmed wallet route. It does not seed capital for a business. Interface fees stay at zero for the grant term.
We welcome questions, suggestions, and general feedback in this thread.
Current GitHub issue: #454
Declined: #408
Minutes: 14 Sep 2026
#408 companion: 57271
0xramp Intro Post: 57215
Product: https://0xramp.app
// cc @ZcashGrants
Project Summary
0xramp helps people buy, sell and spend ZEC through local payment rails. Its PAY flow uses Zcash exclusively as the customer’s payment asset: the customer sends ZEC and the merchant receives local currency through the supported payment rail. The current Brazil pilot supports static Pix QR codes. A merchant can receive local currency without integrating a Zcash wallet.
We request $45,000 over 16 weeks to maintain and improve these Zcash journeys, document their paths and risks, educate users and promote ZEC; publish measurable outcomes and complete a reusable wallet integration. The main outputs are a documented Zcash-only PAY flow, public ZEC usage metrics, education material; and a public SDK release validated by at least one third-party wallet route.
This revises application #408, which requested $206,000 over twelve months. The revised scope has two builders, no hires, and four delivery milestones. Funding is allocated to the Zcash-specific work and shared operating costs itemized below. Interface fees remain zero throughout the grant term.
0xramp does not hold users’ private keys or operate a custody account for their funds. Execution still depends on swap providers, settlement infrastructure, merchants and banks; their risks and the current transparent ZEC path are part of the funded disclosure work.
Changes since #408
The 14 September decision raised concerns about user risk, Zcash-specific value, the funding model, and provider dependence. This revision addresses them through the following deliverables.
| Concern | Change and evidence |
|---|---|
| Value for Zcash | Put Zcash-only PAY alongside ZEC buying/selling; publish ZEC-attributed results; deliver a reusable wallet route. |
| User risk and responsibility | Before confirmation, identify each party, applicable risks, recovery steps and support ownership for BUY, SELL, PAY and swaps. |
| Scope and model | $45,000 for 16 weeks, two part-time builders, itemized costs and milestone acceptance; non-profit public good (interface/infrastructure), not a for-profit business (no interface fees, no equity, no token or revenue-share allocation), not a startup requesting funding. |
| Dependence on providers | Publish availability and incident handling; assess a second provider in M4. Additional wallet integrations expand access but do not remove settlement dependencies. |
| Evidence of delivery | Public artifacts, reproducible settlement totals, documented ZEC attribution, partner validation and monthly reports before milestone payouts. |
The five blockers from 14 September answered
Quotes are verbatim from the 14 Sep 2026 minutes.
1. Custodial risk across the payment systems. (Gguy: “…not completely decentralized, there may be a custodial risk across the payment systems involved…”)
0xramp is not a custodian. Funds never enter a 0xramp wallet, contract, or bank account.
The residual risk is the bank’s, under that bank’s ToS. The same risk every ZEC-to-fiat path carries, custodial exchanges included. This grant also funds user education on this and other risks.
2. “A business ZCG should not seed.” (Paul: “…a business they’re trying to start that should be revenue generating…”)
That reading of #408 was understandable: a year of opex reads like startup funding. This ask is not that: not a for-profit startup, no plans to become one; interface fee zero for the full term (every receipt shows the fee line); no token, equity, or revenue share; two builders, part-time, no hires. Month-5: a public note states what happens after these terms end, decided openly with the community that funded the previous four months.
3. Added value for Zcash — “all the work is actually done by P2P.me.” (Hanh)
What only 0xramp does: Zcash-only PAY function; ZEC pinned as default for BUY/SELL/SWAP; ZIP-321 handoff and the Noir Wallet integration; per-corridor ZEC volume anyone can recompute onchain; Zcash-first education in five languages; referral paths for Zcash Nigeria, Zcash Brazil, Zcash en Español. The settlement partner (P2P.me) alone delivers USDC-only ramps. It does not pin ZEC, speak ZIP-321, allows a direct ZEC path, write Zcash docs for Zcash communities, or build tools for the Zcash ecosystem.
Since the vote both the PAY function and the SDK layer are stronger evidence of this uniqueness: request and send payments via a QR code link, plus a wallet-side, Zcash-specific integration surface (session protocol, ZEC send request/recovery semantics, status receipts, conformance fixtures). Zingo Labs, a ZCG-funded wallet team, is co-building this integration with us today, in public repos.
4. Bank-freeze risk, and risks not clear enough on the site. (Zerodartz: “…their accounts might get frozen… The risks should also be much more clear on the site.”)
The freeze risk is real. It exists i any local-currency path to ZEC, including custodial exchanges. This grant funds proper disclosure on docs and on the live confirm path, before confirm, for on-ramp, off-ramp and swap: freeze risk, transparent delivery, who owns each failure state, what to do if affected. Failure messages will name the actor (settlement protocol / merchant bank / swap provider / 0xramp session); freeze-related support cases are tallied in every monthly report.
5. Centralized around one settlement company, versus the decentralized solutions funded before. (Hanh: “…fairly centralized around the company P2P.me, whereas the other ones are decentralized solutions.”)
Fair — those grants were protocol infrastructure; 0xramp is an interface over existing protocols, one of which is a company. What this grant does about it: corridor isolation (each pauses independently); a non-exclusive public SDK so 0xramp runs inside other wallets (value that accrues to ZEC regardless of our website); and M4’s second-leg study of alternative settlement/swap providers (candidates publicly offered in thread 57271).
Project Description
The Zcash user journey has three parts: acquire ZEC with familiar local payment methods, hold it in a personal wallet, and use it when a payment is needed. 0xramp connects these steps through BUY, SELL and PAY.
PAY is a distinct Zcash-only feature within the broader multi-asset application. Its value is practical spending: a ZEC holder can pay a supported local-currency QR without requiring the receiving merchant to adopt crypto. Support is bounded by country, rail and QR type. The Brazil interface currently labels PAY as a static-Pix pilot.
Architecture and limits
- Fiat settlement: P2P.me connects users with settlement merchants, using escrow on Base. Verification requirements, limits and rail availability are disclosed for the selected route.
- Crypto conversion: NEAR Intents supplies the current ZEC conversion path. An intermediate USDC/Base step is handled by the flow.
- Zcash privacy: the current ramp path uses transparent ZEC receivers. Sending from a shielded wallet does not make the complete fiat/payment journey shielded.
- 0xramp: coordinates quotes, sessions, handoffs, status, recovery and user-facing explanations. The application does not request bank login credentials or Zcash private keys.
Current State
| Product | v1.0.2 at 0xramp.app |
| Corridors | 12 live: 8 already used with real settlements (BRL, VEN, INR, ECU, IDR, PEN, ARS, NGN) + 4 alpha (COP, BOB, CUP, PHP)¹ |
| PAY | Zcash-only; Brazil static-Pix pilot. |
| Settled volume | 2026-08-01–2026-09-27 UTC. 357 completed orders; 25,533.83 USDC settled. Evidence: attached 0xramp_volume_diario_producao_2026-09-28.csv (last row: operacoes_acumuladas=357, volume_acumulado_usdc=25533.834866). Two days in the window have no completed settlements (2026-09-07, 2026-09-13). This export is USDC escrow settlement totals and does not identify a ZEC-attributed share. |
| User cost and timing | ~6 min payment-to-ZEC; ~4%+ over mid-market (merchant spread + local FX); interface fee zero; realized % published monthly; minimum order ~USD 5. |
| Languages | Portuguese, English, Spanish, Hindi and Bahasa Indonesia, as listed in the supplied product draft; verify against the submission release. |
Wallet integration: existing work and funded work
The public 0xramp SDK contains protocol documentation, conformance fixtures, a sandbox and host examples. Its currently at v0 pilot (not ready for production) and is not yet published to npm. QR-PAY is outside that SDK’s current v0 scope.
Zingo Labs has a public reference application. M3 will validate a route initiated from the partner wallet, with wallet-controlled ZEC signing and return handling.
The proposed first pilot is SELL ZEC → BRL, with small amounts in the partner’s beta channel, subject to final partner confirmation. Browser transport, return handling, send API, passkey/device evidence and recovery must be validated. Public repositories establish work in progress; the milestone requires a completed route confirmed by the partner.
Public user and ecosystem feedback
Selected public posts show interest in easier ZEC access, perceived affordability and practical onboarding:
| Evidence | What it contributes |
|---|---|
| Noir Wallet, 15 September recommends 0xramp to people acquiring ZEC outside a centralized exchange. | A public wallet-ecosystem recommendation. |
| User report, 15 September describes correcting an EVM/Zcash address mix-up and then successfully using the flow. | An individual success report and a concrete onboarding friction to address. Its quoted fee comparison is not a general cost benchmark. |
| 0xramp post, 25 September shares a walkthrough attributed to community m@pedamericomber @pedamerico. | A community-created demonstration distributed th@0xramplabsough @0xramplabs; the post alone does not establish settled volume. |
| Rafaela Ferrari Kley, 25 August discusses everyday-user access to Zcash. | Public third-party commentary about the use case, rather than transaction evidence. |
These are qualitative examples, not a representative sentiment survey. Monthly reports will distinguish user reports, partner comments and team publications, link the underlying evidence, and record the issues addressed or still open. Paid publications will be labeled separately.
Operational communication also matters: 0xramp’s 17 September notice disclosed a provider outage affecting ZEC routes. The grant formalizes route status and incident reporting within the product.
Conflicts of interest
- Michael leads Zcash Brazil, a separately funded community organization. No Zcash Brazil grant funds have flowed to 0xramp; it is a potential pilot community, not a vendor to this grant.
- Vini operates a NEAR validator and is a House of Stake delegate. NEAR Intents is a technical dependency.
- The Zingo collaboration is non-exclusive; no commercial contract is reported in this application.
- Talks concerning other partner marketing and another interface integration remain unsigned. Any material funding change or overlap will be disclosed to ZCG.
Total Budget (USD)
| Category | Amount |
|---|---|
| Infrastructure / tools | $3,000 |
| Services / reserves | $12,000 |
| Compensation (2 founders × 16 weeks) | $30,000 |
| Total | $45,000 |
$7,500 startup, then four milestones of $9,375 each after acceptance.
Milestones Summary (complete details on Github)
| Milestone | Week | Amount | What “done” means |
|---|---|---|---|
| M1 | 4 | $9,375 | Risk/recovery copy before confirm; PAY support limits; metrics v0 with ZEC attribution |
| M2 | 8 | $9,375 | Docs match the live PAY path; one external user validates the guide |
| M3 | 12 | $9,375 | SDK v1 tagged and one wallet-originated ZEC route settled, confirmed by the partner |
| M4 | 16 | $9,375 | Three community handoffs; second-provider note; continuation / unused-fund plan |
The full application, milestone acceptance text, and settlement export are on the GitHub issue. This thread is for questions.
Best,
Vini (@vinibarbosa) and Michael (@Michae2xl)
