Grant Application - Chain-Agnostic Cross-Chain Atomic Swaps

Community Grants Applications
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Hello Zcash Community,

We recently submitted a Zcash Community Grants application for Chain-Agnostic Cross-Chain Atomic Swaps for Zcash.

TLDR: We want to make it possible to swap between ZEC on transparent Zcash addresses and EVM-compatible chains without relying on a custodian or centralized exchange.

Our proposed first step is an open-source MVP based on standard HTLC-style atomic swaps. The grant would cover the swap protocol specification, an EVM contract and client backend, a transparent Zcash UTXO script and backend, a small client UI, a matchmaking server, tests, documentation, and a demo.

A bit about us: we have been working on cross-chain protocols, payment/state channels and privacy preserving technologies for several years. We are also the team behind Perun Network, an L2 payment and state channel framework that allows microtransactions on and across different blockchain networks including account based but also (e)UTXO based chains. This proposal is not about bringing Perun itself to Zcash, but the problems are familiar to us: conditional payments, HTLCs, timeout safety, cross-chain settlement, and designing protocols that still behave correctly when users, chains, or networks are slow or adversarial.

We know this is only a first step. The initial scope deliberately focuses on transparent Zcash UTXOs, because that is the practical programmable surface for Bitcoin-style HTLC logic today. Shielded swaps, off-chain variants, decentralized matchmaking, and support for more chains would be natural follow-up directions, but we do not want to overpromise in the first iteration.

What we would especially appreciate from the community is feedback on our proposal, especially for the Zcash side of the design and whether this MVP would be useful as a first building block for broader Zcash interoperability.

Thanks for taking a look. We would be happy to discuss the design, answer questions, and adapt the proposal based on community feedback.

GitHub application:
https://github.com/ZcashCommunityGrants/zcashcommunitygrants/issues/303

1 Like
Zcash Community Grants Meeting Minutes 6/8/2026
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Thank you for submitting your proposal. After careful consideration by the ZCG and a period for community comments on the forum, the committee has decided not to advance this proposal.

We genuinely appreciate the work and dedication you put into your application and hope you’ll continue to participate and contribute to the Zcash community.