Hi Zcash Community,
We have submitted a Zcash Community Grants application for Quantir Privacy-Safe Risk Intelligence for Zcash Infrastructure and would like to share the proposal here for community feedback.
Quantir is a DeFi and on-chain risk intelligence platform that combines data collection, risk scoring, anomaly detection, explainable alerts, and API/WebSocket delivery in one workflow. For Zcash, we are proposing a privacy-safe monitoring and alerting module focused on ecosystem infrastructure, Zapps, integrations, wallets, light-client services, and other public or opt-in operational signals.
The goal is to help Zcash builders and operators understand service degradation, infrastructure reliability issues, unusual integration behavior, bridge/application risk, and other ecosystem-level conditions without weakening Zcash privacy.
This project will not attempt to deanonymize shielded users, infer private user behavior, expose protected transaction details, or weaken Zcash privacy in any way. The scope is limited to public signals, opt-in telemetry, infrastructure health, and privacy-preserving operational reporting.
Grant Summary
Application Owner: Ilya Berdar
Organization: Quantirintelligence
Requested Amount: $48,000
Category: Infrastructure
Proposed Duration: June 2026 - August 2026
Startup Funding: $0
Milestone-Based Funding: $48,000 total
Team
Ilya Berdar
Project Lead / Senior Blockchain Developer
Responsible for project scope, Zcash-specific privacy boundaries, technical architecture, grant communication, milestone delivery, and final acceptance coordination.
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ilya-berdar-6063a11b6/
Andriy Boichuk
Senior Software Developer
Responsible for monitoring adapters, data normalization, service logic, tests, deployment workflows, and backend reliability.
Linkedin: Andriy Boichuk - Eschatology Entertainment | LinkedIn
Alex Grishenko
Senior Software Developer
Responsible for alert schemas, reference integration, documentation, validation examples, and developer-facing materials.
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-grishenko-66167b62/
Problem
Zcash is built around strong financial privacy, but ecosystem infrastructure still needs practical monitoring and operational visibility. Wallets, Zapps, light-client services, bridges, APIs, and integrations may experience reliability issues, abnormal behavior, or operational risk that affects users and builders.
The challenge is that monitoring in a privacy-first ecosystem must be designed carefully. Many common blockchain analytics methods are not appropriate for Zcash because they may imply surveillance, deanonymization, or weakening shielded privacy.
At the same time, builders still need clear and actionable information about public infrastructure health and opt-in operational signals.
This proposal addresses the lack of a reusable, privacy-safe, explainable monitoring pattern for Zcash ecosystem infrastructure and applications.
Proposed Solution
We will build an open-source Zcash-specific monitoring and alerting module that converts public or opt-in ecosystem signals into structured, explainable risk alerts.
The system will define strict privacy boundaries first: no deanonymization, no shielded-user behavior inference, no analysis intended to weaken privacy, and no exposure of protected transaction details.
The module will focus on public infrastructure signals, opt-in telemetry, service availability, integration behavior, bridge/application status, and ecosystem-level data that can be monitored safely.
The output will include structured alert payloads with severity, risk score, reason codes, evidence fields, and human-readable explanations. These outputs can be consumed by dashboards, bots, internal monitoring tools, or future API/WebSocket services.
Deliverables
The project will deliver a Zcash privacy-safe monitoring design document, public/opt-in signal taxonomy, structured risk alert schema, sample datasets and example alerts, monitoring adapter prototype, risk scoring and explanation logic, reference consumer or integration example, tests and setup instructions, CONTRIBUTING.md aligned with Zcash development standards, and final technical report with public documentation.
Milestone 1 - Privacy Boundaries, Signal Taxonomy, and Alert Schema
Amount: $12,000
Expected Completion: 2026-06-21
Deliverables: privacy-safe monitoring design document, public/opt-in signal taxonomy, initial alert category list, JSON schema for normalized signals and risk alerts, initial architecture documentation, and CONTRIBUTING.md aligned with Zcash development standards.
Acceptance criteria: reviewers can inspect the design documents, verify that privacy boundaries are explicit, review the alert schema, and confirm that the proposed system does not depend on deanonymizing shielded users.
Milestone 2 - Prototype Monitoring Module and Explainable Alerts
Amount: $20,000
Expected Completion: 2026-07-19
Deliverables: prototype monitoring module, sample public/opt-in signal inputs, risk scoring prototype, explainable alert generation logic, at least 5 alert categories implemented in sample form, at least 10 sample alert scenarios, and unit or integration tests for core alert generation logic.
Acceptance criteria: the prototype can process sample inputs, generate structured alert payloads, explain why alerts were triggered, and pass documented tests.
Milestone 3 - Reference Integration, Documentation, and Final Report
Amount: $16,000
Expected Completion: 2026-08-09
Deliverables: reference consumer or integration example, final developer documentation, setup and testing guide, validation examples, final technical report, public open-source repository with schemas, sample alerts, prototype code, tests, and documentation, and forum update summarizing final delivery.
Acceptance criteria: reviewers can run the reference example, inspect the final documentation, validate sample alert outputs, and confirm that the delivered software matches the privacy-safe scope described in the proposal.
Budget
Total requested amount: $48,000
Budget breakdown: $6,000 for hardware/software costs, $6,000 for service costs, and $36,000 for compensation costs. Startup funding is $0.
Startup funding is not requested separately. The initial research, privacy boundary design, signal taxonomy, architecture, and schemas are included in Milestone 1.
Success Metrics
Success will be measured by completion and usability of the open-source deliverables: published privacy-safe monitoring design document, at least 5 documented alert categories, working prototype that generates Zcash ecosystem risk alerts from public or opt-in signals, JSON schema for alert payloads, at least 10 sample alert scenarios, reference consumer or integration example, test guide and setup documentation, CONTRIBUTING.md aligned with Zcash development standards, final technical report, and community forum updates before milestone payouts.
Risks and Mitigations
The main risk is defining a monitoring scope that is useful while fully respecting Zcash privacy. We will reduce this risk by starting with strict privacy boundaries and limiting the first version to public or opt-in signals.
Another risk is that some ecosystem signals may not be available in a standardized format. We will address this by designing the module around sample datasets, documented schemas, and extensible adapters.
A third risk is over-scoping. To avoid this, the first version will focus on infrastructure and integration health, structured alert schemas, explainability, and reference examples rather than attempting broad ecosystem coverage.
What This Project Will Not Do
This project will not attempt to deanonymize shielded users, infer private user behavior, expose protected transaction details, modify Zcash consensus code, modify zcashd, Zebra, librustzcash, or wallet SDKs, provide financial advice, or guarantee incident prevention.
Relevant Links
Quantir landing page: https://landing.quantirintelligence.com/
Quantir app: https://app.quantirintelligence.com/
Quantir GitHub repository: https://github.com/quantirintelligence/quantir-risk-engine
We welcome feedback from the Zcash community, especially around the privacy boundaries, useful public or opt-in signals, and which infrastructure or application-level monitoring categories would be most valuable for Zcash builders.