Formal grant proposal submission
Last week, I posted on the forum requesting feedback about this idea. I received positive feedback from the community.
I have now submitted a full grant proposal.
Project Summary
The Tor Project is hosting the first-ever crypto-native crowdfunding campaign for internet freedom projects, leveraging the Tor audience of millions of knowledgeable, privacy-conscious users and supporters to rally support for this important ecosystem of privacy-preserving projects.
Why
Privacy, freedom of expression, and access to information are human rights. When the internet is not free, people cannot exercise these rights. In 2025, global internet freedom declined for the 15th consecutive year. That means more censorship and surveillance, less freedom.
At the same time, tens of millions of dollars of funding for internet freedom projects was gutted in 2025.
Without new funding, 150 projects are at risk of shutting down + 45 million people risk losing access to the open internet globally. Although the Tor Project remained stable though this funding crisis, many smaller privacy and internet freedom organizations and software projects are in great peril.
Project goal
- Build reusable, private, self-sovereign crowdfunding infra for a rapid response pilot crowdfunding round
- Fund immediate development for 11 privacy-preserving internet freedom projects + provide a template for future fundraising
- Empower millions of people to exercise their human rights online
- Reflect, learn, and iterate on the pilot round in the future
Ask
We respectfully request that the Zcash Community Grants contribute to the matching pool for the crowdfunding campaign. Contributing to the matching pool benefits Zcash by associating it with leading privacy projects, exposing Zcash and ZCG to millions of privacy-conscious users, and demonstrating Zcash’s utility for charitable giving.
Outcomes for Zcash & ZCG in supporting this campaign
→ Associate Zcash with leading privacy and internet freedom projects and our shared values. Tor Browser users are some of the most privacy-minded on the internet. Our users choose Tor Browser for its high level of privacy and reputation in the internet freedom space.
→ Onboard values-aligned nonprofits + organizations to Zcash, allowing for them to accept Zcash in the future. At this time, only a handful of the eleven crowdfunding beneficiaries accept donations in cryptocurrency, and even fewer accept Zcash. This project will introduce new organizational-level users to the ecosystem.
→ Promote the use of Zcash as a mechanism of charitable giving. This crowdfunding campaign is an opportunity to demonstrate that Zcash can be used in charitable giving contexts. We know that Zcash users are charitable because many of you have donated to Tor! Offering Zcash as a way to donate in this campaign expands its demonstrated utility in this context.
→ Support tools necessary to achieve privacy on every level. Because of the change in the funding landscape, many privacy and internet freedom software projects are facing existential risk. Millions of people will lose access to private ways to chat, share files, host websites, receive censorship circumvention support, communicate with journalists, and browse the web privately if these projects fail to raise funds over the next 1-2 years. Tor has a role to play in bringing attention to this critical need, and we believe Zcash also benefits from a strong, healthy ecosystem of privacy software!
Feedback
We welcome feedback and questions, and look forward to more discussion.
I look forward to getting connected to the right person who can be our Communications contact at ZCG so we can get you plugged into all of the visibility opportunities we have coming up!