Thank you for the questions @aiyadt!
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Are you pro BTC? If yes, Why? If not, Why?
Answer: This is a complicated topic. When I first started getting involved in Bitcoin in 2011, I was encapsulated by the idea of decentralized, non-government manipulated, censorship resistant peer-to-peer currency. Over time it seems that the goals have changed to where Bitcoin is now “digital gold” and it is more difficult to see a future where a family can quickly and easily send Bitcoin across international borders with small fees. At this point, I think Bitcoin can still be a really good censorship resistant store of value, but I don’t support it as a peer-to-peer electronic cash system. Zcash has a much better opportunity to be that. -
What is the largest account size you’ve handled in USD? How many end users did it impact?
Answer: Although I have been deeply involved in operations at the non-profit I’ve worked at over the years (Ethereum Foundation), I have never been directly involved in the finances. I was previously involved in an IoT blockchain start-up called Oaken Innovations as COO which handled $500k of early investor funds (friends and family round) from about 10 people/entities. Other than those 2 experiences, I have only handled my own personal accounts. -
MGRC will control 8640 ZEC per month or 25920 per quarter, how will this be roughly spent? (provide napkin calculation).
Answer: This will be entirely dependent on the amount and quality of applications we receive. It would be unwise to speculate how much of the budget should be used monthly before we are at a place to start to understand the cadence of applications and other details. -
MGRC announcement attracts 100s of applicants from all over the world with all random ideas, all matching your goals, how would you evaluate them?
Answer: My hope is that the MGRC members would construct a way to funnel these applications into different buckets based on priority and other factors. A sorting and ranking system for initial applications would help us figure out what to focus the bulk of our time on and make sure we don’t focus on applications that do not meet the goals and edict of the MGRC. -
KPIs aren’t entirely possible on a privacy preserving payments protocol project’s level, it’s all z2z, how will you evaluate funded team’s impact?
Answer: Although you can’t necessarily provide KPIs on things at a low technical level, such as z2z transactions, it is possible to gather other KPIs. Examples may include number of downloads for a mobile app built to facilitate Zcash transactions or social media traffic. As I mentioned on the call, I want there to be grants focused on non-technical aspects of Zcash, such as marketing. Marketing endeavors have a lot of KPIs. -
DeFi fever made ETH run 2x compared to every cryptocurrency this year, thoughts?
Answer: As someone who is very deep in the Ethereum ecosystem, the DeFi explosion feels both like a greedy surprise and natural progression. The popularity of DeFi has driven up the transaction fee prices to a point where the average user is priced out of participating. Some of the drivers behind DeFi are greed and hoarding wealth which isn’t good because that creates a larger wealth gap. One the other hand, the promise of DeFi, to enable anyone to get involved in exciting new financial instruments without being an “accredited investor”, is still alive. DeFi is not what I imaged when I signed up to build Ethereum, but I think experiments like the ones we see today push forward Ethereum in many ways and puts pressure to innovate to do things like alleviate transaction fee woes. In a tweet I posted Sept. 3rd I explained in part how I was feeling:
I struggle to reconcile participating in the greediness of DeFi. Sometimes I’m unsure a net positive will come out of all of this if DeFi dominates as the primary Ethereum use case forever. However, I still believe Ethereum will greatly empower the disenfranchised at some point.
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What locals, regions, languages, ethnicities, educational backgrounds of people have you worked with? What are your preferences of assembling teams that deliver?
Answer: I currently work at a non-profit based in Switzerland without a central physical headquarters. Almost everyone at the organization works remotely (although there are some concentrated groups of people who rent co-working spaces in major cities). Blockchain technology attracts people from all around the world and I’ve been lucky enough to work with people from everywhere, including Europe, Latin America, and Asia. I work with a range of ages, experiences, and academic backgrounds. An interesting trend I’ve noticed is the amount of college drop-outs in the blockchain space.
I greatly value diversity in the teams I work with. It’s important to have BIPOC representation on your teams as well as other marginalized groups. People who are driven to succeed and get along well with others are traits that I value in team members. -
We live in a remote world now, how do you evaluate applicants for grants?
Answer: Carefully. With the support of the other MGRC members I believe we can set-up the proper systems to divide-and-conquer the applications submitted and flush out the ones that don’t fit with our goals. It is really interesting how remote collaboration has negated the need for physical workspaces and I imagine that will affect the line items listed on the grant applications. -
Projects in Zcash are going to go through a huge change beyond the handful, driven teams funded via Zcash Foundation, thoughts?
Answer: I think this is a positive thing and a natural progression to increase the decentralization of a project. It helps create less central points of failure. The MGRC will help accelerate this process and my hope is that the funds are utilized in a way that keeps decentralization in mind. -
Zcash is a protocol at its core, ZEC price is volatile. How will you handle a single digit ZEC? ($9 x 8640/month = $77,760) How will you handle a 5 digit ZEC? ($21,000 x 8640/month = $181.44MM) Thoughts…
Answer: The MGRC will need to adjust for the constantly changing price of ZEC. The volatility in price increases the need for speedy processing of applications and grant dispersal after terms are agreed upon between the MGRC, Zcash Foundation, and applicant. Because I do not have experience handling grants, I would lean on others in the MGRC to learn and activate strategies resulting in minimizing volatility.