The Zcash Foundation should use the 90-day deferral of the ZOMG election as an opportunity to expand the Zcash Community Advisory Panel (ZCAP).
In a blog post published on May 28, 2021, the Zcash Foundation stated:
Going forward, to ensure that the CAP remains a useful and representative method of soliciting community feedback, membership will be on a “use it or lose it” basis. Members who do not vote in a CAP poll will be dropped from the CAP. “Abstain” will be included as an option on all votes to cater for anyone who doesn’t want to vote in a particular poll but who wishes to retain their membership of the CAP.
In the most recent Helios poll, 90 of 126 members participated. As a result, the ZCAP has been reduced by roughly 29% to 90 members and therefore should be expanded to better represent the Zcash community.
I propose the Foundation consider expanding the ZCAP as follows:
- Eligibility: The ZCAP shall include any member of the Zcash Community Forum who (1) has an active account in good standing for at least 6 months prior to the announcement of the poll and (2) requests via email or forum post that the Foundation add them as a member of the ZCAP. Note: This process is somewhat similar to the process used for determining eligibility to vote on ZIP 1014 (though I believe eligibility was extended to forum members with active accounts for 9 months).
- Modified “use it or lose it” policy: The Foundation will eliminate any ZCAP members who (1) do not vote in two consecutive polls or (2) do not vote in two polls in a given calendar year. Note: Monitoring user participation can easily be tracked via Excel.
Please let me know if you have any thoughts or feedback. I’d love to see a vibrant discussion about ideas on how to expand the ZCAP.