Major Grants Review Committee Candidates MEGATHREAD

Governance
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Regarding MGRC dream team, here’s a list of people I admire who might be a good fit for MGRC:

  • Jill Carlson, Partner at Slow Ventures, friend of Zcash, twitter
  • Christina Lomazzo, Blockchain Lead, UNICEF Innovation, twitter
  • Joy Buolamwini, Algorithmic Justice League, twitter
  • Pia Mancini, Cofounder, Open Collective, twitter
  • María Paz Canales, Executive Director, Derechos Digitales, twitter, (Derechos Digitales is a human rights/ tech advocacy group in LATAM)
  • Matt Mitchell , Technology Fellow, Ford Foundation, twitter (Founded crypto harlem, consulted for HRF, internet freedom festival, NYT and others)
  • Eva Galperin, Director Cybersecurity, EFF, twitter
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110

Hi everyone! September’s Zeal call is Tue, Sept 29, about a week after the poll closes for MGRC voting. I would love for that Zeal call somehow involve the newly formed MGRC, perhaps a Meet the MGRC session or something to that effect. @acityinohio @Shawn - how does that sound to you all? Is that something we can add to the current timeline?

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111

That sounds good to me, will add it to the top post ( as long as there are no objections from @acityinohio )

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No objections! Good idea @elenita. I would say that you should get confirmation from the MGRC members as it will ultimately be up to them but I have to imagine they’d all be game.

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Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I am going to check these people out.

regarding the EFF tho, I would much rather see some kind of partnership with them where they maybe received some of the MG. I think they would have a lot to bring to the table. What is the current relationship between the EFF and the ECC / ZFND like?

Is there anyway to start a conversation with them?

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114

Ok! @Shawn, it sounds like we can add the date in the top post (maybe include something like tentative, pending MGRC approval) and once MGRC is set up they can decide if/how to use that community time.

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115

Already done :wink:

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116

As everyone has mentioned, election time is getting close. There are still serious open questions (i.e. is this a full time gig) Is their a consolidated list of all these questions and will the Gov Panel be deciding this prior to voting?

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117

I was working on it, but ive be delayed. will try to get a list started in the next few days (unless someone else starts one first.) I suggest a thread just for questions, then we can formalise a questionnaire. - I think most candidates posts are too old to be edited now.

No one really knows if it will be full time for example but people need to say what they would do if it is or if it isnt.

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I’ve written a short list here. I would like to encourage people to add to it. I’m sure the smart minds here can come up with some other good questions.

Once we have a good list of questions, it should be turned into a poll.

Should the zcash commuinity advisory panel(ZCAP) allow more members to join?
Should the zcash commuinity advisory panel(ZCAP) be opened for more people to apply before, or after the MGRC election deadline?
Is being a ZCAP member a conflict of interest for serving on the MGRC?
Is being a ECC member a conflict of interest for serving on the MGRC?
Is being a ZF member a conflict of interest for serving on the MGRC?
Is it a conflict of interest for a member of another cryptocurrency project to be on the MGRC?
Should the MGRC seats be full time or part time?
Should the MGRC members be compensated for their time? If yes, how much, and when?
Is it ok for a MGRC member to have another full-time job?
Should the MGRC members all speak english?
Should the MGRC members proactively seek people/teams to apply for grants, or wait passively for people to apply?
Should current rules be kept in place requiring all the board members be replaced every year?
If no, Should 2 of 5, or 3 of 5 board members be replaced every year?
Should the MGRC move a portion of funds into a ‘savings’ account to fund larger unforseen projects?
What % of funds per block should be allocated to a savings account?
Should the MGRC grant Zcash, or USD, or half/half?
Once elected, should the 5 members brainstorm a formal process for determining whether a grant is funded or not?
Should the MGRC require weekly/monthly reports from grantees?
Should the MGRC require full financial transparency for how grant funds are spent by applicants?
Should MGRC members discuss every application on voice chat?
Should the MGRC members have a private, or public group text chat, or both?
What platform to use for text chat?
Should each individual MGRC member write a short report assessing the application and submit it to the rest of the team, and then speak over voice to finalize? (I like this method)

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119

This is a good starting point. I have a few other general questions on the MGRC process outside of simply determining funding status:

  • Should MGRC members get involved with shaping the outcomes and reporting of individual grants? e.g. I recently spend some time advising Zbay on both their grant timelines and their ethical review - I think that such work should form a core part of the MGRC (but that obviously requires time and effort).
  • Relatedly, to what extent should the MGRC shepherd projects v.s. making firm accept/reject decisions.
  • Should the MGRC adopt other requirements and policies around reporting, ethical review, security engagements (etc.) as part of the grant process?
  • Should the MGRC require budgets and restrict funds to the stated purpose (as is common in grant funding)?
    • If so, to what extent should the committee be available to respond to requests for changes in scope and other budget reallocations?
    • If not, how will the committee ensure that funds are being awarded effectively?
  • Should the MGRC consider funding in tranches?
    • If so, on what timelines should the MGRC review and approve additional funding?
    • If not, on what timelines should the MGRC approve funding without additional review?

I will also add a few higher level questions I outlined in another thread regarding conflict of interest policies:

  • What qualifies as a conflict of interest, including what relationships might appear as conflicts of interest?
  • What standards should there be for disclosing a conflict of interest - both upfront and during governing activities?
  • How conflicts of interest are reported , to what extent are they available to other governing members or to the wider community?
  • What consequences should there be for violating the policy or withholding such information from other committee members?
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120

Some of these questions are already answered by ZIP 1014:

No. “The Major Grant Review Committee is subject to the same conflict of interest policy that governs the ZF Board of Directors (i.e. they MUST recuse themselves when voting on proposals where they have a financial interest).”

Is being a ECC member a conflict of interest for serving on the MGRC?
Is being a ZF member a conflict of interest for serving on the MGRC?

No, but “At most one person with association with the ECC, and at most one person with association with the ZF, are allowed to sit on the Major Grant Review Committee. “Association” here means: having a financial interest, full-time employment, being an officer, being a director, or having an immediate family relationship with any of the above.”

ECC’s candidate is David Campbell (@alchemydc). As far as I know there is no candidate with association with the ZF, yet. @Shawn is a candidate representing the ZF.

Should current rules be kept in place requiring all the board members be replaced every year?

There is no requirement that all board members be replaced every year; only that their terms last for one year. The current wording is:

“Major Grant Review Committee members SHALL have a one-year term and MAY sit for reelection.”

I would expect that any hypothetical future change to this requirement would not be applicable to the terms of the initial MGRC members.

Should the MGRC move a portion of funds into a ‘savings’ account to fund larger unforeseen projects?
What % of funds per block should be allocated to a savings account?
Should the MGRC grant Zcash, or USD, or half/half?
Once elected, should the 5 members brainstorm a formal process for determining whether a grant is funded or not?

It is up to the MGRC members to decide how they manage funds and how they make grants, subject to the Transparency and Accountability requirements.

The rest of the questions remain open as far as ZIP 1014 is concerned.

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121

Great questions @tm3k and @sarahjamielewis

I like the idea of putting together a standardized list that all candidates can answer prior to the vote. For the sake of efficiency, perhaps it would be helpful to split it in two:

  1. Core questions (need maximum clarity asap, so all candidates should provide concrete answers prior to the vote; this way ZCAP members can reasonably guess what the most fundamental MGRC policies and procedures are likely to be if their preferred candidates get elected and are thus involved in the initial setup process). Opinions may differ here but I would personally keep this relatively short and include (at minimum) the following topics:

  • Views on compensation and willingness/ability to commit full time. (My personal opinion is that the first patch should include at least a few people who can work full time, if needed, even though I don’t think it’s rational to start out with 5 full time positions. In such matters, it’s always easier to add than remove.)

  • Views on conflicts of interest, i.e. who should be excluded from the MGRC, or who should abstain from voting and when. I agree with @daira that the basics are already specified in ZIP 1014 but I think the issue is important enough to have each candidate clarify their position.

  • Key principles/priorities/competencies when it comes to the core purpose of the MGRC (this one is a bit more open-ended, allowing each candidate to highlight what they plan to emphasize and focus on, whether they think the formal list of MGRC responsibilities should be minimal vs. long/detailed, what expertise they personally bring to the table, etc.). Including this among the core questions would help in making sure the initial membership provides a good balance between technical, organizational/administrative, and financial expertise, covering both Zcash-specific but also broader but still relevant areas/topics.

  1. Everything else, incl. operational details that need to be ironed out by the initial MGRC members and are likely to change over time. Here, I would even include things like the size of compensation and reporting requirements. Starting out with 1-year terms (with the option of re-electing existing members) would allow for revising all of it based on experience. If individual candidates feel strongly about any of these issues, they can emphasize it in their answer to the third question above but figuring out the exact final details would still be a task for the whole MGRC.

The purpose of the above distinction would be to ensure that the most important questions get the necessary attention from all ZCAP members, many of whom may not have the time to dig into all the minor (although still important) details that I hope we can trust the initial 5 MGRC members to figure out in a responsible manner once they start working together. Whatever they come up with, if the broader community is not happy with the result, it will be possible to correct/change things in a year from now.

(EDIT: many great answers are already sprinkled throughout this and individual candidate threads, but the main reason to create a standardized list would be to make it easier for everyone to compare individual positions/perspectives. If someone is already working on a different approach/system to coordinate the final stretch here, then these suggestions can simply be ignored.)

With regard to growing the ZCAP membership prior to the vote. I feel like this topic is more important to some than others, and coordinating the MGRC election process should definitely be prioritized at this point, but… If there are longtime community members that really want to join, they are endorsed by an existing ZCAP member, and no one objects, perhaps it’s not such a big deal to just include them?

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122

I mentioned in my application that if I were to be added to the MGRC I would serve as the ZFND representative:

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123

My apologies, I’d forgotten that.

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See also ML’s posts about Conflicts of Interest and how to manage them. Her perspective sounds spot-on, to me. Conflicts of Interest are not evidence of impropriety, and they are not something that can or should be stamped out. In fact, they are sometimes good! The best people often engage with multiple other people or organizations. And so-called “Conflicts of Interest” are often actually “Alignments of Interest” that help keep everyone involved on the right track. The most important way to manage CoI is disclosure, and having the oversight of the other MGRC members over any CoI’s. ZIP-1014 already requires that.

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125

been noticing a few MGRC candidates are only available/interested in part time work. thinking it would be helpful for all MGRC candidates to publicly state whether they’re looking at MGRC as part time, or full time work. believe this information will be helpful for ZCAP voters @MGRC-Candidates

i’ll start - full time

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126

Good idea @kek , as I mentioned in my application I am only available for part time work.

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127

Im up for either.

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128

Full time. No salary needed.

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