# ML for MGRC

**URL:** <https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/ml-for-mgrc/36718>\
**Category:** Governance\
**Created:** [June 21, 2020, 3:24pm UTC](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/ml-for-mgrc/36718 "2020-06-21T15:24:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 20

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**Author:** ![sudo\_ml](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/zcash/user_avatar/forum.zcashcommunity.com/sudo_ml/32/32958_2.png) [@sudo\_ml](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/u/sudo_ml)\
**Post date:** [September 7, 2020, 1:22pm UTC](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/ml-for-mgrc/36718/20 "2020-09-07T13:22:53Z")

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Hey @aiyadt, thanks for asking, they are good questions. Here are my answers.

> [@aiyadt](#):
>
> Are you pro BTC? If yes, Why? If not, Why?

\*\* I am pro people having freedom and choice. If BTC facilitates that, and continues to do so, I am pro BTC. If, with all the extra scrutiny it gets and miner concentration issues, it stops facilitating freedom and choice (or even worse, turns into a subverted tool of the powers that be), then I won’t be\*  
\*\* But, from a “let’s get the world to accept crypto” perspective, BTC is the most useful tool in the toolbox, so it definitely should be put into use while it remains effective \*

_(Also, I really like Hudson’s response to this question:)_

> [@Hudson Jameson announces his candidacy for an MGRC position](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/hudson-jameson-announces-his-candidacy-for-an-mgrc-position/36503/18):
>
> _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._

> [@aiyadt](#):
>
> What is the largest account size you’ve handled in USD? How many end users did it impact?\*

I’m not entirely sure what the underlying question is, but here are some stabs at it. Let me know if i’m off the mark.

- I managed a $700 million investment into a listed bank in Asia. In terms of end users I suppose you could count the tens of thousands of customers the bank had? \*
- On the other end of the spectrum, I directly managed a product campaign for a health tech startup worth $3 mn and serving 30,000 policyholders \*

> [@aiyadt](#):
>
> MGRC will control 8640 ZEC per month or 25920 per quarter, how will this be roughly spent? (provide napkin calculation).

This could be sensible: 75% grants, 20% research (to optimize grant making), 5% admin.

- In nonprofit allocation for example you don’t want overheads to be more than 20-30% of funds spent. At the same time you don’t want people to operate an overly shoestring budget because you’ll get shoes instead of results. \*

> [@aiyadt](#):
>
> MGRC announcement attracts 100s of applicants from all over the world with all random ideas, all matching your goals, how would you evaluate them?

This is my hierarchical framework. The top level is the big picture, the lower levels are higher and higher resolutions:

xx What do we want to achieve? aka what would success look like?

xxxx What are the value chains involved to reach success? Within each value chain, which stages suffer the narrowest bottlenecks? Let’s allocate time and funds to each stage according to this prioritization framework

_e.g. people assume “privacy is guilt” → people realize “privacy is freedom” → people understand role of crypto → people decide zcash is best tool_  
_e.g. govts hate privacy coins → ZEC’s “legit privacy coin” reputation grows → govts understand not all privacy coins are created equal → govts take ZEC off blacklist → wallets and exchanges add/re-add ZEC_

xxxxxx Within each stage, invest based on a 70/20/10% allocation rule of thumb, which is a guideline in innovation investing. You spend 70% of resources on high potential solutions, 20% on out of the box solutions, and 10% on wacky proposals that may just be wacky enough to cut through the Gordian knot.

Also, be ruthless about not reviewing everything if it does reach 100s of applications. We don’t want to subject ourselves to an inverse relationship between number of applications and quality of our review.

> [@aiyadt](#):
>
> 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?

To the extent we are funding organized groups of people, there must be some way of getting metadata (at any number of levels of abstraction/anonymization). I don’t think agreeing on reportable KPIs will be challenging.

Some candidates have suggested alternative means of measuring traction like social media posts and wallet downloads. I think more importantly we should establish an informal network of people who can provide qualitative input, since tweeting about z transactions is philosophically inconsistent…

> [@aiyadt](#):
>
> DeFi fever made ETH run 2x compared to every cryptocurrency this year, thoughts?

Here’s my view: DeFi is crazy (not my cup of tea), but DeFi can be constructive iteration. It may be a bubble, but it is unquestionably a bubble that reveals new possibilities. Full thread: [x.com](https://twitter.com/88crypt/status/1293227816817844230)

TL;DR, attributable to Steve Becker (MakerDAO) and Lex Sokolin/Future of Fintech on the latter’s podcast: _Yes, you’re going to maybe put together **a monstrosity** … but ultimately you’re going to come up with **a combination that resonates** with the world. And it’s only through the capability to be iterative that you’re going to **discover the real value** in blockchain and DeFi (sic)._

> [@aiyadt](#):
>
> What locals, regions, languages, ethnicities, educational backgrounds of people have you worked with? What are your preferences of assembling teams that deliver?

I’ve lived and worked in three countries and four cities. Done deals in ~10 countries, which involved working closely with the locals. Worked with people from all over the world.

Educational backgrounds: having worked in/with professional services + tech + nonprofits + corporates + theater, I’ve worked with a wide range of folks including people who have your “standard” Ivy league double degrees and people who dropped out of school (not the Peter Thiel fellowship type, the got kicked out type).

My equation for team picking is: competence + integrity - immaturity. The sky is the limit for people who hit the mark.

> [@aiyadt](#):
>
> We live in a remote world now, how do you evaluate applicants for grants?

Same way everyone else is (virtual comms), plus clearer communication and expectations for transparency. E.g. in the past you could meet someone and say “i get an honest vibe from that person, and my channel checks via coffees with people worked out good.” Today you’d say “hey you seem cool, but because virtual makes things a bit less tangible, we need you to commit to these funding steps/reporting that appear like we don’t trust you. But actually we are just trying to be accountable to everyone we are accountable to.”

Some people are going to be offended. That would be signal in itself.

> [@aiyadt](#):
>
> Projects in Zcash are going to go through a huge change beyond the handful, driven teams funded via Zcash Foundation, thoughts?

I’d consider that a sign of maturity of the ecosystem.

> [@aiyadt](#):
>
> 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…

High price: steady the ship and stash some away for a rainy day. At this point we’ll see a non-linear increase in applications: we will need a new framework to handle the deluge of applications, and find a balance between capturing momentum and spiraling into chaos. There will also be economic gaming by people trying to maximize what they can skim off from the action; we’ll need to figure out how to maximize impact and minimize risks.

Low price: we continue as-is (investing), but limit our bets to the ones that can create a step change difference, rather than incremental differences.

We will probably also need to help projects out with treasury management so that they aren’t suddenly out of funds, or end up with a windfall that is de-motivating.

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