Outreach Update

[Beth]

Hi Zcash Community!

As promised, I wanted to provide you an update on my outreach efforts for Zcash Community Grants. July was my first official month working on this and this is my first official recap for the community so I would encourage everyone to review and let me know if there are areas you would like to see more flushed out or omitted.

As always, I am happy to answer any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to me directly at zcashoutreach@gmail.com or ask here!

As a reminder, I am only working part-time on these efforts at the moment.

Operational/ Housekeeping Updates:

Set Up CRM Tool for ZCG
During the month of July, I set up a Customer Relationship Management program for ZCG. A CRM tool is used to track outreach efforts and store communication to the organizations we are working with or could potentially work with. Total set-up took between 6-8 hrs and will help me provide reporting to the ZCG team and the community regular updates on how outreach efforts are going.

If I am ever ‘hit by a bus’ or transfer these responsibilities to another, there will be a clear record of the conversations we have had, what was successful and why as well as what wasn’t and why.

Please note that this tool contains private contact information for companies and individuals we are performing outreach to and will therefore NOT be available publicly to the Zcash community. However, it is available to ZCG and ZF.

Side note: The platform I chose is FREE and therefore does not cost the Zcash community anything!

Conducted Community Feedback Poll
I drafted a brief poll to solicit community feedback to better help me gauge what the community would like in terms of development and integrations. The goal was to provide me directional insight into what kinds of outreach I should be performing.

Raw data available here ((Zcash Community Feedback - Summer 2023 (Responses) - Google Sheets)

Defined Key Markets and Prospects

We needed to choose 3-5 markets to focus outreach efforts on if for nothing than to collect more data on Zcash sentiment in this region.

I am still working on defining the top targets by region. Markets that I am current focusing on are below with more detail:

Side note: I underestimated some of the time it would take to formulate complete prospect lists so I started outreach of organizations i knew would be immediately impactful and am hoping to have a full list by next update

Outreach Updates:

Explanation of Stages:

Current Pipeline

These are active conversations ongoing right now.

Won Opportunities

None at this time.

Lost Opportunities

These are opportunities that are not moving forward at this time.

Plans for August:

• Finish Defining Outreach Prospects by Region
• Draft marketing collateral for program for committee to review
• Continue Outreach w/ goal of have at least 1-2 RFPs in review by committee

On a separate note, I am also going to be researching how we can make Zcash more extensible for people who have an interest in building on top of it. If anyone has any ideas, suggestions or thoughts, please reach out!

Any and all questions welcome!

[dismad]

Awesome update, ty!

[lisa001]

great to see your work and very cool to see you have reached out to the yello card team

[Sheebar]

Great job, this is some nice information for the community.

[yoditar]

Hi Beth!

Thank you for your excellent work and update. If you need help, you have the support of the Zcash en Español team and community. Don’t hesitate to write me privately if you need more information and any kind of help.

Best!

[JoakimEQ]

This seems like great work! Really excited about this initative.

I must have missed the form, by my 2 cents based on the work so far would be that:

• Focusing on developers in the US might be a tough sell, as they are the most expensive. Usually nearly 3-5x more in terms of cost.
• Latam developers would be incredible. They are close to the users as well, and are known for quality work.
• Have you looked at also having a focus on P2P exchanges? All the exchanges so far seem to be very centralized and KYC heavy. I am not sure if this works for Zcash. Similar thoughts are shared here: My thoughts on the dev fund and Zodler meme

[januszgrze]

@JoakimEQ

Have you looked at also having a focus on P2P exchanges? All the exchanges so far seem to be very centralized and KYC heavy. I am not sure if this works for Zcash. Similar thoughts are shared here: My thoughts on the dev fund and Zodler meme

I’m releasing a report in the coming weeks around this and happy to sync with Beth on future opportunities.

[Beth]

@januszgrze

I’m releasing a report in the coming weeks around this and happy to sync with Beth on future opportunities.

Yeah, let’s do it! I would love to learn more!

[Beth]

@JoakimEQ

• Focusing on developers in the US might be a tough sell, as they are the most expensive. Usually nearly 3-5x more in terms of cost.
• Latam developers would be incredible. They are close to the users as well, and are known for quality work.

We are totally on the same page! When I spoke with the committee about these plans I specifically mentioned looking for devs in LATAM and SE Asia because it will be most cost-effective and will help to establish larger Zcash communities in these regions. Crypton Studios is HQ’d in Europe and is a larger player in the space so I believe it’s worth having a conversation with them.

If you have any ideas of specific places you think I should contact, be sure to funnel them my way!

@JoakimEQ

Have you looked at also having a focus on P2P exchanges? All the exchanges so far seem to be very centralized and KYC heavy. I am not sure if this works for Zcash. Similar thoughts are shared here: My thoughts on the dev fund and Zodler meme

Yes! Yellow Card is a popular P2P exchange in Africa and would be a key win for us in this region. Also exploring more options 0 if you think of anyone specifically, send them to me and I will take a look!

[Beth]

@yoditar

If you need help, you have the support of the Zcash en Español team and community.

Thank you so much! You will definitely be hearing from me as I will likely need your help!

[Beth]

@JoakimEQ

• Focusing on developers in the US might be a tough sell, as they are the most expensive. Usually nearly 3-5x more in terms of cost.
• Latam developers would be incredible. They are close to the users as well, and are known for quality work.

We are totally on the same page! When I spoke with the committee about these plans I specifically mentioned looking for devs in LATAM and SE Asia because it will be most cost-effective and will help to establish larger Zcash communities in these regions. Crypton Studios is HQ’d in Europe and is a larger player in the space so I believe it’s worth having a conversation with them.

If you have any ideas of specific places you think I should contact, be sure to funnel them my way!

[JoakimEQ]

Great to hear that! Sounds like you are on the right track.

What kind of projects are you looking to get these development studios to work on? Mostly frontend, apps and CEX integrations maybe?

[palmar]

Excellent work. I liked seeing this approach for Exodus Wallet to integrate shielded ZEC, it seems like a great way.

[Beth]

Right now, I want to explore a couple of things with dev companies…

1. A way to make Zcash more extensible
2. Improved payments experience, think of something like a lightning network for ZEC

If you have better ideas, shout them out! Always looking for feedback.

[Beth]

It sucks that Exodus won’t be moving forward at this time, but it is strictly due to a lack of dev availability on their end. They are interested in adding shielded Zcash and their CEO and I are planning on following up to look at resources again near the end of the year.

[palmar]

Yesterday I found this information about the most popular wallets. I know the CM of TokenPocket in Spanish who could put you in touch with the central team. This is a very, very used wallet in Asia. It is one of the most popular there. If you are interested, leave me a way of contact.

tododecripto.eth

[Beth]

This is super helpful, thank you!

[Beth]

Hi Zcash Community!

Things are moving along on the outfront reach. I am playing with the formatting of this update a little bit to make sure that it is more clear to the community what is happening on my end. Suggestions on how to improve it are always welcome.

Right now, we are focusing on building relationships with ZCG in hopes that as the token price continues to improve we will have a strong backlog of potential integrations we can pull from.

As always, I am happy to answer any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to me directly: zcashoutreach@gmail.com. Any and all suggestions and introductions are welcome.

Operational/ Housekeeping Updates:

Explanation of Stages:

I added a new stage, Compliance Review, to better illustrate where pauses are. I will continue to fine tune these stages to provide the best clarity and transparency to the community.

Current Pipeline

These are active conversations ongoing right now. Please note that anything with a price tag added to it is based on preliminary conversations and may not be finalized.

Lost Opportunities

Lost doesn’t mean gone forever - it just means not right now. Usually this is because of a lack of resources on the partner side or the price tag was too high for a depressed token price at the moment. All will be revisited as need.

Plans for September:

• Finish draft marketing collateral for program for committee to review
• Continue Outreach w/ goal of have at least 1-2 RFPs in review by committee by end of quarter

[gottabeJay]

Thank you for the update. I hope ZF creates new email address for your role. It will be very difficult to engage with companies and institutions with a gmail account. Perhaps it can be on the ZCGs domain?

[gottabeJay]

UPDATE:

Zcash Community Grants Meeting Minutes 9/4/2023

Below please find the latest ZCG meeting minutes and Public Dashboard link. Attendance: Amber Brian GGuy Jason Alex (ZF resource) Daniel (ZF resource) Deidra M (notetaker) Key Takeaways: Open Grant Proposals Bird Calls - This grant remains on hold. Accurate Description of P2P Trading - ZCG voted to reject this grant proposal. Ori: Alternative Full Node Implementation - Before voting, the committee needs more information and clarification. Brainstorm Session Follow-Ups Treasury - ZCG…

Dan will set Beth up with an @zcg email address moving forward to help establish her new role with ZCG. The committee will use its discretionary budget to pay the $9 monthly bill. ZCG will discuss the option of committee members getting an @zcg email address at their next meeting.

Good.