It is with a melancholy heart that I write this post.
I had originally intended this post to be about my re-running as a ZOMG candidate to serve the community for another year but upon examining my personal life and the time commitments required I have decided against running for ZOMG. ̶A̶d̶d̶i̶t̶i̶o̶n̶a̶l̶l̶y̶,̶ ̶I̶ ̶h̶a̶v̶e̶ ̶s̶p̶o̶k̶e̶n̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶Z̶c̶a̶s̶h̶ ̶F̶o̶u̶n̶d̶a̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶i̶r̶ ̶n̶e̶w̶l̶y̶ ̶h̶i̶r̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶c̶o̶m̶m̶u̶n̶i̶t̶y̶ ̶s̶u̶p̶p̶o̶r̶t̶ ̶p̶e̶r̶s̶o̶n̶n̶e̶l̶ ̶I̶ ̶w̶i̶l̶l̶ ̶a̶l̶s̶o̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶s̶t̶e̶p̶p̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶b̶a̶c̶k̶ ̶f̶r̶o̶m̶ ̶a̶c̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶a̶s̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶p̶r̶i̶m̶a̶r̶y̶ ̶a̶d̶m̶i̶n̶i̶s̶t̶r̶a̶t̶o̶r̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶m̶o̶d̶e̶r̶a̶t̶o̶r̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶s̶e̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶u̶m̶s̶ ̶o̶v̶e̶r̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶n̶e̶x̶t̶ ̶f̶e̶w̶ ̶m̶o̶n̶t̶h̶s̶.̶ ̶
UPDATED, please see this post:
Shawn Retiring (postponed indefinitely) - #10 by Shawn
- How did I get here?
I have been with Zcash in some form or another since before launch, originally starting the first blog about Zcash (minezcash.com) and later creating ZcashCommunity.com. After volunteering here on the (then ECC ran forums) and Slack (now closed) as a community mod the Zcash Foundation later took over the forums and asked me to remain a moderator and admin in a contract capacity for the Foundation. The primary reason I took my time and effort to start these websites was because I believe in what I wrote back on my blog in 2016:
Zcash promises to give you back your right to tell others exactly what you want them to know, when you want them to know it, and nothing more……The choice to use your own information how you want is the entire reason why we need an online currency that is similar to using cash in real life. And that is why I’m excited about Zcash.
My belief in this mission remains true to this day. Zcash has the most cutting edge cryptography to provide its user with control over their own information, trustlessly, without needing permission and all you need is an internet connection. That vision, if realized to its fullest potential, can be an incredibly powerful tool for everyone.
- So why step back now?
The completion of my first year on ZOMG and needing to run again to be re-elected has made me sit down and examine my time availability more closely. A few months ago I received a promotion at my primary job and while this came with benefits, it also came with an increased workload and greater responsibilities. As the years went by and I took on more and more Zcash related roles I told my wife I was good, and I could handle the additional workload and the stresses that came along with it. But I promised that if I ever felt that the work/life balance was out of whack then I would take a hard look at what needs to be re-balanced. It is with that balance in mind that I have decided that I won’t have the time to dedicate to ZOMG that the community expects and deserves from all ZOMG members.
- Reflecting on ZOMGs first year
Please note: these are my personal opinions, the other ZOMG members were not consulted when writing this
I am proud of all the things that ZOMG was able to accomplish in our first year. Remember, ZOMG (then MGRC) is literally a group of 5 random people from the internet who were thrown together in a pressure pot (under the watchful eyes of the community) and asked to build an organization that could grant millions of dollars, from scratch.
These 5 people, Chris, Sarah, Holmes, Michelle, and Hudson are some of the greatest and kindest people I have met in the Zcash Community and they all came together to try and lay the foundation for something that would last. It was a heavy lift at first, from countless hours drafting, writing, and rewriting trying to figure out what ZOMG “is” , developing a voting process, changing our name, designing a logo, building out the grants platform and a new website, etc, etc… to later drafting a comprehensive “whitepaper” to help better explain what ZOMG is looking for and hosting community calls with developers to try to drum up more quality applications.
At first, we were very conservative and deliberated all grants with great scrutiny, which is what prompted some in the community to tell us to take on bigger grants and be comfortable with the fact that not every grant we fund will be successful. Plus, ZOMG faced a challenging set of organizational headwinds with the negative reception to Mario helping out Chris, and later to Sarah resigning with Michelle stepping in to take her place. Despite those challenges and setbacks we came back with a renewed energy to get things done. We funded key development teams (ZecWallet and Nighthawk) so they could work full-time on Zcash stuff and hire their own staff, we also funded promising longer term projects like Arti which will help solve Zcashs network layer privacy problem, and Trezor which will finally bring Z-address storage to hardware wallets. We also made a deliberate attempt to encourage the community with smaller “fun” projects that would encourage more community participation, to which we funded ZcashZeal, ZemeTeam, and ZecPages. Through grants we were also able to on-board new Zcash developers like Hanh, FireiceUK, and MistFPGA who had not worked on Zcash projects in official capacity before.
We did this work with the full knowledge that we would not be “paid back” for all these extra hours we spent and some on ZOMG even refused to accept the $500 per month in ZEC stipend from the Foundation. We did it for the broader vision of Zcash, not for the money.
- Thoughts on ZOMGs future
I don’t think there is anyone in the community with the opinion that ZOMG should continue just as it did last year, the only question is: how do we fix it? On one side some feel that ZIP-1014 has flaws that need to be addressed before ZOMG can get back to work, that a complete halt and reset is the best course of action. On the other hand some feel that ZOMG issues can be handled on-the-fly and the ZF is making steps in that direction by hiring personnel to support ZOMG. My first thought is not that neither camp is wrong, both sides have valid points, but the set timing to address those points is extremely short. Adding to that complexity is that there are too many separate groups making too many polls to try to make their point, many new ZOMG candidates trying to get noticed, ZOMG members highlighting issues they feel strongly about, a ZIP that has many moving parts to address, etc, etc. it’s enough to keep the community paralyzed in back and forth debates for months.
Bear with me for a second while I make an analogy that popped into my head while thinking about this problem. ZOMG is a car in a race, trying to do the best it can to win that race (ie win developers, allies, and broad support for Zcash) and it’s got a pit stop scheduled every year (elections). If you’ve ever seen a race before you know that cars in pit stops get fresh tires, more fuel, and maybe a new driver, but they never go through a complete engine (ZIP) overhaul; we know the engine isn’t running as efficiently as it should but there simply isn’t time to replace it. Plus it’s important that the drivers get back on the track to keep pace with the rest of the pack and to reassure the onlookers (investors, developers, public) that they are working out the issues and haven’t completely broken down or dropped out of the race. An additional factor in this years "pit stop’’ is that a new pit crew (ZF support staff) are just coming onboard at the same time, and there hasn’t been any time to quantify how that will affect the ZOMG.
My point with this analogy is that the seemingly opposing perspectives about how to fix ZOMG are not mutually exclusive. We can complete this pit stop and give the new committee members some laps on the track (with the new crew supporting) to figure things out with thier own eyes while at the same time giving a replacement engine a much needed redesign. I think it’s a huge mistake to think of ZIP-1014 as etched in stone indefinitely and the community should make the effort to put forward several amendments to it that can be voted on. The democratic process of getting to ZIP-1014 was a big undertaking in and of itself but that does not mean it’s a perfect solution and democratic processes should be followed to amend it. We have to keep in mind that this may mean that sometime during the middle of the next ZOMG election tenure there may be an additional ZCAP vote that will affect sitting ZOMG members terms/conditions but as long as everyone is aware of this from the start I think they will understand.
- Final thoughts
If you have made it by reading this far, thank you for sticking with me. I hope that this news of my dialing down my participation in the community isn’t received by anyone as a negative towards ZOMG. ZOMG did some great things during the short time it’s had so far and I’m optimistic that as a community we can work together to fix its flaws and get back to what’s really important: making Zcash better and stronger than before.
Thanks for listening,
Shawn
not even given a day