Shielded Labs is structured as a non-profit Swiss Association. All funds must be used to support its mission, which is to serve the Zcash protocol, community, and ecosystem. In terms of governance, Shielded Labs has a board of directors that is responsible for managing its affairs. The board is elected by its members, the “Zcash Community Council,” which oversees the board and ultimately holds it accountable. I chose to structure this entity as an Association because having members is a great way to decentralize control of the organization.
I am a US citizen and serve as a board member. All other board members will be non-US citizens. It is my intention to have most (if not all) employees and key contacts be non-US citizens. For example, Shielded Labs is currently in the early stages of working with a team of developers based in Europe on a certain development project, which I am hoping to announce to the community later this month.
I agree with this statement and it is very much aligned with Shielded Labs’ long-term vision. However, I am starting this entity completely from scratch and with limited funding, so it will take some time to get there. Hopefully not too long!