The future of Zcash in the year 2020

[Shawn]

One my hopes in creating this thread is to spur discussion about what happens when the Founders Reward runs out. Is the Zcash Foundation expected to then take over? I don’t know Zcash Company financial details so I have no idea how long they can/would/want to last once thier primary (?) funding source abruptly ends.

Zcash Company has been clear about the long term goals of decentralization:

However in the long run it would not be appropriate for a single for-profit company to have this much power over the evolution of the Zcash technology. Ultimately, there will need to be an independent, inclusive, non-profit body to steward the technology in the interests of all users.

This was discussed in other threads with various reactions, and I will quote some reactions here to a suggestion that some sort of “new fund” be established to help Zcash Company or even the the Zcash Foundation or some other entity keep the lights on and keep working on improving the Zcash protocol beyond 2020.

(Please don’t feel singled out if I quote you here, I’m just trying to keep the conversation moving forward)

@garethtdavies

As to the theme of the thread I am strongly in favour of creating a dev fund as a % of the block reward to fund continued development of the protocol post 2020.

@hloo

I strongly support the Founders Reward as it is currently specified (10% of the total supply of 21 million ZEC, all distributed before the first block halvening), but I very much oppose any extension, and I would work vigorously to organize an opposition to any proposal to extend it.

@sonya

The Foundation opposes any change to the Zcash Founders’ Reward, even those that may benefit our balance sheet. Without overwhelmingly broad consensus, monetary policy changes cannot be supported — particularly ones that redistribute a longstanding disbursement to the protocols’ critical contributors. Our own governance process revealed split opinions on whether we should even discuss changing monetary policy, which bolsters this view.

@ericreid9

I’m general I’m ok with extending the founder’s reward to pay for future development. Zcash seems to be considered on the leading edge of crypto privacy and that’s something I want to embrace and continue.

@Lisfin

I fell like, you guys made plans and needed 10% of the coins to complete it, wasnt that enough?
I dont know what your plans are after the rewards run out, it might be a good idea for you guys to release some information on what you plan to do, so we are not caught by surprise. If/When funding suddenly stops. This is a important topic for any company, im sure there has already been talks about it.

As you can see there is a wide range of opinions.

Which brings me to the second part of the puzzle, how do we measure Community sentiment for these kinds of changes

@Shawn

Again, the most constructive way forward for the Development Fund questions is to come up with a way to get community consensus that can’t be gamed that the Zcash Company will take seriously. I agree with @str4d , a Twitter poll and Google form do not hit the mark especially when it comes to potentially millions of dollars to be spent on the Development of Zcash.

There is also discussion on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Vires_Num3ris/status/1081340542389243904?s=09

What would be the most effective way for the ‘community’ to vote on these proposals? Most conventional voting systems are too easily gameable to be the only deciding factor imo.

Perhaps a weighted skew of several different voting mechanisms and over staggered timeframes. @acityinohio can you point me towards your thoughts thus far?

https://twitter.com/acityinohio/status/1081372632317087751?s=09

Sure! The most concrete articulation right now is probably the feedback from the original advisory panel process (https://z.cash.foundation/blog/governance-results/ ). The main addition the Foundation is keen on adding is a parallel staked voting approach, but still brainstorming other possibilities.

So thats where we are at.