This is not fully accurate. I am a US Citizen and reside in the US, but the other member is a Swedish citizen who has residence in both Sweden and the US, but plans to move back to Sweden permanently this year. More board members will come on over the next few months who are non-US citizens based outside the US.
I don’t quite follow what you’re saying here, but Shielded Labs has funding it received from independent donors to fund its operation. The reason it doesn’t have tax exempt status is because the tax authorities expect the organization to first prove it is meeting the requirements on an ongoing basis before applying. See this post for more information. Shielded Labs has been around for a few months, and from what I understand, obtaining tax exempt status as a Swiss Association can take up to a couple years.
The reasons I haven’t applied for a ZCG grant is (1) I am a ZCG committee member and as such am ineligible to apply for a grant. I plan on serving out the term I was elected for, and (2) ZCG’s funds are pretty tight, so if I stepped down as a committee member and applied for a grant, I wouldn’t be able to obtain meaningful funding.
Nevertheless, Shielded Labs has already started development on the Zcash Sustainability Fund and is working on a couple other initiatives related to user adoption.
The Zcash Foundation started in a very similar way, with two volunteer directors and minimal funding. It took significant time before it received enough donations to start operating and hire its first employee, Josh Cincinnati.
Anyway, I don’t think this thread has anything to do with Shielded Labs. Josh said:
To which Chammy responded:
I’ve made no “jurisdictional diversification proposal.” I started a new org. Furthermore, Shielded Labs has no connection to ZCG (other than I am a member of both) or any intention of taking over ZCG or assuming its responsibilities. Shielded Labs is not set up as a grant-giving organization. They are completely separate entities.