We’re excited to share our grant proposal for Voterax, a privacy-preserving coordination infrastructure designed to bring Zcash-level privacy guarantees into how decisions are made, contributions are evaluated, and rewards are distributed.
Full application:
The Problem
Today’s coordination systems both Web2 and Web3 are fundamentally broken:
In Web3 governance:
Token-weighted voting = plutocracy
Whales dominate decisions
Contributors lose influence
In Web2 systems:
Decisions are opaque
Reputation is fragmented
Talent discovery is inefficient
The result:
Low trust
Low participation
Misaligned incentives
What is Voterax?
Voterax is a privacy-preserving, reputation-powered coordination layer for fair decision-making and talent discovery across Web2 & Web3.
We combine:
Reputation (CP/RP systems) → influence earned through contribution
Zero-knowledge proofs → privacy for voting, identity, and rewards
Verifiable outcomes → trust without exposing sensitive data
Why Zcash?
Zcash pioneered private money.
We believe the next frontier is:
Private coordination
Voterax extends Zcash’s philosophy into:
Private voting systems
Confidential contributor evaluation
Privacy-preserving reward distribution
Instead of exposing:
who voted
how they voted
how much they earned
We prove:
valid participation
fair outcomes
correct rewards
without revealing sensitive data.
What We’re Building
With support from Zcash, we will deliver:
1. Reputation-Based Coordination Engine
Contribution Points (CP)
Reputation Points (RP)
Eligibility-based participation
2. ZK-Powered Voting
Private voting
Proof of eligibility
Verifiable outcomes without identity exposure
3. Confidential Reward Distribution
Winners are determined transparently
Rewards are distributed privately
No public exposure of earnings or identities
4. Real-World Campaigns
Use cases include:
Hackathons
Grants
Bounties
DAO governance
Talent discovery pipelines
Why This Matters
We’re not just building a product.
We’re solving a fundamental gap:
Privacy exists for money but not for coordination.
Yet coordination determines:
who gets funded
who gets opportunities
who builds the future
Voterax ensures that:
fairness is verifiable
privacy is preserved
contribution matters more than capital
Traction So Far
Full UI/UX system completed
Live prototype 80% ready
ZK-first architecture ongoing
Smart contract development will commence soon
Early conversations with DAOs & organizers
Business model validated (5% campaign fee)
Community growth significant
We are currently transitioning from idea ⇒prototype (80%)→ MVP → live campaigns
The Team
Voterax is built by a multidisciplinary team across product, engineering, and community growth, led by:
Dr. Damilola Oguntola (Founder & Project Lead)
Backed by The Mirror Hub, a growing community focused on:
Web3 education
ecosystem building
onboarding contributors across emerging markets
The rest of the team can be found here
We are not just building tech we are building usage and adoption from day one.
Ecosystem Value for Zcash
Voterax directly contributes to Zcash by:
Expanding ZK usage beyond payments
Introducing new demand for privacy infrastructure
Driving real-world applications of zk-SNARKs
Onboarding new users into privacy-first systems
This is how Zcash evolves from:
private money → private digital society layer
We Want Your Feedback
We’re sharing this early because we want:
Technical feedback on our ZK approach
Thoughts on privacy in governance
Input on potential integrations with Zcash tooling
Ideas for pilot use cases within the ecosystem
Closing
We believe Voterax represents a natural extension of what Zcash started.
Not just protecting how we transact but also how we decide, collaborate, and allocate value.
Separating voting weight from token holdings is the right instinct for Zcash governance. The CP/RP model sidesteps the whale dominance problem that plagues most token weighted voting.
Five milestones from June to October on $35K is tight. Which ZK proof system are you building on for the private ballot verification?
Thanks for this and fully agree, separating influence from capital is long overdue, especially in governance systems.
On the ZK side, we’re taking a modular approach rather than locking into a single proving system too early, but here’s how we’re currently thinking about it:
ZK Approach (Current Plan)
For private ballot verification, we plan to use zk-SNARK-based systems, aligned with the broader cryptographic direction pioneered by Zcash.
Specifically:
Proof Type: zk-SNARKs for succinct verification
Use Cases:
Proof of eligibility (based on CP/RP thresholds)
Verifiable tallying without revealing individual votes
Private vote submission
System Design
We are separating the flow into 3 layers:
Eligibility Proofs
Users generate a proof that they meet participation criteria (e.g., reputation threshold) without revealing identity or exact scores.
Private Voting
Votes are committed privately and later verified via ZK proofs to ensure:
one valid vote per eligible participant
no double voting
no identity leakage
Result Verification
Aggregated results are proven correct without exposing individual inputs.
Tooling Direction
We are currently evaluating:
Circuits: Circom for custom circuit design
Proving systems: Groth16 initially (due to efficiency), with flexibility to evolve
Potential exploration of PLONK-style systems depending on scalability and dev overhead
Why This Approach
Given our current stage (prototype → MVP), the priority is:
Fast iteration
Low verification costs
Compatibility with existing ZK tooling
Rather than over-engineering early, we’re designing the system to be upgradeable at the proving layer as usage scales.
On Timeline
You’re right May to October is tight.
We’ve structured milestones to:
Ship a working MVP early
Introduce ZK components incrementally (not all at once)
Validate with real campaigns before full optimization
So the goal isn’t “perfect ZK from day one”
it’s: usable system → validated → progressively hardened
Happy to go deeper here, especially if there are specific Zcash-native primitives or tooling you think we should be aligning with early.
Full application:
valid participation
Full UI/UX system completed