We can disagree about grants. There’s no room for hate

General
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I’ve been watching the reaction to the ZECsy booth photos this week, and I have to say how disgusted and disappointed I am by the broader crypto community, including the leaders from Zcash. Not only for the transphobia and antisemitism, but for the silence. You know who you are.

You may think the ZECsy grant is a bad use of funds. You can think ZCG should be reformed or shut down (I’ve been arguing about ZCG governance in this forum all week myself). Those debates are healthy, and they’re how this community figures things out. I’m here for it.

But we cannot sit behind our computers and NOT speak up about what some of the reactions turned into: mocking and attacking members of our community for who they are, for being trans and Jewish, and for who they’re trying to reach.

Hate has no place in Zcash. We are above this, we are not bullies. Being inclusive should be our edge. It’s how we reach more people. That’s the goal, isn’t it?

I believe Zcash exists because financial privacy protects people.

The people who need that protection most are the ones who get debanked, deplatformed, surveilled and targeted. This includes members of the adult industry, so get over it.

If we only welcome users who look and live like us, we’ve missed the point of what we’re building. And remember, the adult industry is known for its openness to new tech. It’s smart to use that to our advantage, and it was smart for the ZECsy grant to get approved.

To everyone who disagrees with the grant: make your case on the merits and be sure to do your research before baselessly making claims. But when an argument turns into an attack on someone’s identity, loudly call it out, even when it comes from someone who agrees with you on the spending question.

I’d ask others who care about where Zcash is headed to say the same. Silence reads as permission. I will not be silent and, if you really care about Zcash, neither should you.

I encourage the community to start tracking this type of hate. At the very least, having someone combat transphobia and antisemitism in the crypto community by tracking instances of it. I would support a grant like this.

There’s no room for hate in the Zcash community.

— Blake

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Can you please cite these specific examples from people who are arguing with you in the forum over the ZCAP slush fund? Because I have seen zero of this.

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I couldn’t agree more :+1:

I try really hard to be unbiased and focus on love vs hate, but its hard when taboo topics arise and opinions run wild. I suspect some of this is coming from folks who want privacy to fail in general but I can only speculate. No better way to cause chaos then from within.

Be smart out there. :shield:

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Many Zcash leaders moved their primary comms channel to X. That’s where this is happening, and practically nobody is standing up against hate there.

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Daira, for example, isn’t on Twitter for the very reason you mentioned. That’s terrible.

You know, we’ve often discussed this at ZCG. We actually have several dozen people who are willing to openly represent the Zcash community and who can comfortably interact with people in cryptocurrency adoption settings. Even now, there aren’t that many of them. The entire Zcash army mostly hides behind pseudonyms on Twitter for obvious reasons.

The team you’re writing about is very active and isn’t afraid to interact openly with people on the street. I have a lot of respect for them because of that.

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People (many of whom are not Zcashers) are free to say what they want, but let me directly address your assertion regarding leaders, which I assume is partially directed at comments I have made on Twitter:

  • No “leader” has taken issue with ZECsy being trans in particular
  • There has not been any mention of anti-semitism? (the Monero crowd infamously repeats this and I’ve not even seen them chime in)

What I did say, was that its inappropriate to use public funds to sponsor sex worker and adult content conferences, regardless of whether they are trans focused. Obviously it is controversial and not everyone will be supportive of those markets, which is exactly why it is irresponsible to use public funds to benefit one market.

I did not say, nor have I seen any “leader” say, anything regarding who should use Zcash - the whole point is that no one else gets to decide how others use their money.

One of the strengths of Zcash (vs. Monero) has been the constant refusal to promote usage on dark markets, which provide the ability to purchase drugs, violence, child porn, human trafficking, sex work, etc. This has made Zcash far more accessible to a wider market, as the slogan “privacy is normal” was designed to culturally encourage.

Leaning towards the world of “privacy is for criminals” is a slippery slope that ostracizes the larger market from Zcash. And yes, sex work is considered criminal and immoral in many places, which is why it is a poor choice for a public marketing campaign for Zcash.

I have other thoughts on using dev rewards / public funds for marketing purposes at all, but I will save those for another thread.

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Please stop calling radbro a “user”

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Grouping sex work alongside extreme crimes like CSAM perpetuates a harmful stigma against sex workers, and could be interpreted as hate.

Please review my original post regarding the silence of leaders.

And…

This is extremely false. I have never seen violence, CSAM, human trafficking, or sex work really sold on any darknet market. That’s a Hollywood trope. Drugs: sure. [Source: I once ran the largest darknet market of its time and sometimes have fun browsing them today. Admins take moderation very seriously to not further increase their risk. (nobody should do this, I’m not encouraging their use)]

Further, calling Tor the “darknet” is itself stigmatizing of a privacy technology.

But why doesn’t anyone use Zcash on the “darknet” today? Because practically nobody uses Zcash for payments yet.

It’s still the very early days of Zcash, and even of cryptocurrency. Up until very recently the user experience of Zcash was very confusing (shoutout to the Zashi/Zodl investors and teams). As for crypto itself, most people don’t even use it for payments yet.

Like any privacy technology, Zcash will be used by good actors and bad actors, regardless of how you define good and bad. That doesn’t make the technology bad. Code is amoral. Zcash will be used to protect people, and some of them will inevitably be criminals. We can’t control that. The internet faces the same reality: it’s used for good, and it’s used for bad. It’s just a technology.

What we can control is what we say. I really encourage this community to refresh their understanding of what hate speech is.

Here’s how we’re coming across to one particular group of at-risk people: @caycemarlowe.bsky.social on Bluesky

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We can control what we say, and we can control what we fund.

——

I find it interesting that you’re resorting to an outdated tactic of identity politics: reframing criticism of someone’s views as an attack on their identity.

Appeals to victimhood are no longer an effective debating tactic.

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Drug usage put next to sex crimes makes drug users look bad. The point isn’t that anyone is making moral judgement - but that ZCG shouldn’t be promoting illegal activity with coin holder funds.

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It’s not a crime in many places too. Let’s not use USA neuroticism as guiding values in Zcash.

I thoroughly support @emersonian ’ s message, thank you for posting this. I can’t really see the responses to the tweet (probably for the best) since I don’t have a naziland account anymore.

Many queer people have been critical to building Zcash. It must have no place for prejudice and transphobia.

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You say Zcash has no place for prejudice, yet you are clearly prejudiced against

  • “naziland” (all 550m users of the worlds largest public social media platform are nazis?)
  • American values
  • Anyone morally opposed to sex work

And working for the Zcash Foundation nonetheless! Surely unbiased.

Yet, no one has voiced any prejudice against queer people? Again, purely projecting based on the false debate logic of identity politics.

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Popper time

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