I want to start by thanking everyone for the support received over the years, especially during the challenging times and significant changes in the governance and protocol of Zcash. We are here to reflect on this change and be grateful for the fruits we will eventually hit!
In 2025, we will approach this proposal with a focus on meritocracy, respect, and past work, also for future improvements as well as aggressively promote Zcash in Brazil.
We aim to recognize the hard work, perseverance, dedication, and collaboration that have contributed to the Zcash ecosystem over the years. For this reason, we will be offering full-time jobs, and the criteria will be clearly defined for our team that has reached this ideal.
In 2025/2026, Zcash may finally have its moment to shine. All the events and narratives are aligning, and we need to seize this opportunity by demonstrating its strengths, especially its privacy in payments and its capacity as a store of value.
Our team is actively engaged with all Zcash entities, including Zechub, MyFisrt Zcash, and SubDAO and consistently supports other communities as well. I believe it is time to commit fully and work 100% on this in 2025. Zcash Brazil is the only team that includes new people during proposals, whether volunteers or with rewards.
We all remember how it began and how this effort was effective in attracting talent and voices to Zcash. I believe that all of our partners admire our team for what we have endured together & nobody can destroy this, or step over it, everything that was done, spent, and achieved even without a right budget. No one can promote themselves without being grateful for where they came from, for those who opened the doors, for those who helped!
Happy to say that our team has a new look and is renewed, with the synergy to make things happen in 2025.
Applicant name: @Michae2xl, @Iogy, @Minevg, @E-zec, @james_katz.
This proposal seeks funding to expand Zcash’s presence in 2025.
Past work:
- Zcash Brazil 2024 - Period: October 2024 to December
October: Zcash Global <> Zcash Brazil - #69 by Michae2xl
November: Zcash Global <> Zcash Brazil - #72 by Michae2xl
December: pending
- Zcash Brazil 2024 - Period: July 2024 to September
July: Zcash Global <> Zcash Brazil - #49 by Michae2xl
August: Zcash Global <> Zcash Brazil - #50 by Michae2xl
September: Zcash Global <> Zcash Brazil - #61 by Michae2xl
September: Marketing <> Zcash Brazil - (Zechub DAO)
ZecHub | Marketing <> Zcash Brazil
Report: Zcash Global <> Zcash Brazil - #69 by Michae2xl
Zcash Brazil 2024 - Period: April 2024 to June
April: Zcash Global <> Zcash Brazil - #33 by Michae2xl
May: Zcash Global <> Zcash Brazil - #34 by Michae2xl
June: Zcash Global <> Zcash Brazil - #42 by Michae2xl
Zcash Brazil 2024 - Period: Jan 2024 to March
January: Zcash Global <> Zcash Brazil - #14 by Michae2xl
February: Zcash Global <> Zcash Brazil - #17 by Michae2xl
March: Zcash Global <> Zcash Brazil - #28 by Michae2xl
Zcash Brazil 2023 - Period: Jan 2023 to December
January: Zcash Brazil 2023 - Proposal - #23 by Michae2xl
February: Zcash Brazil 2023 - Proposal - #26 by Michae2xl
March: Zcash Brazil 2023 - Proposal - #27 by Michae2xl
April: Zcash Brazil 2023 - Proposal - #33 by Michae2xl
May: Zcash Brazil 2023 - Proposal - #38 by Michae2xl
June: Zcash Brazil 2023 - Proposal - #39 by Michae2xl
July: Zcash Brazil 2023 - Proposal - #40 by Michae2xl
August: Zcash Brazil 2023 - Proposal - #43 by Michae2xl
September: Zcash Brazil 2023 - Proposal - #44 by Michae2xl
October: Zcash Brazil 2023 - Proposal - #49 by Michae2xl
November: Zcash Brazil 2023 - Proposal - #56 by Michae2xl
December: https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/zcash-brazil-2023-proposal/43499/67l
- In 2022/23, all reports were sent to Yoditar, who led the ambassador program.
Applicant background:
@Michae2xl is the head of Zcash Brazil with 2.5+ years, Skin in the game, ZCAP, ZecHub member DAO since the launch, who helped create and other initiatives. He is also a Software Engineer & Product Owner. Known as Michae2xl on social media, he has over 8 years of experience in the crypto space. He has worked for a DAO as a Community Manager in both Brazil and Canada. He possesses strong leadership skills in community building.
@james_katz is an active member of the Brazilian community, on the Zcash forums, and is a member of ZCAP. With a background in IT vast coding experience and many contributions to the Zcash ecosystem.
@e-zec: Community Manager, I engage directly with community members, gather feedback, create growth campaigns with the team, onboard new users, and provide full-time support.
@Iogy is a tattoo artist in my spare time and a designer who studied Advertising until the seventh period. His interests include technology, skateboarding, blockchain, and urban art. He is working on a visual identity for Zcash Brazil, creating server banners and logos for social media. He focuses on engaging the community through POAPs, giveaways, memes, and marketing strategies, all aimed at promoting Zcash in Brazil and building trust in the project.
Reworked the Zcash Manifesto into an editable file following the original and made it available on GitHub to make it easier for the community to create translations, and different versions and get involved.
It is important to emphasize that we have always helped and done work without bounts and without receiving rewards from the DAO. Our team has always been committed to any project in the Zcash ecosystem. We have always delivered banners, projects, and ideas out of our commitment to Zcash and the dissemination of the protocol.
@Minevg: Graduated in industrial design with 19 years of experience in design
Started promoting Zcash with Michael, Iogy, and Vito in May 2022, but officially launched Zcash Brasil on the proposal in January 2023. Participated in the launch of ZecHub DAO, created the logo and NFT for DAO members
Was Speaker on ZconV regarding My First Zcash Book development and design.
Design Team Past Works on Zcash
The design team helped @januszgrze at the beginning creating ZecHub templates for his YouTube educational videos.
We carried out Zcon Vozes and in it all the promotional and printed design and social media, floor plans of the event area with furniture, technical visits, budgets and production of gifts, and budget and contact with the service. We participated in person promoting Zcash at events such as Bitconf, Web Summit, Blockchain Rio, NFT Rio, and BitinRio. For all these events we planned and executed great gifts that are also in the reports
The design team also participated in the My First Zcash book project. Mine was the art director, creating all the guidelines so that the community could collaborate on the layout of the book and helping with whatever they needed, giving @elise all the support she needed to meet the 56-day deadline. Iogy also participated by collaborating on the layout of 2 chapters.
We are also part of the ZecHub design Subdao, today there are more members who were voted in by the DAO.
With no costs Today we are accountable and transparently control the ZH Design Subdao treasury that was built through donations in ZEC for contests, which had a limit on the value of the prize, and the remainder was disclosed as going to the Subdao treasury (which today has 39 ZEC). With this treasury, we sponsor other contests for the community such as the last short ongoing contest for the book MFZ with a total prize of 15 ZEC.
All our reports are available on the forum and our works are open source.
Description of Problem or Opportunity:
Cryptocurrency is important in Brazil for several key reasons. First, it provides an alternative financial system for those excluded from traditional banking, promoting financial inclusion for many. In the face of economic instability and high inflation, many Brazilians are turning to cryptocurrencies for a more stable store of value.
The complex banking infrastructure in Brazil makes cryptocurrencies a more accessible and efficient option for transferring funds both domestically and internationally. Additionally, their decentralized nature appeals to those seeking greater financial autonomy and privacy.
Zcash, in particular, offers advantages for individuals and businesses in Brazil. Its enhanced privacy and anonymity features are appealing in a country where financial privacy is a significant concern. Zcash allows for shielded transactions, which can protect users’ financial information.
Zcash’s privacy features also contribute to a more fungible and censorship-resistant financial system, which is valuable for those looking to shield their wealth amid economic volatility. For businesses involved in international trade or remittances, Zcash can simplify cross-border transactions with faster speeds compared to traditional banking systems.
However, the successful integration of Zcash in Brazil will require attention to regulatory issues, education on the responsible use of privacy-focused cryptocurrencies, and measures to mitigate potential misuse.
Contributors: The Zcash Brazil Team consists of five members: @Michae2xl, @E-zec, @iogy, @Minevg and @james_katz.
During the year 2023/ Q1 2024 with a contribution from the developer James Katz, which created many tools for education and engagement for the Zcash community in Brazil and worldwide.
James Katz has made many contributions to the Zcash ecosystem as a whole.
A few notable examples of James’ past work:
- Dizzy discord bot
- A very popular discord bot sending, receiving, depositing, and withdrawing $zec directly from the user’s discord account. In late 2024, Dizzy’s backend was completely rewritten for compatibility with zingolib.
- ZecFaucet
- A very successful project that aims to distribute small fractions of $ZEC, directly with no KYC directly to the user’s wallet.
- Zingolib wrapper
- A very straightforward and easy-to-use zingolib wrapper written in JavaScript and node.js. Most of the work developed by James relies on this project.
- ZcashMetro.io
- A website for visualizing Zcash mempool activity.
A few of James’ contributions to other projects:
- Zcash transactions Statistics dashboard (ZecHub)
- James applied for a ZecHub bounty for developing a shielded transaction statistics chart for the dashboard page. The code is opensource on James github.
- Telegram anti-scammer bot
- In collaboration with RedNoseGnome, James developed a Telegram bot that prompts new users with a personalized captcha asking for Zcash’s current price, for human verification. The bot evolved into a multi-purposed bot for raid protection, and more recently protection against admin impersonators.
- Zebra Racing Game
- Again in collaboration with ZecHub, for the first ZecHub hackathon, James developed a full-fledged game that leverages most of Zcash’s concepts. It provided a login functionality using the Zcash memo field, bet detection via transactions and a specially crafted memo, and automatic payment of game-winners. The game was discontinued since it was only a PoC, but it’s open source, and if generates enough interest, can be turned back on at any time.
Future Plans:
All current services and tools will be supported and actively maintained during 2025.
For 2025 we have plans for the development of new ideas, support, and maintenance of the great work we have done so far.
Projects:
There are already many possible projects for 2025, with a better understanding of Rust zcash libraries, we plan to deliver more projects and tools for the community, making user-friendly applications and easy-to-use tools written in javascript and Python.
Ecossystem collaboration:
We plan to continue the collaboration with many zcash ecosystem players, helping them with the development of new applications and ideas.
James is already known and trusted by many zcash contributors and has a good understanding of projects like zingolib and zingo-pc (James being one of the main contributors to the first release of zingo-pc).
Translation: he could help translate Zcash documentation, translate wallets, and so on…
Documentation:Write documentation about the Zcash libraries and ecosystem, helping new developers find out about Zcash development.
Brazilian Design: @Iogy, @Minevg
The Zcash Design Development aims to enhance the design elements of Zcash, fostering interaction and engagement within the community.
Social Media Marketing:
We will create banners, posters, and graphics for social media platforms (Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Odyssey, Discord, Podcasts) to highlight Zcash’s privacy and security benefits. This includes editing audiovisual content from events and producing giveaways to increase community loyalty and adoption, along with tutorials and promotional videos.
Zcash Brasil Website Support:
We will assist @James in improving the Zcash Brasil website.
Ecosystem Project Support:
We will support projects like ZecHub, Wallets, Grants, integrations and ZK Club and disseminate their information (see attached report).
Event Networking:
Our goal is to facilitate networking with other privacy-focused projects and welcome new members to the community and engaged old ones.
Event Giveaways:
We will create and research cost-effective promotional gifts for events to build brand loyalty and engage attendees.
User Onboarding Tutorials:
We will produce videos and guides for newcomers to learn about Zcash addresses, wallet setup, transaction processes, and privacy protection, along with ecosystem overviews.
Educational Materials:
We will develop infographics, videos, and tutorials to educate the Brazilian public about the benefits of Zcash and its safe usage.
Privacy Awareness Campaigns:
Funds will be allocated for campaigns that promote the importance of privacy in financial transactions and highlight Zcash’s features.
Cryptocurrency Design Workshops:
We will organize workshops in Brazil to empower local designers and developers, covering topics like wallets, nodes, and privacy tips, with sessions recorded for YouTube.
Community Engagement:
We will create design tasks to involve community members and collaborate with designers for community-focused graphics and materials. We will also support the community manager and developers with design assets as needed.
Community Avatars:
Creating avatars for members that stand out in the community, promoting engagement, a sense of belonging, and member-to-member support.
Brazilian Head and growth: @Michae2xl, @E-zec
Community Involvement: Organize monthly activities to enhance knowledge of the Zcash protocol.
Educational Activities: Develop a calendar of events on privacy and Zcash, including incentives for competitions like quizzes and logic games.
Moderation: Ensure a respectful online environment through daily server monitoring and onboarding for new members, and coordinate community calls.
Community Support: Create a support network for Zcash users in Brazil, providing assistance and information.
Awareness Campaigns: Launch marketing efforts to highlight the benefits of Zcash, focusing on privacy and security. Vito will continue translations and article writing in Portuguese.
Partnerships: Continue seeking new collaborations.
Online Presence: Strengthen social media and content creation, regularly updating platforms with Zcash-related information.
Research: Fund studies exploring Zcash’s potential impact on Brazil’s economy and society.
Advocacy: Promote Zcash in forums and conferences about blockchain and financial innovation.
Merchant Adoption: Encourage businesses to accept Zcash by offering training and resources.
Solution Format: What is the exact form of the final deliverable you’re creating?
- Expand Zcash in Brazil with community management and moderation.
- Expand ZEC adoption using the current wallets, apps, and system of Zcash.
- Host and participate in in-person and online events, including interviews with partners.
- Create content about Zcash featuring new artwork from our design team.
- Translate Zcash articles actively.
- Produce and participate in podcasts about privacy and Zcash.
- Maintain a strong presence on major social media platforms to boost visibility.
- Organize and engage in Ask Me Anything (AMA) sessions.
- Distribute community items like TIPs in ZEC, POAPs, and various giveaways.
- Host events to educate newcomers about Zcash.
- Create Zcash tutorials.
Dependencies:
Our community is independent and does not rely on external entities.
Execution Risks:
No anticipated execution risks, as @michae2xl is the current ambassador and the team delivers high-quality work.
Unintended Consequences:
No expected negative ramifications from our project’s success.
Evaluation Plan:
We will track and share our success metrics with the community, including both quantitative and qualitative data.
- Zcash Brazil is establishing a presence at local events, online, and on social media.
- All updates will be shared with the Zcash community, and all our work will be open-source and free to use.
Social Media:
• Discord (Zcash Global) → Zcash Global
• Twitter (@zcashbrazil) → x.com
• Zcash | Instagram | Linktree
• Youtube → https://www.youtube.com/@zcashbrasil
• Substack (Zcash Brazil) → Zcash Brasil | Substack
• Odysee → Zcash Brasil
• Instagram (@zcashbrazil) photos and videos → Zcash Brasil (@zcashbrazil) • Instagram photos and videos
Starting in January 2025
Zcash Brazil Core Team:
- Head and growth team → @Michae2xl & @E-zec = $84000 (two people)
- Design team → @Iogy & @Minevg = $60000 (two people)
- Dev team → @james_katz = $45000 (one person)
Total Zcash Brazil team member compensation for 2025 - $189K for five people.
System costs: $2794
- 4 LightSail Instances + AWS EC2.medium: $60 * 12 = $720 year
- OpenAI API keys: $10 * 12 = $120 year
- Discord Level 3 Perks (14 Server Boosts) - $215 year
- Runway - $336 year
- Adobe Creative Cloud including (Premiere Pro, Illustrator, Indesign, Photoshop, Lightroom, After Effects Dreamweaver, Bridge, Camera Raw, Character Animator, Acrobat)
Total: month $28 / 12x = $336 year - X verified = 65$ year
- Canva = $162 year
- Airdrops Dizzy = $840 year
Events cost:
Swags, Tickets, accommodation, flights, food, etc - 15000$
OBS.: The budget will only be requested if we use it during the year, proof will be sent.
Total: 15000$
Milestone 1 - estimated completion date: 01/31/2025
Milestone 1 - USD value of payout upon completion of deliverables: $15982
Deliverable 1.1: Zcash Brazil team report
Milestone 2 - estimated completion date: 02/28/2025
Milestone 2 - USD value of payout upon completion of deliverables: $15982
Deliverable 2.1: Zcash Brazil team report
Milestone 3 - estimated completion date: 03/31/2025
Milestone 3 - USD value of payout upon completion of deliverables: $15982
Deliverable 3.1: Zcash Brazil team report**
Milestone 4 - estimated completion date: 04/30/2025
Milestone 4 - USD value of payout upon completion of deliverables: $15982
Deliverable 4.1: Zcash Brazil team report
Milestone 5 - estimated completion date: 05/31/2025
Milestone 5 - USD value of payout upon completion of deliverables: $15982
Deliverable 5.1: Zcash Brazil team report
Milestone 6 - estimated completion date: 06/30/2025
Milestone 6 - USD value of payout upon completion of deliverables: $15982
Deliverable 6.1: Zcash Brazil team report
Milestone 7 - estimated completion date: 07/31/2025
Milestone 7 - USD value of payout upon completion of deliverables: $15982
Deliverable 7.1: Zcash Brazil team report
Milestone 8 - estimated completion date: 08/31/2025
Milestone 8 - USD value of payout upon completion of deliverables: $15982
Deliverable 8.1: Zcash Brazil team report
Milestone 9 - estimated completion date: 09/30/2025
Milestone 9 - USD value of payout upon completion of deliverables: $15982
Deliverable 9.1: Zcash Brazil team report
Milestone 10 - estimated completion date: 10/31/2025
Milestone 10 - USD value of payout upon completion of deliverables: $15982
Deliverable 10.1: Zcash Brazil team report
Milestone 11 - estimated completion date: 11/30/2025
Milestone 11 - USD value of payout upon completion of deliverables: $15982
Deliverable 11.1: Zcash Brazil team report
Milestone 12 - estimated completion date: 12/31/2025
Milestone 12 - USD value of payout upon completion of deliverables: $15982
Deliverable 12.1: Zcash Brazil team report
Total proposed USD value of grant: $206794 ($191794 with costs) + 15000 events (when applied) paid in ZEC
How was the project timeline determined?
The work will be done and delivered from January 1st to December 31st, 2025.
