Aescobar (Michael) | COO of RHEA Finance & Core Contributor of Noir Wallet
My name is Aescobar, and I’m putting my name forward as a candidate for the Zcash Community Grants committee. Running the role as COO of RHEA Finance and now contributing to Noir Wallet’s growth, over the past four years I’ve built a career at the heart of marketing, operations, community governance, and ecosystem growth — across protocols including NEAR, Solana, Bitcoin L2s, and now Zcash. I understand what it takes to build in this space from the ground up, and I believe that experience is exactly what ZCG needs when evaluating which projects deserve funding and trust.
My vision for ZCG centers on funding projects that create real, measurable impact for Zcash’s mass adoption — particularly in DeFi infra/DeFi use cases, privacy-preserving financial tools, and ecosystem integrations that bring ZEC to more users and more use cases, aligning with the goal of bringing Noir Wallet (as one example) to the Zcash community, further emphasizing Zcash as the privacy layer.
Past Experience
At XLINK (rebranded to Brotocol) by AlexLab, I helped achieve $300M in bridge volume within six months and coordinated integrations across seven chains including BTC Native, Arbitrum, BNB, and NEAR. I know what a well-executed, high-impact grant looks like — and equally, what a poorly scoped one looks like before it fails.
What I bring most directly to this role is operational discipline — helping teams applying for grants deliver their milestones on time and accurately, while also helping them build their GTM strategy to ensure they make the right decisions and reach the right audience.
As COO of RHEA Finance, I manage cross-functional execution across GTM, product improvement and enhancement, marketing, BD, and community — including budget oversight, OKR design, and go-to-market execution that resulted in RHEA being listed on Bybit, Bitget, Binance Alpha, Kraken, Gate, and 13 other exchanges.
Evaluating grant proposals for feasibility, team capacity, milestone structure, and financial accountability is something I do in my day job. I’ll bring that same rigor to ZCG.
I also have direct experience in community governance. I served on the Transparency Commission of the NEAR Digital Collective — overseeing the House of Merit and governance operations as a neutral entity ensuring transparency and preventing corruption.
That role taught me what it means to be accountable to a community rather than to a single employer, and I take that responsibility seriously.
ZCG members are stewards of community funds, and I intend to serve in that spirit — with open communication, clear reasoning behind decisions, and genuine accessibility to applicants and community members.
If elected, I will commit fully to the role: attending every meeting, engaging substantively with every proposal, and advocating for grants that move the needle for Zcash’s long-term relevance and adoption.
I welcome any questions about my background or vision - fully doxxed https://x.com/aescobar0g
Linked in - https://www.linkedin.com/in/aescobar-mike-85208b285
(you can DM me for fully updated resume)