Zcash Community Grants Meeting Minutes 1/5/2026

Community Grants Community Grants Updates
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Grant Dashboard

Zcash Community Grants Committee Google Meet Meeting: January 5, 2026

[Minutes taken by FPF]

Attendance:

  • Artkor

  • GGuy

  • Hanh

  • Zerodartz

  • Decentralistdan

  • Alex (FPF resource, notetaker)

Key Takeaways:

Open Grant Proposals

  • BTCPayServer Zcash Module Project Review

    • They propose an independent review of the BTCPayServer Zcash plugin to assess progress made since their 2023 analysis, which previously found the module unusable for non-technical merchants. With reports of at least seven successful merchant integrations in 2025 and a goal of expanding adoption and transaction volume, they plan to verify what has been built, identify remaining gaps, and recommend architectural directions for future improvements. To ensure neutrality and focus on strengthening the Zcash ecosystem, they will not pursue paid development work on any follow-up tasks they propose. Applicant is requesting $15,500.

      • Artkor: As previously stated on the Forum I’ve chosen to recuse myself from discussion and voting on this grant.

      • Gguy: I don’t see this as a worthwhile grant and I vote to reject.

      • DecentralistDan: I’m going to reject as well.

      • Zerodartz: I will reject because it doesn’t seem to provide enough value right now. I would be more interested in code audit instead.

      • Rejected.

  • Zcash Global en Espanol 2026

    • This proposal seeks to sustain and expand Zcash en Español as a full-time education, community, and outreach initiative across Latin America and Spain from January to December 2026. Building on work initiated in 2022, the project addresses persistent misinformation, language barriers, and lack of awareness about financial privacy among Spanish speakers, despite growing regional adoption of cryptocurrencies for remittances, payments, and savings. Through coordinated digital operations, online education, and in-person events, the project will strengthen an established Spanish-language ecosystem while launching new initiatives to deepen understanding and adoption of Zcash. Applicant is requesting $111,100.

      • Artkor: After confirming there were no critical overlaps with related grants, I am comfortable supporting approval of this proposal. The work appears complementary, and the team has demonstrated meaningful progress with Spanish-language educational content. I vote in favor of approving this grant. Separately, the committee is developing a set of broader expectations applicable to local communities in general, which will be outlined in a forthcoming forum post.

      • DecentralistDan: I approve. Great team that has been a quality contributor for years.

      • Gguy: I also approve and I agree with the statement that we’d like to see more collaboration and efficiency between these communities.

      • Hanh: I approve as well. But I’d like to raise a concern that there seems to be a lot of overlap between this team and Zingo and at times it seems like they are promoting Zingo above other solutions.

      • Zerodartz: I will also approve and I’d like to see more collaboration with other communities as well during next year. Big potential could be using more Brazil teams designs to make some of the visuals more streamlined. Local custom designs for posts still good also.

      • Approved

  • Zproof

    • ZProof is an open-source, Zcash-native cryptographic library that provides developers with a standardized, privacy-preserving primitive for proving data existence and integrity without revealing the underlying data. It enables local generation and independent verification of cryptographic proofs that attest a piece of data existed at or before a given Zcash block height and has not been modified, addressing a current ecosystem gap where developers rely on ad-hoc hashing or external timestamping solutions. Delivered as a lightweight developer library with a reference CLI, documentation, and test vectors, ZProof focuses solely on proof generation and verification. Applicant is requesting $25,000.

      • Gguy: We saw a lot of contributions like this during the hackathon and while the tool might have some use cases I don’t think it’s appropriate for funding at this time.

      • Artkor: I want to add for all new contributors that while Zcash is fundamentally built on zero-knowledge proofs, not every proposal leveraging zero-knowledge technology is inherently relevant to Zcash or represents a meaningful contribution to its ecosystem. In this case, the proposal did not demonstrate why the work was specifically needed for Zcash. I vote to reject.

      • Hanh: I agree with Artkor, this adds no new functionality.

      • Rejected

  • Zcash Arabia - Q1 2026

    • Zcash Arabia is a community initiative focused on expanding awareness, adoption, and development of Zcash across the Arabic-speaking MENA region by delivering localized education, community engagement, and developer support. The project provides Arabic-language learning resources through an online academy, articles, videos, and interactive content, alongside events, AMAs, and partnerships to grow real-world usage and wallet adoption such as Zashi. In parallel, it supports developer growth through workshops, technical training, documentation, and planned hackathons, addressing the current lack of Arabic resources and low regional participation. Applicant is requesting $7,500.

      • Gguy: Putting on hold and we’ll have more discussions going forward on how we can assist this team on their contributions and impact. We view this region as important for Zcash but we have reservations about the effectiveness of this team.

      • Artkor: While the activity level of the Zcash Arabia team declined somewhat in the last quarter of the previous year, I would like to give the team an opportunity to demonstrate its work more effectively. During the discussion, we outlined the direction in which the committee would like to see this initiative evolve. As a result, we intend to propose additions to the current grant. If this revised approach proves to be of interest to the Zcash Arabia team, I would support approving a trial period.

      • DecentralistDan: I’m open to a trial period and help them set off in a new direction but yes, I’m happy to keep it open.

      • Zerodartz: My view is they have not proved themselves so far with minimal activity. But if they can prove themselves during next months i could change my opinion. .

      • Remains open

  • ZKAV Club 2026

    • The Zero-knowledge Audiovisual Club (Zk Av Club) proposes to operate as privacy-first media infrastructure for the Zcash ecosystem in 2026 by preserving and publishing community knowledge as durable public goods. The project will complete and archive ~80 recordings from 2025 on the Internet Archive, coordinate three volunteer-led Recording Station activations (including Zcon7), support on-site interviews with ZecHub at a Z|ECC Summit, and launch a Zcash-focused PeerTube instance hosting the Zcon HD archive and community clip contests. Complementary community-led workshops and a small support fund will address accessibility, documentation, and publishing gaps, creating a consistent, consent-first pipeline that turns decentralized community conversations into discoverable, remixable, and long-lived resources. Applicant is requesting $228,545.

      • Zerodartz: I will recuse myself from voting because I’ve been working too close with this team.

      • DecentralistDan: I approve. Longstanding team, I like the new direction, they were impactful last year and I’m looking forward to seeing what they accomplish in 2026.

      • Artkor: I completely agree. The ZKAV Club team presented a clear and well-structured plan, including both Zcash-focused activities and outreach beyond the immediate Zcash ecosystem. The proposal builds on prior work and positive community feedback, while addressing limitations observed in the previous year due to time and resource constraints. Given the defined milestones and the scope of responsibility involved, I vote to approve the grant as proposed.

      • Gguy: I agree. I think that we saw a sneak peak of these sorts of efforts last year and we saw the value they provided. This is a well structured plan with real impact.

      • Hanh: I agree too. It’s a more comprehensive approach than some of the other community approaches we see and video is really important.

      • Approved

  • Zcash Turkey (Q1-Q2 2026)

    • This project seeks to sustain and expand Zcash’s privacy mission in Türkiye during the first two quarters of 2026 by increasing awareness of financial privacy and building a strong, localized community around privacy-focused technologies. Leveraging Türkiye’s high interest in cryptocurrencies, the initiative addresses the current lack of understanding, educational resources, and community engagement related to financial privacy and Zcash. Through regular social media content, monthly in-person events, women-focused privacy initiatives, and the development of educational materials, the project aims to bridge knowledge gaps, foster a privacy-oriented culture, and encourage broader adoption of Zcash. Applicant is requesting $26,400.

      • Artkor: Turkey is among the leading countries in terms of cryptocurrency adoption, partly driven by ongoing macroeconomic conditions. The Zcash Turkey team has demonstrated consistent activity, and the proposal represents a logical continuation of this work. I vote to approve the grant as proposed.

      • Hanh: Me too, they did a good job.

      • DecentralistDan: Approve

      • Zerodartz: Approved. They have consistent and impactful activities and I’m interested to see more growth and impact during this grant term. One of the best small new teams that has shown well they know what they are doing.

      • Gguy: I’ll add that if this team keeps up the momentum of their impact I see good things to come. Approved.

      • Approved.

  • Bao-Verified Streaming for Zcash Light Clients

    • Project proposes building production-ready, open-source tooling that enables resumable, trust-minimized streaming of Zcash tree states and compact blocks using Bao (BLAKE3-verified streaming), significantly improving light wallet synchronization and recovery. By cryptographically verifying every chunk of data against a known root hash, the approach removes implicit trust in lightwalletd servers while allowing downloads to pause, resume, and validate out of order, even on unreliable connections. Deliverables include a snapshot generator CLI, a browser- and Node-compatible verification library, and a documented reference implementation with community-hosted snapshots. Applicant is requesting $28,000.

      • Gguy: Last time we discussed this we didn’t see significant value within this library.

      • Hanh: Reject as well. The tool is not really applicable, it doesn’t solve a Zcash specific problem, and it lacks substantial improvement over existing synchronization architecture.

      • Artkor: I agree. Based on the feedback received, I was not convinced that the proposed approach would provide a substantial improvement over the existing synchronization architecture, particularly in critical or failure scenarios. On this basis, I vote to reject this proposal.

      • Zerodartz: I will also reject because I don’t see this as much of an improvement for most users.

      • Decentralistdan: reject

      • Rejected

  • Ride to Earn Zcash

    • Intelligrip is a privacy-first cycling platform that rewards riders with shielded Zcash for verified miles while eliminating location tracking and surveillance. Its core product is a universal, handlebar-mounted electronic bike grip that independently records rides using GPS and motion sensors and generates on-device zero-knowledge “Proof of Ride” cryptographic proofs, confirming legitimate cycling distance without revealing routes, timestamps, or personal data. These compact proofs enable strong anti-cheat guarantees and maximum user privacy while supporting gamified rewards, challenges, and progression tied only to verified activity. The project follows a sustainable, consumer-direct business model based on hardware sales and optional subscriptions, with rewards funded from revenue rather than inflationary tokens. Applicant is requesting $500,000.

      • Gguy: We feel like this proposal is out of scope for what ZCG wants to fund. It’s more of a product-driven “earn” model than a protocol or ecosystem contribution.

      • Decentralistdan: I reject, out of scope.

      • Artkor: In my view, the proposal resembles a product-driven “earn” model rather than a protocol or ecosystem contribution. Any asset could be used as a reward in such a model to stimulate demand for a hardware product, which makes its relevance to Zcash unclear. I vote to reject the proposal.

      • Zerodartz: I reject too - fun idea in theory but unlikely to work out in long term even if it had a good start. Also special hardware for it complicates things a lot.

      • Hanh: Yes, reject. It’s quite farfetched.

      • Rejected

  • ZAPS - A contactless payment app

    • Zaps is a Zcash-powered contactless payment application that enables users to make tap-to-pay transactions using shielded ZEC while merchants receive instant settlement in USD, removing volatility and onboarding barriers. By combining NFC and QR-based payments, Sapling shielded transactions, and automatic ZEC-to-USD off-ramping, Zaps delivers private, borderless payments without requiring merchants or users to understand cryptocurrency mechanics. The platform prioritizes privacy by default, with optional selective disclosure for compliance, and includes merchant dashboards alongside open-source SDKs and APIs for seamless POS and e-commerce integration. Applicant is requesting $120,000.

      • Gguy: We discussed that we’re not confident in the applicant’s ability to deliver on this grant although we’re interested in potentially funding this type of project in the future.

      • Rejected

  • ZKFIED

    • ZKFIED is a censorship-resistant whistleblower platform that protects source anonymity and evidence integrity by combining shielded transactions on Zcash, FROST 3-of-5 threshold signatures, decentralized storage (IPFS), and zero-knowledge proofs. Evidence submissions are anchored to Zcash’s shielded pool to prevent metadata leakage, server seizure, and financial censorship, while cryptographic links to an immutable public registry on NEAR Protocol and optional zero-knowledge credential verification via Mina zkApps enable public auditability without doxxing sources. By eliminating centralized servers and single points of failure found in existing whistleblower systems, ZKFIED provides a production-ready architecture (currently deployed on testnet) that supports both wallet-based hybrid submissions and one-click orchestrated submissions, ensuring uncensorable, verifiable, and privacy-preserving disclosures. Applicant is requesting $45,000.

      • Gguy: It doesn’t fit the scope of things we’re funding at the moment.

      • Artkor: I vote to reject this proposal. Since the applicant was explicitly asking for advice, my general advice to all new contributors is the following. Do not try to crack the safe by guessing the combination. The committee consists of experienced people who can reliably distinguish an AI-generated idea from a real, applied contribution that arises from an actual need. We do not have a bias against AI-generated code. However, we have no interest in funding generated ideas.

      • Zerodartz: Having a user base is important for this kind of project and this doesn’t seem to have one big enough. I reject.

      • DecentralistDan: I reject as well. Agreed with Artkor, don’t try to crack the safe by guessing the code.

      • Rejected

  • ZecPay: Native Zcash Payment Infrastructure for E-commerce

    • ZecPay is a purpose-built, open-source Zcash payment processing infrastructure that enables online merchants and e-commerce platforms to accept ZEC as easily as integrating a mainstream payment provider, while preserving self-custody and privacy. Built natively for Zcash and the Zebra node architecture, ZecPay delivers a modern Rust-based REST API, reliable webhooks, Unified Address–based invoice generation, and drop-in e-commerce plugins starting with WooCommerce, complemented by a self-hosted merchant dashboard. By eliminating the technical barriers of existing Bitcoin-centric or ad-hoc solutions, ZecPay reduces merchant integration time from weeks to minutes, supports modern Zcash features, and provides production-ready tooling for transaction monitoring, order confirmation, and reporting. The project directly addresses the lack of native Zcash payment infrastructure and unlocks real-world merchant adoption by making ZEC practical for everyday commerce beyond speculation. Applicant is requesting $44,680.

      • Gguy: We’ve discussed that we’re rejecting this because it does not address a current need and it duplicates existing efforts like BTCPayserver and Zgo.

      • Hanh: Now we have BTCPay that works pretty well, I don’t see a need for this solution. I vote to reject. New solutions should demonstrate how they bring new merchants better than existing ones.

      • Artkor: In this context creating yet another standalone payment system would duplicate existing efforts without clear justification. I vote to reject this proposal.

      • Zerodartz: Until we see more activity from our current payment tools we should not invest in too much new tools. Also im not super confident in this team’s ability to get it done with the proposed budget. Instead we should focus to improve the tools we already have working and get more merchants and users to actively use them.

      • Decentralistdan: reject, agreed that it does not meet a current need in the ecosystem

      • Rejected

  • Privacy Bridge

    • Privacy Bridge is a cross-chain DeFi infrastructure that enables Zcash holders to put their ZEC to work without selling it, by using ZEC as collateral to borrow USDC and access broader decentralized finance use cases. Built to connect Zcash with NEAR Protocol, the project delivers a production-ready ZEC/USDC lending market with on-chain interest accrual, oracle-based pricing, and liquidation logic, alongside cross-chain staking, payments, and trading integrations. Using trust-minimized bridging and MPC-based chain signatures, Privacy Bridge allows users to earn yield, access liquidity, make payments, and trade on platforms like Polymarket and Hyperliquid, all while retaining exposure to Zcash. Applicant is requesting $100,000.

      • Gguy: We didn’t think there was anything specific that this proposal offers that isn’t already being explored by the ecosystem.

      • Rejected

  • Loofta Pay

    • Loofta Pay is building a universal crypto payment link that enables private settlement in Zcash while allowing payers to use any supported token on any chain, removing friction from everyday crypto payments. This project funds the integration of Zcash as a privacy-preserving settlement route, allowing recipients to request payment to a shielded Zcash address while the system transparently handles token swaps and routing so payers do not need to acquire or understand ZEC. By abstracting away cross-chain complexity and eliminating the need to share public wallet addresses, Loofta Pay makes Zcash’s privacy guarantees practical for real-world payment flows, demonstrating Zcash’s value as a universal privacy layer for crypto payments rather than a standalone network. Applicant is requesting $5,000.

      • Gguy: I vote to reject although I’d like to note that ZCG is discussing ways to encourage new developers to enter the ecosystem. We’ll share thoughts on this in the near future.

      • Artkor: I have some thoughts. There are many platforms built on top of NEAR Intents, including the Zashi wallet, and I do not believe we should prioritize any specific one, especially given that this integration path is already well-documented and not particularly complex to replicate. In addition, under the currently described NEAR Intents routing for ZEC, support is limited to transparent addresses, with shielded support not yet available. As a result, the goals stated in the proposal cannot be fully delivered as written. Based on this, I am prepared to vote to reject the proposal.

      • Hanh: Fairly low amount and very simple to do. I approve because I’d like to see more developers join. It would be a good starting point.

      • Zerodartz: It’s a Near Intents wrapper mostly, which is not too complicated to build. And they could get the project funded by the fees when they get more users using it.

      • Rejected

  • Zcash Network Health API

    • This proposal outlines the development of a production-grade monitoring and observability platform for the Zcash network, addressing critical gaps exposed after the shutdown of Nighthawk’s infrastructure. The project will deliver open, API-first network monitoring through public REST and gRPC endpoints, real-time lightwalletd health checks, automated alerts, and dashboards that provide visibility into node health, network metrics, and the ongoing migration from zcashd to Zebra. By offering reliable network health APIs, proactive alerting for failures, and clear operational documentation for node operators, the project enables wallet developers, exchanges, researchers, and infrastructure providers to build and operate dependable Zcash services. All components are open-source and designed to be extensible, with the existing ZNodes platform evolving into a core feature of a broader monitoring system built for the entire Zcash ecosystem. Applicant is requesting $40,000.

      • Gguy: We don’t see this as something we’re willing to fund.

      • Hanh: I don’t see very different from the dashboards that we already have. As a side note, I’d like to discuss potential future grant opportunities to improve the lightwallet protocol.

      • Rejected

  • WAP3: AI Agent Payment Bridge

    • WAP3 is a proposed protocol that brings privacy-preserving ZEC payments to autonomous AI agents by providing an agent-friendly SDK, cryptographic escrow, and encrypted provenance without relying on public smart contracts. It addresses key Zcash gaps in programmability, escrow, and developer tooling, enabling conditional, multi-party, and auditable payments while keeping agent strategies private. By positioning Zcash as the default privacy layer for AI agent payments, WAP3 aims to drive new transaction volume, attract AI developers, and establish a first-mover advantage in a rapidly emerging market. Applicant is requesting $50,000.

      • Gguy: I don’t see this as something within the scope of ZCG wanting to fund. It feels more speculative than solution-focused.

      • Hanh: The grant is a bit confusing. It mixes several different areas (smart contracts, escrow, ai agents) without satisfactory details.

      • Zerodartz: It’s still a bit too early for AI agents imo. If our community is interested in this sort of thing, let us know.

      • Declined

  • Onekey X Zcash (no Forum post plus application errors)

    • OneKey proposes a unified, privacy-first Zcash hardware wallet integration designed to address long-standing reliability, usability, and maintenance issues in existing ZEC hardware support. Building on OneKey’s proven track record as an open-source wallet trusted by nearly one million users globally and backed by a recent Series B led by YZi Labs with participation from firms such as Coinbase Ventures, the project delivers full transparent and shielded ZEC support in a single wallet without firmware splitting, advanced recovery via SLIP-39, optional passphrase protection, and upstream-friendly design. By enabling robust self-custody, restoring user trust after past Ledger failures, and extending Zcash usability through cross-chain workflows such as Near Intents, the project aims to strengthen Zcash adoption, security, and long-term ecosystem resilience. Applicant is requesting $400,000.

      • Remains open, not yet assigned to ZCG

  • Zcash Activity Scanner

    • This project proposes a reusable, read-only Zcash Activity Scanner and Semantics Layer that provides reliable balance and transaction activity data across Transparent, Sapling, and Orchard pools using viewing keys only. By deliberately excluding wallet functionality and private key management, it fills a critical infrastructure gap for merchants, custodial services, and backend systems that currently must re-implement complex scanning logic or embed full wallets, increasing risk and inconsistency. Built on official Zcash Rust libraries, the scanner delivers standardized, reorg-aware activity summaries—covering balances, transaction direction, confirmation status, shielding events, and memos—reducing duplicated engineering effort, improving correctness, and lowering the barrier to building robust services on the Zcash ecosystem. Applicant is requesting $150,000.

      • Hanh: This seems to be a very generic AI generated proposal. I vote to reject now. It is a limited version of a wallet for which there are existing solutions. The cost is prohibitive.

      • Gguy: I’m happy to reject this now if the rest of the committee agrees.

      • Zerodartz: I don’t see much value in this proposal in its current form..

      • Rejected

  • TxGuard: Zcash v5 Consensus Branch‑ID Preflight (CLI + GitHub Action)

    • TxGuard is a lightweight open-source CLI tool and GitHub Action designed to prevent a recurring class of Zcash wallet and service failures by verifying that a Zcash v5 transaction’s embedded consensus branch ID matches what the target node expects at the current network upgrade state. By running in CI or as a pre-broadcast check, TxGuard catches branch-ID mismatches before release or transaction submission, avoiding user-blocking “can’t send” errors that have repeatedly surfaced during 2024–2025 upgrade events. Its narrow scope, fail-closed design, and CI-friendly outputs make it easy for external teams to adopt while directly addressing a well-documented ecosystem reliability gap. Applicant is requesting $21,500.

      • Remains open for comment

  • Z3G: Zcash Z3 RPC Compatibility Gateway for zcashd Deprecation

    • Z3G is a migration-critical, operator-grade JSON-RPC compatibility gateway designed to reduce production risk as the Zcash ecosystem transitions away from zcashd to the Z3 stack. It provides a single zcashd-style RPC endpoint that preserves a clearly defined subset of the highest-demand, non-wallet RPC methods relied on by exchanges, mining pools, explorers, and infrastructure providers, while routing requests to Zebra and Zaino under the hood. By enforcing explicit, method-by-method compatibility contracts, normalizing schemas and error behavior, and shipping with regression and abuse-case tests plus secure-by-default deployment controls, Z3G makes limitations explicit rather than implicit and prevents silent compatibility drift. Applicant is requesting $30,000.

      • Remains open for comment
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According to the Grant approval committee rule is stated that

“Approvals are based on a simple majority (3 of 5).”

But privacy bridge got rejected by 1 of 5

Privacy bridge wasn’t meant to be specific just like the proposal is stated that it wants to be the defi platform for Zcash Users without compromising their privacy, and removing the burden of managing their defi finances across different chains with near chain signature

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Thank you @ZCG

While we are still waiting for the full details to begin the trial period, we would like to share that we launched our interactive academy in mid-December and have achieved very solid engagement. So far, we have had 95 participants, all of whom are currently learning about Zcash in Arabic.

In addition, we have been actively posting most of the latest news on our X account throughout Q4. All of these efforts were carried out without any funding or support.

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