Zcash Community Grants Meeting Minutes 11/10/25

Community Grants Community Grants Updates
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Grant Dashboard**

Zcash Community Grants Committee Google Meet Meeting: November 10, 2025**

[Minutes taken by FPF]

Attendance:

  • Artkor

  • GGuy

  • Jason

  • Zerodartz

  • Decentralistdan

  • Alex (FPF resource, notetaker)

Key Takeaways:

Open Grant Proposals

  • Zcash Extension to Ethereum

    • This proposal requests $250,000 USD from the Zcash Community Grants to build a confidential, non-custodial bridge allowing ZEC holders to use Ethereum DeFi while preserving privacy. It introduces a Confidential ERC-20 Token (wZEC) powered by Zero-Knowledge Proofs through a custom Circom circuit, enabling shielded balances and private transfers on Ethereum. ZEC is locked on-chain while wZEC is minted under a ZK-SNARK-verified, trustless system. The ConfidentialERC20Token circuit supports standard ERC-20 functions within a 20-level Merkle tree capable of privately managing over a million accounts, using Poseidon hashing to ensure confidentiality, prevent double-spending, and extend Zcash’s privacy guarantees into the Ethereum ecosystem.

      • Jason: We’re going to reject this grant. What are the primary reasons? Is it out of scope or something else?

      • Gguy: I don’t feel like there’s enough confidence in the project delivery or outcomes based on the proposal.

      • Artkor: The value of introducing another standalone bridge is unclear for me while the concept of interoperability between Zcash and Ethereum is interesting once they say it is available. It would be strategically preferable for Zcash to have a bridge architecture that originates from the Zcash side where shielded assets serve as a native mechanism for privacy value transfer between networks. At present Zcash users also have access to routing and liquidity through existing crosschain swap infrastructure. Given the context I don’t consider it necessary to fund this proposal and so I reject it.

      • Zerodartz: I don’t see enough evidence that this developer has enough experience, they don’t even have a team yet, it’s a big grant and this doesn’t give confidence. Even though some kind of bridge to Ethereum is needed.

      • Jason: I agree that a bridge to Ethereum is something that would be needed. I think if this person did want to continue to explore this project, it would make sense for them to go around and talk to the different development teams and get more information on how to properly scope this. I think the individual who’s applying for this seems like he’s a skilled engineer and I think he’s eager to get involved in the Zcash ecosystem in some capacity. It may not need to be this project, but it could be other ones. I’ll plan on keeping in touch with him to see if we can get him working on something else, if not this project, but I reject it as well.

      • DecentralistDan: I reject as well and agree with the points. It would be great since he came to the table if there’s something else he can work on to stay around that would be ideal.

      • Declined.

  • Zcatch: Zcash Explorer & Services

    • Zcatch is a next-generation Zcash explorer built to enhance transparency, usability, and insight within the privacy-centric Zcash ecosystem. Unlike generic multi-chain explorers, Zcatch is purpose-built to deeply understand Zcash’s unique privacy architecture, providing intuitive visualization and analytics for both transparent and shielded transactions without compromising user privacy. In its next phase, Zcatch will evolve into a full-service platform supporting ZSA (Zcash Shielded Assets), enabling seamless asset issuance, management, and privacy-preserving analytics. By combining advanced indexing, developer APIs, and a modern user experience, Zcatch aims to become a core infrastructure layer that bridges transparency and privacy — empowering developers, researchers, and users to build and innovate confidently within Zcash’s ecosystem. Applicant is requesting $20,700.

      • Artkor: I appreciate we’re part of a proposal that focused on developing tools that could support ZSAs in the future where direction is genuinely interesting and important for the ecosystem. However, I’m not interested in funding another general purpose explorer as the Zcash continues to move towards primary shielded usage and the utility of traditional chain explorers becomes less central. At this stage, I believe it is too early to move forward with this proposal and I reject it.

      • Jason: One of the things we all agree on is if ZSAs activate on Mainnet we would need a block explorer that supports them. At that point, depending on what the other block explorers plan to support, it might make sense to engage with this individual to develop Zcatch. However, at this point in time, just having another block explorer doesn’t seem like something ZCG should fund. Some new self-funded ones might get developed, otherwise we already have a number of block explorers that currently exist.

      • DecentralistDan: I reject as well with the other block explorers out there and it being too early to have a block explorer focused on ZSAs.

      • ZeroDartz: I reject also for the reasons already mentioned.

      • Declined.

  • Zcash Shielded Payments Toolkit

    • This project delivers lightweight, open-source payment modules that let any website—starting with WordPress and Ghost—accept shielded Zcash (ZEC) tips and donations in minutes, even on low-cost PHP-only hosting. By combining client-side shielded transaction handling (via WebZjs) with read-only Full Viewing Key verification, the system ensures full privacy and non-custodial security without requiring Docker, full nodes, or third-party services. The toolkit enables per-post tips, shareable PayLinks, and donation banners with automatic z-address rotation, providing privacy by default. This infrastructure-first approach fills a critical gap: making shielded payments as easy as transparent ones, thus empowering creators and small sites to adopt Zcash and paving the way for future privacy-focused applications to build on hardened, reusable code. Applicant is requesting $24,500 (MVP).

      • Artkor: We already received feedback from wallet engineers that performing shielded operation operations in the browsers is not considered safe. I appreciate their intention to simplify development but given the security concerns this is not an approach I can support. For this reason I reject.

      • Gguy: This solution isn’t something we need right now and we haven’t seen any community interest. I reject.

      • Declined.

  • ZEC-NAM Shielded Airdrop Protocol

    • This project will implement the ZEC-NAM shielded airdrop protocol, enabling Zcash holders to privately claim NAM tokens on the Namada blockchain without revealing their identities or creating cross-chain linkages. Using zero-knowledge proofs and cryptographic nullifiers, the protocol allows users to prove ZEC ownership at a specific snapshot block while preserving full privacy on both chains. The deliverables include a new ZK circuit, on-chain verification and nullifier tracking systems, and user-facing claiming tools—creating the first production-ready, privacy-preserving cross-chain airdrop framework. By eliminating the tradeoff between verification and privacy, this project strengthens the strategic Zcash–Namada alliance and advances practical privacy infrastructure for interoperable blockchain ecosystems. Applicant is requesting $150,000.

      • Jason: Where we left off on this one was that I went back to the applicant with feedback. Originally, the proposal only referenced a CLI interface where you’d be able to participate in the airdrop. That’s not very user friendly and limits how many people will participate. So, I asked them to develop a standalone app, or to support wallet integrations, and they’re okay with that. It’ll be up to the wallets to reach out for some sort of integration. The other thing that we talked about was repurposing Hanh’s code from his Proof of Balance protocol, which the coin holder voting mechanism is based on, and the Equilibrium team is currently looking into that. So, for now, we’re going to hold off voting until the next meeting or vote on this async between meetings.

      • Gguy: I’m interested in this proposal.

      • Decentralistdan: glad to see the Equilibrium team proposing to work on something in the ecosystem again, and excited to potentially see this longstanding airdrop proposal make its way to production

      • Artkor: Potentially, this work could help establish a future pathway for retiring the Sprout pool. It might become an important component of the theoretical foundation needed for a well-structured deprecation and redemption process

      • Zerodartz: Positive on this proposal, strong team and Zcash community has been waiting for long time.

      • Remains open.

  • Auto Failover SDK For lightwalletd

    • This project develops a drop-in, non-custodial Auto-Failover SDK for lightwalletd, bringing Electrum-like multi-server resilience and high availability to the Zcash ecosystem. The SDK enables seamless multi-endpoint routing, geo-latency optimization, and automatic failover (targeting p95 recovery under three seconds), all without handling user keys or custody. Delivered in three milestones, it will provide a JS/TS SDK, CLI tools, and chaos testing framework; expand to include geo-routing, a real-time status widget, and additional language bindings (PHP/Python); and culminate with a Rust binding, ecosystem health integrations, and comprehensive documentation. By offering a standardized reliability layer, the SDK enhances uptime and developer confidence, strengthening every Zcash wallet, merchant tool, and application that depends on lightwalletd. Applicant is requesting $38,000.

      • Gguy: Unfortunately while these problems that have been proposed are good to solve I don’t think one size ask will provide the benefit outlined. I think in most cases developers themselves can provide solutions for their pick the best solution for their specific needs.

      • DecentralistDan: I agree with Gguy. One size does not fit all but it will probably be solved at the specific wallets Ul/UX level.

      • Artkor/Jason: Agreed.

      • Declined.

  • Zcash Nigeria (Nov-Dec)

    • This project aims to strengthen and expand the Zcash community in Nigeria by promoting financial privacy awareness, fostering education, and encouraging real-world adoption. Building on prior progress, it focuses on localized education, content creation, and grassroots outreach to make Zcash more accessible and relevant to Nigerians. The team will produce tailored articles, videos, and infographics; host meetups, AMAs, and university events; and collaborate with other privacy and Web3 communities to broaden impact. Merchant adoption will be encouraged through direct outreach, incentives, and integration support, while educational materials will be translated into major local languages. Sustained engagement through social media, online platforms, and contributor reward programs will ensure long-term community growth, helping establish Zcash as a trusted, privacy-preserving financial tool in Nigeria’s rapidly growing crypto ecosystem. Applicant is requesting $6,400.

      • Jason: This is a grant for the remainder of the year. Zcash Nigeria is one of the more established community programs that we’ve been supporting, along with Zcash Brazil, Zcash Espanol, etc. I have a very high opinion of the work that they do and I think that the region is incredibly important for Zcash.

      • Gguy: I’m happy to continue to fund this but with more thoughts about what might happen next year.

      • Zerodartz: They are active and they have organized some events and I’d like to see them continue.

      • Artkor: The team has been consistent in delivering meaningful community-level work. I approve it too.

      • DecentralistDan: I approve this grant. It’s nice to see established teams stick around and come back to the table. I also agree that we’ll re-evaluate for 2026 but I approve this short-term grant for the end of the year to keep them moving forward.

      • Approved.

  • Zcash Ghana (2025-26)

    • Zcash Ghana seeks to continue scaling its community-building and educational initiatives focused on financial privacy and blockchain adoption across Ghana. Since its launch in June 2025, the project has successfully hosted multiple X-Space events, physical meetups, and community engagements, educating over 80 participants and onboarding them to Zcash through wallet creation, with 22 volunteers now supporting its activities. This grant will enable the team to expand its impact through monthly activities such as physical meetups, developer workshops, hackathons, roadshows, online discussions, and social media campaigns—all aimed at increasing awareness of Zcash’s privacy features, fostering collaboration with local Web3 communities, and driving the adoption of privacy-focused blockchain solutions in Ghana. By bridging the knowledge gap around financial privacy, Zcash Ghana aims to empower individuals and businesses to manage their digital finances securely and confidently while establishing Zcash as a leading privacy solution in the region. Applicant is requesting $49,400.

      • Jason: Our goal is to support established teams that have already proven themselves valuable to the Zcash community. Since this team is new, only a few months old, our position is we want them to continue to get Zechub funding. We also are all aligned on the fact that while we want to increase adoption in Africa, we see Nigeria as a more important point of focus than smaller countries like Ghana. That’s not to say we don’t appreciate their efforts or we don’t see value to the community building Ogasky and his team are doing. They’re new and still have more work to do to build their community.

      • Gguy: I would suggest it’s more beneficial to ask for smaller grants with smaller milestones. It would be a bit irresponsible to fund a one year grant like this for such a new team.

      • Artkor: The team is active and shows progress, but a full year grant feels premature at this stage.

      • Zerodartz: Some of his spaces have been much more active than the last one. It’s not easy today when almost everyone is fighting for attention around Zcash. But there is some progress,not enough to support for the full year just yet.

      • Declined.

  • ZEC Quest

    • ZEC Quest is a gamified learning app designed to onboard new Zcash enthusiasts through an engaging, structured pathway of seven interactive modules covering privacy fundamentals, Zcash history, zero-knowledge proofs, wallets, and community topics. Each module includes quizzes and achievement badges that reward learners and track progress, turning education into an interactive quest. While ZecHub serves as a comprehensive reference for advanced users, its depth can overwhelm beginners; ZEC Quest bridges this gap by translating ZecHub’s knowledge into guided, game-like lessons that build understanding step-by-step. The MVP app is already live with a working framework and three draft modules, demonstrating proof of concept. Grant funding will enable the completion of all modules, UI refinement, localization (Spanish and Chinese), user testing, and a full ecosystem rollout — transforming ZEC Quest into a comprehensive, motivational onboarding platform for the global Zcash community. Applicant is requesting $13,600.

      • DecentralistDan: This feels out of scope, we have other knowledge bases like ZecHub and similar.

      • Artkor: At this stage I’m not convinced that building a standalone gaming platform is the right direction. There are already widely used platforms designed specifically for community quests where uh participation is naturally higher. For example, ZecHub has previously run similar quests and in my view it may be more effective to direct future budget toward community run quests and incentive programs on such existing platforms, rather than funding the development of one new platform like this. So yes, I agree to reject.

      • Zerodartz: That’s a good point, it’s less likely this would be a success if it’s just a separate page or platform instead of using the other more popular places for something similar.

      • Gguy: Over the years of being a ZCG member we’ve funded similar things like this in the past and often it’s hard to see how they make a meaningful impact. Unfortunately this feels the same.

      • Jason: Reject

      • Declined.

  • ZonChain

    • Zonchain is a cloud-native analytics platform designed to make Zcash blockchain data accessible and actionable. In Phase 1, the project will build a production-grade data platform running on Kubernetes, integrating with managed Zcash node providers to index blockchain data into time-series and relational databases. The platform will expose real-time and historical transaction metrics through REST APIs and a basic web dashboard, addressing the current lack of advanced, programmable analytics tools for Zcash. This foundational phase will enable developers and researchers to build data-driven Zcash applications, with a planned Phase 2 to expand into advanced dashboards, custom analytics, and GraphQL support. Applicant is requesting $20,700.

      • Jason: A lot of this data is already available on other block explorers and sites like Coin Metrics and Messari. If there are other metrics needed that aren’t currently available, perhaps we could talk to ZecHub and ask them to integrate them into their dashboard.

      • Artkor: I agree. There are already many similar community-made dashboards, I don’t think another provides value. I’m ready to reject.

      • Zerodartz: I also don’t see enough value in this. We have most of this info already in one of our community dashboards.

      • Remains open.

  • Threshold Shielded Signing Kit (TSSK) - FROST-powered multisig for Zcash

    • The Threshold Shielded Signing Kit (TSSK) delivers true multisignature support for Zcash shielded addresses through an open-source, production-ready integration kit. It includes a FROST-based Rust SDK for N-of-M key generation and signing, an operations-hardened relay for secure signer coordination, and a reference command-line tool (Vault CLI) demonstrating full end-to-end shielded multisig flows. TSSK enables wallets, custodians, and organizations to manage shielded ZEC with quorum-based control—eliminating single-key risk, aligning with Zebra and lightwalletd, and requiring no zcashd dependencies. By filling a long-standing gap in shielded multisig infrastructure, TSSK unlocks institutional and community use cases for private, policy-compliant Zcash custody and transactions. Applicant is requesting $25,000.

      • Artkor: Based on expert feedback, the practical need and the adoption path of these toolkits is unclear.

      • Remains open.

  • Zcash Balkan Hub

    • Flow Hive Digital proposes the Zcash Balkan Hub, the first multilingual, Webflow-powered community portal and real-time shielded dashboard serving nine Balkan countries and over 20 million people affected by sanctions, inflation, and limited banking access. This one-stop platform will drive 100,000+ new Zashi wallets by 2026 through localized education, interactive meetups, creator programs, and privacy-first community tools. Featuring over 50 tutorials in eight languages, real-time shielded analytics, and one-click onboarding, the hub will empower users across Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Slovenia, North Macedonia, Albania, Kosovo, and Bulgaria to adopt Zcash for secure, private transactions. By uniting fragmented regional communities and fostering creator engagement, the project positions Zcash as the leading privacy coin in the Balkans and a model for compliant privacy innovation ahead of the 2027 EU privacy regulations. Applicant is requesting $237,000.

      • Declined as out of scope.

  • Brave Global Privacy Campaign

    • Brave proposes a three-month global Zcash marketing campaign (Dec 2025–Feb 2026) leveraging its 100M+ privacy-focused user base to drive education, awareness, and wallet activations. The $750,000 campaign will feature 15 premium New Tab Takeover (NTT) days—each delivering ~24 million daily impressions—and localized notification ads generating ~62.5 million impressions with a 2–4% CTR target. Brave will match every NTT day focused on Brave Wallet Integration with an additional NTT day at no cost, doubling exposure for that pillar. The campaign will highlight four key areas: Zcash Core, NEAR Intents, Zashi Wallet, and Brave Wallet Integration. With turnkey management, weekly performance dashboards, and a final impact report, this initiative will significantly boost global visibility, understanding, and user engagement with Zcash’s privacy technology and ecosystem. Applicant is requesting $750,000.

      • Jason: Some history on this. There’s a partnership between Brave, Filecoin, and ECC that resulted in the Brave desktop wallet, which historically supported transparent and has supported shielded for less than a year or so. Previously, it was not very user friendly and had some bugs. It sounds like they’ve made some improvements, that they’ve covered the cost for or it came from the existing partnership funds. I support this grant in principle, but since this proposal was just posted, I need to go through and understand what’s in scope. It’s pretty pricey for three months of marketing, so hopefully we can bring down the cost a bit.

      • Gguy: While I’m open to considering grants like this I would need a lot more details about content to be produced, calls to action, and I’d like to hear from the community if there are any active or recent users of the wallet that have feedback on the current experience.

      • DecentralistDan: In the past we’ve talked about a marketing allocation. I’m really a fan of continuing to work with teams that we have great relationships with. We’re aligned and if we want to allocate from the marketing budget this is a good candidate for an impactful marketing campaign.

      • Jason: I agree in principle. But I am curious how many people are actually using the wallet and whether it has resulted in meaningful Zcash adoption.

      • Zerodartz: Interesting proposal, I would like to see community sentiment on this. The budget is big, but if everything is well planned and executed it could bring new eyes on Zcash and its wallets and ecosystem from people less familiar with crypto. Waiting for more details.

      • Remains open for questions for the Brave team and community feedback.

  • Education Initiative For Latin America

    • Zcash EduLATAM is a bilingual educational and hackathon initiative designed to integrate Zcash, privacy, and cryptography education into the accredited university system across Mexico and Latin America. Building on our proven NortEdu platform—which successfully awarded university credits to over 300 students for web development courses—we will relaunch and adapt it for Zcash-focused learning. Through partnerships with universities such as the University of Colima, Universidad de Guadalajara, Tec de Monterrey, and UNAM, students will earn official credits for completing online courses on blockchain, privacy, and Zcash development, supported by high-quality bilingual content and an AI chatbot for 24/7 assistance. The program will include on-campus talks, student-led Zcash clubs, and regional hackathons with prizes to foster real-world projects and developer engagement. By leveraging existing accreditation frameworks, Zcash EduLATAM will create a sustainable, scalable pipeline of educated, privacy-conscious developers and community leaders across Latin America, significantly increasing Zcash awareness, education, and ecosystem growth in the region. Applicant is requesting $60,000.

      • Remains open for community feedback.

Brainstorm Session Follow-Ups

  • Least Authority / Zkool audit

    • ZCG has approved a project plan for a Zkool audit.

  • Ledger

  • Treasury Management

    • ZCG has hedged $4.5m in USD. On a periodic basis ZCG revisits treasury management strategy in cooperation with FPF.
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It is highly appreciative just for you guys to speak of my project and I appreciate it totally and you are right I have no team because I hope to join your team and become part of the team with the ideas yes I am self-taught and I’m a very good engineer giving a chance to get it factored and locked in but just for you guy to acknowledge my creativity is a big thing for me and thank you im still around if ever needed just another thought also

Or if we dont bring the token we make a privacy type vault zksnarks for deposits from owner like a zksnarks vault factory for users to privately store tokens on other chains but how safe wallet is this is the privacy vault on evm from zcash

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