Zcash Community Grants Meeting Minutes 11/14/22

Community Grants Community Grants Updates
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Below please find the latest @ZcashGrants meeting minutes and Public Dashboard link.

Attendance:

  • Aditya
  • Brian
  • Burns
  • Jason
  • Michael
  • Alex Bornstein (ZF resource)
  • Daniel Wolande (ZF resource)
  • Danika Delano (ZF resource)
  • Deidra M acting as notetaker

Key Takeaways:

  • Open Grant Proposals
  • Brainstorm Session Follow Ups
    • Global Ambassador Program
      • Decision to make Berlin’s ambassador push back their start date until December 1st.
    • ZCG committee members hours/compensation
      • Committee thanked the board and Jack for their consideration and review.
    • ZCG Grant Budget
      • ZCG wants the community to know that the committee will continue to be smart and frugal when allocating funds for proposed grants.
    • LA Blockchain Summit / Token 2049
      • Aditya and Jason share their experiences attending several conferences with the group.

Notes:

Open Grant Proposals

  • Partnership with CryptoMondays to Spread the Word about Zcash
    • Jason recapped the grant’s goal as a social organization, looking to onboard more mainstream users to crypto through weekly in-person events with Web 3. The applicant is asking for $50,000 USD.The update is that ZCG had a call with the applicants and talked about updating their grant proposal to make the 1st milestone be a proof of concept. The applicants were supposed to reach out to Bethany and others at ECC to put together ideas but haven’t heard back.
    • Jason asked ZCG what the next steps should be: Vote today with the POC contingency or follow up and ask them to update the proposal? All ZCG members support this grant, in general.
    • Aditya added that he met many CryptoMondays participants at the LA Blockchain Summit and they were positive about those events. All seemed supportive of the team. He also adds that having them work with ECC should not be enforced since ECC has its own agenda and priorities. Jason clarified that there is definitely no enforcement, but rather CryptoMondays has a relationship with Bethany from ECC that they wanted to possibly leverage for events. This was their idea, not ZCG’s.
    • Aditya stated that Crypto Mondays mentioned they will have Zcash signage at all events and asked what it will be like. Brian stated that he doesn’t remember specific details on signage but they seemed open to suggestions so ZCG can provide feedback at or after Proof of Concept.
    • Jason proposed to take a vote with a contingency that the first milestone be a Proof of Concept. Brian approved and added that ZCG will evaluate Proof of Concept and move forward.
    • ZCG unanimously approved and Jason added that ZCG will draft a response for Dan to send out.
  • Meetups by Spicy Punks
    • Jason stated that Spicy Punks is a cafe in India and the applicant is asking for $5,000 to host 5 meetups focused on Zcash with hopes to attract 50-60 attendees. Jason added that the proposal was submitted on 11/8/2022 so it is too early for a ZCG vote but asked members to give their initial impressions on the proposal.
    • Michael stated that the numbers look good, if real, and he is optimistic about it. He added that India is an important place for crypto and the venue also has a kitchen. Brian proposed that if there was any interest in having a meeting with the candidate. Aditya answered yes, ZCG should have a meeting to learn about their background and see what type of people they plan to attract because it is easy to attract attendees in India for a tech meetup. Jason added that it would be cool to have a presence in India, and good to compare the engagement ambassadors receive vs. this type of hosted event. He agreed that it is worthwhile to set up a call.
    • Brian asked Dan to coordinate a meeting with the candidate. Dan agreed.
  • The Zcash Podcast on the Digital Cash Network
    • Jason recapped the grant and stated it is from TheDesertLynx who responded to the podcast RFP and completed a pilot episode. The candidate submitted a proposal for 12 podcasts at $50 per episode. Each podcast will be 60-90 minutes highlighting news and updates featuring key people in the ecosystem. This grant was submitted on 11/9/2022 so it is too early to vote so the community has more time to review it. Jason stated that ZCG was supportive at the last meeting and asked if anyone had any other thoughts to add.
    • Brian proposed to do a mobile vote when possible and move forward.
  • Tookey
    • ZCG will review and discuss the proposal during the next brainstorm session.

Brainstorm Session Follow Ups

  • Global Ambassador Program
    • Jason stated that Mucu has been fully onboarded and has been added to all Signal groups and asked about the status of Ksenia. Alex said that the agreement has been sent to Ksenia but she hasn’t signed yet. The committee agreed that if she doesn’t sign today, the start date will be pushed to December 1st.
  • ZCG committee member’s hours/compensation
    • Jason stated that ZCG requested that committee member hours and compensation be increased from 15 hours per month to 30 hours per month, which they based on the average number of hours per month they put in this term. ZCG emailed Jack their request and reasoning. Jack set up meetings with each of the committee members individually and reviewed the request with the board of directions. The request to increase hours and compensation was denied; however, starting Jan of next year, the compensation will be inflation adjusted. ZCG wants to thank the board for their consideration and thank Jack for taking the time to discuss this request with them.
  • ZCG Grant Budget
    • Jason stated that given the current volatility in the market and the uncertainty around how long this bear market will last or how low the price of ZEC might go, ZCG wanted to let the community know that it has every intention of being smart and frugal with its budget. It’s now roughly $5M. ZCG will be thoughtful about how they allocate the funding and the sorts of projects they want to fund – it may result in delaying or holding off on funding certain projects if they’re high cost and not a high priority for the Zcash ecosystem.
    • Aditya added in the past, ZCG has made good decisions when reviewing grants and has locked on the price of ZEC. Jason mentioned that months ago, ZCG requested ZF hedge the ambassadors’ stipend for the rest of 2022 when ZEC was around $90, which turned out to be a smart thing to do
  • LA Blockchain Summit / Token 2049
    • Jason stated that he and Aditya attended the LA Blockchain Summit and that Aditya attended Token 2049 and is currently in Tel Aviv for the 5th ZKProof workshop. Aditya and Jason shared their experiences:
      • Aditya- LA Blockchain was more about networking with people from Web3, half the audience was VCs and investors, and the other half was marketing/influencers so it was great to communicate with them and learn about their crypto strategy. Token 2049- more established companies around decentralized custody management and games in Europe/Asia with a background in crypto. He got a chance to speak with them about integrating ZEC into various projects. ZF/ZCG was planning on having a booth but it didn’t happen and it would have been worth it. He mentioned there were several other cryptocurrency booths present, like Ripple, Elrond, EOS etc. and that it did make an impact with quality audiences learning about the project in person. He added that it was great to attend and that many people recognized his Zcash T-shirt and he received many questions from people who wanted to know what Zcash does. He stated that ZF needs to find ways to spread education on Zcash. Many people were not sure what Zcash does and the project’s current status.
      • Jason- attended LA Blockchain Summit for all 3 days. He stated that there were fewer people than he expected (maybe because of the bear market), and that it was geared toward Web3 and NFTs and many VCs and investors. He felt that no one he spoke with about ZCG seemed interested in submitting a grant, but that it was worthwhile to get the word out about the program. He also mentioned he thought about how to judge the success of ZCG members’ attendance of conferences…Perhaps the number of grant applications is a good metric, but he doesn’t think this summit will yield applications. He added that many people/companies that had booths got great engagement and thinks it would be worthwhile for ECC, ZF, and ZCG to get a booth together at future conferences (e.g. Consensus 2023 or Messari Mainnet). He also mentioned that Dan attended Messari Mainnet and reported that engagement with ECC’s booth was solid.
    • Alex mentioned that there are logistical challenges with creating and shipping conference booths so as much lead time as possible for planning would be appreciated if this moves forward. Alex also said if either of them saw anything that might be applicable for ZF conferences, ZF would love to hear about it.
    • Aditya got to meet Harry Halpin from Nym Technologies at Token 2049 and chat about their interests to submit a grant. He is looking forward to receiving a grant application. Jason added that Aditya will make many connections at the ZK Summit and Aditya agreed there will be many researchers and academics in attendance.
  • Danika’s last minutes
    • Danika shared with the committee that this will be her last ZCG meeting and Deidra will continue on with the minutes. All committee members thanked her for her contributions to the last committee and this committee.
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