Zcash Community Grants Meeting Minutes 11/25/2024

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

Attendance:

  • Brian
  • GGuy
  • Jason
  • Michael
  • Alex (FPF resource)
  • Deidra M (notetaker during transition period)

Key Takeaways:

  • Open Grant Proposals
  • Brainstorm Session Follow-Ups
    • GitHub Migration - GGuy and FPF are working on getting the new GitHub platform viewable for public trial use.
    • Community Funding Program - Expect a proposal from ZecHub to be submitted on the forum in the next few days.
    • Membrane Finance Update - A pending merger can affect the ZSA project, and thus, the Euro-E stablecoin for Zcash will be on hold.
    • Mercado Bitcoin - The committee has no interest in funding Mercado Bitcoin’s request, making this venture a no-go.
    • Pacu: ECC Summit Request - ZCG voted to approve Pacu’s request to attend ECC’s Summit next year in Cancun.
    • Least Authority ZIP-321 Swift/Kotlin Library Audit - Pacu suggested to audit two libraries.
    • Vote to move ZCG treasury from ZF to FPF (ZF board request) - ZCG approved the operations and fund management transition to FPF.

Open Grant Proposals

  • Board Game: Crypto Trader - Zcash Edition - The proposal requests a grant of 140 ZEC (approximately $5,000) to develop a board game titled “Crypto Trader: Zcash Edition,” aimed at educating players about trading crypto and the privacy features of Zcash. The game will engage 2-6 players in managing resources, securing transactions, and avoiding digital threats while promoting awareness of Zcash’s unique benefits. The project is expected to be completed within 6-12 weeks, with a total of 100 high-quality copies produced for distribution to community members.
    • The update is that this team has not gotten any traction on funding from other sources like Free2Z, ZecHub, or elsewhere, so ZCG rejected this proposal.
  • Coin Voting 2.0 - This proposal is from Hanh, who is asking for $200,000 to develop a Coin Voting system utilizing Orchard funds for governance, airdrops, and balance proofs while maintaining privacy through shielded Zcash transactions. The solution will leverage Orchard notes and Halo 2 to implement a voting mechanism where users can vote without moving their funds, ensuring their balance remains private. The project includes the development of a voting server, client, and integration with Ywallet, as well as tools for vote validation, block production, and audit. The work will be completed over several milestones, with an initial focus on a prototype and core voting functionality, followed by full circuit integration and RPC tools.
    • The update is that ZCG received feedback from ZF engineers, Pacu, and Kris Nuttycomb on the forum.
    • Brian brought up questions about the status of Hanh’s first grant and noted questions about broad community adoption have been raised on the forum. He said he would also like to see the mechanism integrated into other wallets, and perhaps it could be a part of Hanh’s ZIP.
    • Jason said that the committee discussed ZF’s feedback of requiring an audit before the payment of the last milestone of this grant. ZCG felt that because this grant is open-sourced and can be audited anytime, the committee will not hold up paying as it is part of ZCG’s standard practice. ZCG can assign the Ecosystem Security Lead (Least Authority) to audit Hanh’s work.
    • ZCG unanimously voted to approve this grant. Amber submitted her vote via Signal.
      • Reporting frequency will be monthly and categorized as non-wallet applications for the records.
  • Community Grant Punchlist Jason gave background on this grant. Emmanuel is asking for $2,000 to build a dashboard to visualize Zcash community grants, allowing members to track progress transparently. The dashboard will be integrated into the Zcash Community Grants site, providing clear views of milestones, visual progress indicators, and alert mechanisms. Emmanuel believes it would take 3 weeks to create this dashboard.
    • GGuy responded to Emmanuel on the forum, informing him of the soon-coming transition to the GitHub platform and that functionality will likely be a part of it.
    • ZCG unanimously rejected this proposal because of the new transition to GitHub but is open to grant applications to improve the ZCG platform after the transition.
  • Zcash Turkey Jason summarized this grant. This proposal requests $4,200 for three months to increase Zcash’s awareness in Turkey through educational and promotional efforts. The plan includes creating social media content, a YouTube series, translating Zcash documentation into Turkish, and hosting podcast events with other privacy-focused projects. Additionally, the team will engage with local crypto communities, provide support through Telegram and Discord, and organize competitions to boost participation. The goal is to educate and expand the Zcash community in Turkey while promoting financial privacy and the unique benefits of Zcash.
    • ZCG released a statement on community grants in the 10/28/2024 Meeting Minutes, stating:
      • “Moving forward, ZCG will apply strict criteria for community-focused grants, prioritizing established communities with a proven track record of delivering impact in regards to community building, effective organization, and collaboration with external entities. We will also favor communities recognized and valued by key members within the ecosystem.”
    • The committee believes the grantee does not meet the above criteria because he’s only been contributing to the Zcash community for the past two months and does not have a proven track record of delivering impact similar to, for example, the Zcash Espanol team, whose members volunteered for more than a year without grant funding. Therefore, the committee voted to reject this proposal. ZecHub may pick up this grant for its future ambassador program.
    • Jason stated that ZCG canceled the Global Ambassador Program for financial reasons after the price of ZEC dropped to the low $20s. He believes the program was successful and beneficial to the community, and it was never meant to be permanently discontinued. Jason said that Batuhan is an ideal candidate for the role of Turkish Ambassador, which is important given Turkey’s significant crypto adoption and Zcash’s potential use case there. Batuhan has done a great job over the past couple of months and his request aligns with what previous Ambassadors received. Jason said that ZCG should either reinstate the Global Ambassador Program or fully support ZecHub in taking over the program.
  • Open Source Cash for Privacy and Simple Self Custody Jason gave background on this grant. This proposal seeks $50,000 to develop an open-source solution called Open Source Cash, which will bring privacy, affordability, and simple self-custody to Zcash using NFC tags. The project aims to create a mobile application and open-source SDK that enables users to interact with Zcash through physical NFC tags, replicating the advantages of traditional cash in the digital world. The grant will support the development of the SDK, mobile app, and security audits, with an emphasis on privacy and ease of use. The goal is to integrate this solution into the Zcash ecosystem and make it accessible for developers to incorporate into wallets, exchanges, and dApps.
    • It was too early for ZCG to vote on it, and further community feedback is needed, so this grant will remain open.
    • Some committee members are leaning towards rejecting this because this grant does not align with ZCG’s goals or priorities.
  • Bank-to-Zcash Gateway: A Secure Fiat On/Off Ramp Solution Jason summarized this grant. This proposal seeks $80,000 to develop a secure, instant fiat-to-Zcash conversion solution for Argentina, with the possibility of expanding to Brazil. The solution would allow users to convert Argentine Pesos (ARS) to Zcash (ZEC) and vice versa without intermediary exchanges, leveraging local banking systems for seamless transfers. The plan includes a mobile app or Telegram bot as the MVP, with the goal of supporting up to 30,000 monthly transactions and expanding to other exchanges. The grant will fund software development, operations, and compliance costs over a year.
    • It was too early for ZCG to vote on it, and further community feedback is needed, so this grant will remain open.
    • FPF will dive deeper into this grant’s potential challenges/risks before ZCG moves forward with their consideration.

Brainstorm Session Follow-Ups

  • GitHub Migration - GGuy gave an update on the GitHub migration. He said he is working with FPF to get the new GitHub platform viewable for public trial use. FPF and GGuy will be able to show what the community the application process will be in the coming days!
  • Community Funding Program - Alex said no questions or proposals have been received, but we are ready for them when submitted.
    • Jason said to expect a proposal from ZecHub to come in the next few days.
  • Membrane Finance Update - Paxos has bought Membrane Finance, and that merger is pending regulatory approval. Once it is final, Equilibrium will put Jason in touch with the CEO of Membrane Finance directly to discuss the possibility of a EUROe ZSA. Jason also plans on setting up a call between ZCG, Paxos, and Qedit in the near future. Paxos has a partnership with Paypal (PYUSD) and offers a USD stablecoin (USDP) and digital gold (PAXG).
  • Mercado Bitcoin - In Josh’s ECC Update a month or so ago, he mentioned that Mercado Bitcoin reached out to him regarding funding, but ECC could not fund it, so he asked if ZCG wanted to have a look.
    • Mercado Bitcoin is an exchange in Brazil, and ZCG under ZF cannot pay to get ZEC listed on the exchange as (according to ZF) it may violate SEC rules against marketing. That may change under FPF, but Alex needs to discuss it with local regulatory authorities to better understand the rules.
    • Separately, at the moment, the majority of the committee does not see this as a high priority, but is open to hearing more from the Brazilian community and possibly revisiting a grant at a later date
  • Pacu: ECC Summit Request - Pacu, the Developer Relations Engineer, has gone to the last few ECC Summits, and his application was recently approved to attend the next one.
    • Pacu is requesting ZCG to fund his trip. Brian, Jason, and Michael voted to approve his request.
    • ZCG requests that Pacu submit his reimbursement request after the event.
  • Least Authority ZIP-321 Swift/Kotlin Library Audit - Pacu, the Developer Relations Engineer, suggested auditing two libraries, and Least Authority asked for ZCG’s approval to do so.
    • Least Authority will compose a project plan with a set number of hours and auditors before ZCG decides on this request.
  • Vote to move ZCG treasury from ZF to FPF (ZF board request) - ZCG approved the operations and fund management transition to FPF.
    • With the Zcash halving completed, ZCG officially moves under the Financial Privacy Foundation (FPF). FPF will provide administrative and operational support for all ZCG activities for the next twelve months.
    • The next step is the transfer of ZCG funds from ZF’s custody to FPF’s custody. The Zcash Foundation’s board of directors has approved the transfer, and they requested that ZCG also vote to approve or reject the transfer of these assets. ZCG voted unanimously to approve the transfer.
    • During this transition period, ZF will continue to provide grant payment support to ZCG to ensure uninterrupted payments to ZCG grantees. FPF anticipates that the transfer will be completed by the end of 2024. Progress on the transfer of funds will be included in both the FPF annual report to be released in December 2024 and in future quarterly reports and forum updates.
    • FPF is excited to partner with ZCG to usher in a new era of grantmaking for the Zcash ecosystem.
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