Zcash Community Grants Meeting Minutes 2/20/23

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

Zcash Community Grants Committee Google Meet Meeting: February 20, 2023

[Minutes taken by Deidra]

Attendance:

  • Amber

  • Brian

  • Burns

  • Jason

  • Michael

  • Jack Gavigan (ZF resource)

  • Alex Bornstein (ZF resource)

  • Daniel Wolande (ZF resource)

  • Deidra M acting as notetaker

Key Takeaways:

Notes:

Miscellaneous

  • Allocation of ZCG Funds
    • The committee wanted to capture, on record, the decision they made during their brainstorming meeting on allocating ZCG funds to ecosystem wallet teams.
    • Jason stated that the budget has significantly decreased in value given the current bear market conditions. He also stated that based on the most recent dashboard, the current value of the treasury is approximately $6.3 million.
    • Jason stated that in addition to bringing teams into the ecosystem, the primary duty of the committee is to be good stewards of the ZCG’s allocation to the Dev fund.
    • Over the past month, ZCG has received two million-dollar grant proposals from ecosystem wallet developers, Zingo and Nighthawk. There are four ecosystem mobile wallet developers, and ZCG doesn’t have the budget to give them all a million dollars. The committee came up with a budget to fairly distribute the funds.
    • For 2023, $1.5 million will be allocated to mobile wallet applications. In order to be fair, that will be evenly split among the 4 teams: Nighthawk, ZecWallet, Zingo, and Ywallet.
      • That would be $375,000 per team. This number is consistent with past mobile wallet grants.
      • This only applies to wallet development, so those teams can submit other grant applications for other work if they so choose.
    • This new categorical allocation was relayed to both Nighthawk and Zingo and will be discussed with the other two teams in the near future.
    • There is a chance that ZecWallet may not want to continue development, so that might free up some money for other teams. It’s also possible that market conditions significantly improve. If this happens, ZCG would be open to giving more funds to these teams at ZCG’s sole discretion if needed.
    • Amber added that the $375,000 is a cap and not a guarantee.

Open Grant Proposals

  • Nighthawk Apps Zcash Development Fund
    • Jason recapped this grant and their call with the Nighthawk team. ZCG had a call with the NH team last week and relayed the decision on their grant. The committee approved a total grant amount of $551,000, which breaks down to $375,000 for wallet development, $148,000 for lightwalletd and ZcashBlockExplorer infrastructure, and $28,000 of retroactive funding for lightwalletd and ZcashBlockExplorer infrastructure support. ZCG rejected $84,000 of retroactive funding for the NH wallet because the committee wanted to set a high standard for approving retroactive grants and didn’t feel it met the committee’s criteria for funding. $32,000 for computers, mobile devices, and subscription costs was also rejected because ZCG felt the $375,000 that they are approving for the wallet and $148,000 approval for the lightwalletd and ZcashBlockExplorer infrastructure should sufficiently cover those costs. Finally, ZCG rejected the marketing budget of $45,600 (which Aditya subsequently removed) with the caveat that the committee is open to considering it later in the year after seeing progress from the NH team.
    • Brian added that the marketing budget was added after the initial agreement and then removed, which the committee did not feel as though the NH team conceded or compromised in that removal. He also stated that Aditya posted on the forum on 2/20/2023 that “Nighthawks $354,400 for wallet development milestones should be encouraged by the community”. Brian was confused about where this figure came from because it did not seem to align with the documentation the committee had from the NH team.
    • Ultimately, the committee wanted a counter proposal and to publicly have Aditya either withdraw or reject it and submit a new proposal with a clearer version of the budget.
    • Jason stated that he and the rest of the committee have a very high opinion of Aditya as an ecosystem contributor and a community member. Aditya puts a lot of effort into Zcash, and it is acknowledged and appreciated by the committee.
    • The committee also wanted to memorialize a call they had with Nate Wilcox and Nick Takacs from ECC to get an update on the status of DAGsync (which is a dependency for NH wallet). The biggest takeaways were that there would be an update to ECC’s mobile wallet SDK released in late March or early April that would contain some basic DAGsync functionality. Also, ECC confirmed that they plan to go forward with their mobile wallet; however, there is no clear timeline, and the wallet will be a barebones version that lacks many of the extra features NH offers.
    • Michael added that one takeaway from the call was that there wouldn’t be a total overlap between the two products because the ECC Wallet would be barebones, and the Nighthawk app is more full-featured.
    • Cody wanted on record that with the bear market and Zcash not ready for public release and wallets are not the only component to focus on. He said that it just isn’t the best time for such big asks.
    • Amber asked for more clarity on how modular the different improved syncing algorithms are (e.g. whether WarpSync be easily substituted for DAGsync), and was given an answer, “no,” and it is tightly integrated. ??
    • Jason will draft a response and have the committee approve it, and Dan will publish it on the forum.
  • Zingo Authentic Financial Insights
    • Jason outlined and updated this grant. The Zingo team originally posted their 2023 grant proposal for 25,000 ZEC (approx. $1.1M). Similar to Aditya, ZCG spoke to Zancas and explained the budgetary concerns and that the cap for mobile wallet applications is $375,000. Zancas subsequently amended his application to reduce the scope of the proposal and change the total request to $375,000. He posted the amendment on Saturday. Their proposal will be focused on wallet development; they say they plan to continue to build on and refine their approach of pair-programming, and test-driven development.
    • Jason asked if the committee is ready to vote on it now, as is. Brian and Amber asked to see more details about their listed milestones.
    • Amber will follow up with and reach out to Zancas in regards to flushing out their milestones. The committee will complete a mobile vote if the Zingo team completes this task before the next ZCG meeting.
    • Update: On 02/27, the ZCG committee voted via Signal and unanimously approved this proposal for a total of $375K.
  • Zcash Workstation Production
    • This grant proposal is from Ogasky, who has submitted three previous grants, all of which was rejected for either being out of scope or too expensive. This proposal is for the creation of Zcash open-source educational materials in Nigerian cities with the goal of onboarding more people onto Zcash. It includes a number of different pieces, including a Zcash boot camp for in-person training sessions, YouTube videos, in-person events, and a documentary video. The amount of the grant is $92,400.
    • Jason stated that the committee felt this was too expensive for what is being offered and not something they would like to fund. The committee feels it is not a high priority initiative given current budgetary constraints. The committee also felt that Ogasky’s proposals have been all over the place, from educational to blood donations, and are not consistent and doesn’t seem to be in line with any particular area of expertise.
    • Brian added that perhaps region-specific is not the best proposal at this time as other grantees like ZecHub and other educational-type activities were more integrated with the ecosystem to know the needs or were well established with a verifiable track record. ZecHub created educational materials and content on an unpaid, volunteer basis for a year before receiving a grant.
    • The committee would like to see Ogasky prove himself as a community member before submitting a grant, as other grant recipients have done. Brian agreed but also saw this sentiment as a slippery slope and does not want to discourage new community members with bonafide credentials. Jason understood Brian’s concern, but didn’t think it would necessarily be an issue because ZCG takes applicants’ credentials into consideration. Jason said, for example, ZCG recently approved a grant from the Blockchain Training Alliance for Zcash Educational Videos because they had a large body of previous work to support their application. Ogasky does not seem to have a similar track record.
    • ZCG unanimously rejected this proposal. Dan will draft a standard rejection response with a referral to the AV Club and ZecHub as a way for this applicant to contribute more.
  • Zcash-Related Privacy Research: Ukrainian-Russian War
    • Jason recapped this grant. This proposal is from Mykola Siusko, who earlier this month tweeted, “Yesterday I heard how people were using Zcash to fund cars for the local territory defense group in Ukraine. Privacy implications are more diverse than you think of.” He’s asking for $5,000 to research Zcash use cases in the Ukrainian-Russian war.
    • This proposal was discussed at the last brainstorm session. Jason asked the committee to vote on this grant. ZCG unanimously approved. Cody said he is interested to see what privacy looks like in a community whose world was turned upside down. Michael added that this grant is interesting and timely, and the price is reasonable. Amber is also interested in seeing how Zcash can be used in the real world.
    • Brian added that grants like this would be perfect for the new Minor Grants program that ZF is starting. Jason also approved and really interested in what this research yields.
  • Dizzy Wallet: A Dedicated Zcash Wallet For Discord
    • Jason summarized this grant. This proposal is from James Katz, a member of the Zcash community in Brazil and a regular on Free2z. He’s asking for $12,000 to build and host a secure, user-friendly wallet on Discord and develop Node.js libraries for Zcash interactions.
    • Some concerns were brought up about the safety of user funds with this type of hot wallet, and James recognized the risks but noted that the wallet would primarily be used for micropayments and not as a user’s primary wallet.
    • Jason asked for the committee’s vote. Brian voted to reject it due to security implications. Cody agreed with Brian. Michael said this proposal sounded fun but unsafe and lacked gravitas, strength, and security. Amber stated that she was also leaning towards rejection but was open to persuasion if more was discussed in the forum.
    • ZCG voted to reject the proposal and refer it to the Minor Grants program. Dan will reach out to ZecHub and see if this proposal is something they might have a bounty for. Dan stated that he would wait until the Minor Grant is announced later this week and then send the rejection post to this applicant with a reference to the new grant program.
  • Free2Z: Preparing the Garden for Spring
    • Jason outlined this grant. This is the second grant proposal for Free2Z. Skylar and Jonathan are asking for $333,000 to develop their Zcash-powered web3 platform for content creators into a robust product that is ready for mass adoption. They plan to add interactive live broadcasts, secure cloud storage, the ability to upload images and videos, and AI integrations to help improve and generate content.
    • The committee voted to approve this grant unanimously. Jason added that with no marketing efforts, they grew their community purely by word of mouth. It particularly took off in the Latin American community, and the success of this is impressive. Jason is excited to see Free2Z continue to grow into a robust social media platform. Brian added that he was impressed with how receptive they are to community feedback and appreciates their commitment to security by running a bug bounty program enabling testers to earn shielded ZEC. Dan to send a standard approval response.
  • Algorithmic Anthropometry
    • Jason summarized the grant proposal. This proposal was posted a couple of days ago; it’s too early for ZCG to vote. It’s from Tilmar Goos, and he’s asking for $29,750. The purpose of this proposal is to help raise awareness of the importance of privacy in the digital age and widen the footprint of Zcash in a professional manner. He plans to produce four research papers, help grow the Zcash community, host three workshops, and host other meetings and meetups.
    • The committee will discuss this proposal during their next brainstorm session.
  • Zcash KaiOS Wallet
    • This proposal is from the Kai Foundry. They’re asking for $40,000 to build the first KaiOS non-custodial wallet for Zcash. The team says KaiOS is the world’s third largest OS with 160 million+ active devices, particularly from countries like Africa, Asia, and South America. There’s a great opportunity to onboard these users into the Zcash ecosystem and empower them with Zcash payment solutions.
    • Brian stated that @tokidoki asked some good questions, but they were not answered. He also said he had concerns about limited internet connectivity given the current state of mobile wallet syncing as well. Cody asked if perhaps the other mobile wallet teams like Ywallet would be able to integrate KaiOS into the pipeline if it is widely used. Cody also said that this team should join the Arborist calls to engage with the other mobile wallets.
    • Dan stated that there is a mobile wallet call this week and will post this call to the forum to encourage him to attend.
    • This proposal is too early to vote on, so ZCG will discuss it at the next brainstorm session.
  • Arculus Cold Storage Wallet
    • Jason noticed this proposal was submitted on the Zcash Grants platform; however, they have not yet posted their proposal to the forum as of 2/20/2023. The Arculus team is asking for $200,000 to integrate support for Zcash on their cold storage wallet solution.
    • The committee cannot vote just yet but will discuss once appropriate.

Brainstorm Session Follow Ups

  • Global Ambassador Program
    • Tim will join the Ambassador program on March 1st. He is a French Polynesian and is located in Tahiti. He will be focused on spreading the word about Zcash in the french language and growing that community.
    • Ksenia’s trial period ends on February 28th, and she plans on doing some physical meetups in Berlin. Yoditar mentioned she has something planned for February, but the committee has not heard any buzz about it. Jason asked ZCG if they wanted to extend her trial or remove her from the program.
      • This will be left as an open item for the next meeting or the next brainstorm session.
  • RFPs
    • There are two RFPs ready to publish from Cody and Brian individually. Now that the standard terms and conditions are available, Cody and Brian will make adjustments to their proposals before publishing by adding the link below:
    • Alex will publish the T&C link immediately after this meeting but asked for a heads-up before Brian or Cody posts the RFPs to the forum to ensure that Submittable is updated. *Alex added the T&C to the Eligibility screen on Submittable.
    • Brian will write up a separate post to give the community notice of where part of the standard RFP language moved to and where it currently lives.
  • ToDeFi sponsorship
    • The committee needed to determine how this conference would promote ZCG. At the last meeting, it was discussed that Dan would send ZCG logos and other information.
    • Dan is in the process of compiling resources, including marketing materials like the poster and the logo. Dan will send an email with the resources and prompt the grantee to update the community on the forum on how he will specifically promote ZCG and ZF at this conference.
    • Amber reminded the committee that she will be attending ETH Denver next week and wanted to follow up on how she could promote the committee and ZF. Dan will resend past fliers used. Lastly, the committee will discuss the next steps for the Consensus conference at the next brainstorm meeting.
  • 37L Agreement
    • Jason asked the committee if everyone was on board with duplicating the agreement for 37 Laines’ previous grant or do they need to negotiate new terms. ZCG unanimously agreed that 37L could indeed use the same agreement terms.
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Good day all, I just read through the minutes of the Grant Community and saw the several reasons why my grants were not accepted and here are my response to all points raised.

  1. Being too expensive and out of scope:
    Well before I applied, I did a thorough scoping and even noticed that my application was even lesser than some approved similar grants on the Zcash platform.

  2. The committee also felt that Ogasky’s proposals have been all over the place, from educational to blood donations, and are not consistent and doesn’t seem to be in line with any particular area of expertise.
    One thing we must understand is that since 2017, I have been into tech evangelism and right now, I am a blockchain community advocate in Nigeria and I have organized several blockchain events in Nigeria, also I have done blockchain events in some other African countries (Ghana, Uganda, Zimbabwe and Nigeria), of which relevant links will be posted at the end of this email. Also, it is imperative that we understand that BloodFuse is a web3 platform that connect blood donors to blood banks and hospitals. I repeat BloodFuse (https://bloodfuse.com/) is a Web3 platform and not the hospital neither is it the Blood-Bank, but rather the blockchain platform that serves as a connection between the blood donor and the hospital. secondly, we must not forget that as a dedicated blockchain community advocate, one of my responsibility is to initiate and encourage projects being built on the Blockchain network.

  3. …other educational-type activities were more integrated with the ecosystem to know the needs or were well established with a verifiable track record.
    Well, the major goal of all my project applications for grant so far has being to promote the Zcash, however I will try to be ecosystem focus next time. Also it is key to note that I applied to volunteer for the organizers of the Zcon3 last year but its just that I was unable to secure a visa, which was not my making. Also, I have applied for Zcash support to do Zcash events & they were not approved. Another thing to note is that, I own tech hubs in Nigeria where several digital skills training are done including the blockchain training, as well as creativity is birthed frequently in these hubs on different industrial sector base on the diverse human needs or challenges.

  4. The committee would like to see Ogasky prove himself as a community member before submitting a grant, as other grant recipients have done.
    What task does the community wants me to do now and I will do it, if that is what the community wants.

  5. ZCG takes applicants’ credentials into consideration.
    I believe that I have the requisite credentials to execute all the projects that i have applied for grant. I think may be I didn’t say much about myself, reason been that I don’t like blowing my trumpet but with this minutes I read, it is of utmost necessity that the Zcash grant committee members know me well.
    I am Onose Oghenevwogaga, I started tech evangelism since the year 2017 and with the Django Girls. So far I evangelized several tech brands in Nigeria and they include, GitLab, Python, Django, Webflow, Gatsby, Trailblazer, Linode, Mozilla, among others. It is key to note that I started GitLab in Nigeria and today GitLab is popular in Nigeria.
    On the other hand, i got into the Blockchain space in the year 2020 and started Blockchain evangelism with Chainlink in the year 2021, and later got Polygon major sponsorship for CodeUp Blockchain event. Later we built BloodFuse on the Stacks Blockchain protocol, and now we are working on one of our FinTech solution with Crypto and Cash transaction called PassMeCash being built on Blockchain. Presently I lead the CodeUp Africa community and I am the founder of WittyHub. I may not have much social presence but you can see me via the following links Redirecting... , https://www.linkedin.com/in/onose-ogaga/ , https://twitter.com/oga4sky

  6. Here below are the links to all my work from my archives, please take the time to go through all the links to know if I am consistent in the Blockchain and Tech Community Advocacy.

PassMeCash YouTube Presentation:

BloodFuse YouTube Demo

Blockchain Events:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1OISIyIWikfPB1vcWqv4BEbgKffitGtdr
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1wSpeipcMFSWHu8PwK-Q5xwBpvnXMcxOA
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1YdcO0mtyToTmQbQxdvynjf5X5lr40FRl
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/12VPnxgkSLlf-iqVlWeAEZWPNrt2ebm3Q
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Jm8ZsJerPDKHtSeHSf3Rhgt9t8P6bZMI
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ixBfZMK5uJdww_v07Toil3d3uEd4h_rm

SmartContract Watch Party:

CodeUp Africa Past Events:

Personal Application Video:

GitLab Nigeria Community:

Documentary on GitLab Nigeria Community at One Year:

CodeUp-Hack-22:

CodeUp Hack:

News from Media Partner on YouTube

Appreciation Video on YouTube:

WittyHub Goodwill Message on YouTube:

Witty Teen CodeUp:
https://mobile.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2502092946726375&type=3&_rdc=1&_rdr
https://twitter.com/wittyfoundation?lang=en

DJANGO GIRLS PAST WORKSHOPS:

  1. I may not have showcase all about me on or before now in my previous grant applications, may be I felt it was not necessary, as I thought I should only provide information concerning the project applied for. However, I want to appeal that this grant committee make reference to this write up in checking my credentials for future application, as I may not be able to provide all that I did here due to unseen challenges that may lead to one or two omission. Thank you,
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Is this for a shielded support on Arculus? I cannot find any mention of shielded or private tx on their grant details.

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I understand the reasons why my proposal was rejected.
In hot wallets, there is a trade-off to be made between convenience and safety. With Dizzy Wallet, I opted for convenience while keeping good information security practices in mind.

I am excited about the Minor Grants Program and have already submitted my proposal.
I hope to hear from them soon.
In any case, I will continue making small contributions to the community and keep holding my $ZEC :wink:

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Hi @ogasky - Thank you for your response. ZCG stands by its decision on your proposal and encourages you to:

  1. Get more involved with the community by participating in discussions on the forum, contributing to educational initiatives with ZecHub, or attending meetups with the Zcash Foundation Audio/Visual Club.

  2. Consider applying for a grant with the new Zcash Minor Grants Program, which is administered by the Zcash Foundation. You can learn more about the program here.

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