Zcash Community Grants Meeting Minutes 2/21/22

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

[Minutes taken by Dolly Sharma]

Attendance:

  • Aditya
  • Brian
  • Hudson Jameson
  • Jason
  • Michael
  • Alex Bornstein (ZF resource)
  • Daniel Wolande (ZF resource)
  • Jack Gavigan (ZF resource)
  • Winfred K. Mandela (ZF resource)
  • Danika Delano (ZF resource and backup notetaker)
  • Dolly Sharma acting as notetaker

Key Takeaways:

  • Dan to ask Teor for his feedback on the node-Tor grant proposal
  • Committee to follow up with Tokidoki to discuss his grant proposal
  • 37L & Zcash Media
    • Committee’s position:
      • 37L to do the distribution
      • Marketing: 37L, ZCG, & ZF
      • ZF to handle PR?
      • Should have a contract that:
        • gives ZF/ZCG archival rights, and
        • stipulates that the channel would be handed back to ZF/ZCG
    • Need to define what “archival rights” means
    • Copyright question outstanding
    • Agenda for the tripartite meeting
    • Dan to ask 37L to share a draft of their proposal
  • Global Ambassador Program
    • 5 potential ambassadors identified and are in the process of being onboarded
    • Dan to be the primary point of contact / ZCG to assist
  • TwitterSpace
    • Make sure that the ECC team are aware of future events
    • Post to the Zcash R&D Discord
    • 1 pm EST, March 2nd for the Arti/Tor TwitterSpace

Notes:

Open Grant Proposals

  • node-Tor - Javascript implementation of the Tor protocol
    • Jason explained last meeting ZCG decided to leave this grant proposal open for further comment. ZCG is still undecided/leaning towards no on the proposal. Jason recommended ZF reach out to Teor to get feedback on the proposal.
    • Dan volunteered to reach out to Teor to get feedback.
    • Michael is in no rush to make a decision.
    • Brian is not sure what value will be added to the Zcash community
    • Jason agrees with Michael and Brian
    • Aditya requested to see active use in the Zcash ecosystem
  • Grant Idea: Tokidoki as Full-time Moderator and Technical Writer
    • Jason summarized that ZCG’s position is that a full-time moderator may not be useful, however, if in the future it is needed, it could be a part of the Global Ambassador Program. ZCG also does not need a technical writer at this time.
    • Jack stated that Zcash Foundation has a contract with MineZcash to run the forums and act as the moderator. Jack also mentioned that Dan is a moderator too and that Tokidoki also volunteered for the role. Having a moderator paid by ZCG might complicate things if Zcash Foundation runs the forum and sets the code of conduct and if there is a disagreement it will ultimately end up on Jack’s plate.
    • Jack stated that technical writing could be useful at this point
    • Jack mentioned that one of the ZF engineers started off getting a grant to do development on zcashd, before joining ZF full-time, so there is precedent for someone getting a grant to do work on Zcash which can lead to them building a relationship and undertaking more work.
    • Aditya agreed with Hudson’s points. Aditya also stated that the ZcashBlockExplorer.com has complete documentation. Aditya is looking forward to seeing how he can contribute.
    • Jason stated that ZCG plans to set up a call to discuss the grant with Tokitoki and to leave this issue as an open item to revisit in the next meeting.

Brainstorm Session Takeaways

  • 37 Laines

  • Jason explained ZCG has discussed the issue of whether 37 Laines should own and manage its own YouTube channel, or should ZCG or ZF own the channel and let 37 Laines operate or manage it? The main issue here is what happens if 37 Laines runs off or repurposes the channel to something else? ZCG is actively working with ZF and 37L to discuss and resolve these open issues.

Calls For Grants / RFPs

  • Global Ambassador Program
    • Jason stated that ZCG has selected 5 people as ambassadors. Alex confirmed that he has reached out to all of them to complete KYC and sign the independent contractor agreement. He is currently waiting on 2 to respond.
    • The start date is March 1, 2022, and Jason stated that he has put together resources for use by the ambassadors.
    • Dan will be the primary point of contact for the Ambassadors; however, ZCG will continue to assist Dan.
  • Media Kit & Resources
    • Jason stated that Yoditar asked ZCG about whether or not Zcash has a media kit other than what’s on the z.cash website… Alex stated that the official one is on the z.cash site. Jack stated that if ambassadors are running a Zcash meetup it is fair to use the Zcash logo for presentations, signage, etc.
  • Grants Platform
    • The grants platforms will likely be ready the 1st week of March. The plan is to put a note on the current site to ensure users complete their grants there but also inform them not to submit new grants as we will be making restrictions. We will be pushing users to the new grants’ platform, and we hope to have a new URL within the next 2 days.
    • Aditya stated that we have been holding off on a call for the grants section on the forum. Jason stated that there is no reason to hold off and that we should divide them up and post the ideas on the forum for community feedback. Aditya agreed to ZCG posting Request for Input on grants on the forum.

Follow-Ups From Last Meeting

  • Scrubbing “ZOMG” from ZF/ECC/Zcash websites
    • Jack stated that they have been going through a new website and making sure it’s scrubbed, and the only references that occur are on old blog posts. Winfred stated that she had reached out to ECC and that they said they would make the necessary changes.
  • Email to Eran/ZF Board Members
    • Jason stated that he has a draft of the email to Eran and the Zcash Foundation board members and will submit it in the next couple of days to ask if they had students who would want to submit R&D grant proposals.

Twitter Spaces

  • Retrospective on QEDIT event
    • Dan replied to Brian regarding the comments made about ECC not attending and stated in the future there will be a longer period between planning, scheduling, and marketing as there wasn’t enough time allocated. Jack also gave additional information stating that an email went to Josh and Nate and Josh responded that the ECC leadership team had a meeting at that time. It was assumed the event would be re-broadcasted to the rest of their team, however, that did not occur. Thus, ZF will be more proactive to inform the core engineers and not rely on ECC leadership to tell the rest of the team. Brian suggested announcing the event in the R&D Discord.
    • Jack stated that Tor may not be clear that their grant is from the Zcash Community Grants as opposed to Zcash Foundation, that is why we want to have a call for them to meet and discuss the grant with ZCG.
  • Next Event: Arti/Tor tentatively scheduled for March 2nd, 1 pm EST.
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Can you clarify? I received an email from Dan in the afternoon on Monday the 14th about an event being scheduled for the morning of the 16th, saying that it would be great if someone from ECC could be there as a speaker. I mentioned that ECC leadership wouldn’t be able to make it due to a conflict. Steven listened to the recording following and shared it with me and others with a summary. I’m not clear on why there was an assumption that we would do anything more. To my knowledge, no one asked anything of us.

The ECC team is working very hard on NU5. That’s our focus, and to the exclusion of other things. I’m all for hosting dialog and posting recordings on various topics in discord or in the forum for everyone to hear. But I’m not clear on what the ZF is intending with respect to not relying “on ECC leadership to tell the rest of the team.” This reads like someone wasn’t happy ECC engineering wasn’t there and intends to somehow take it into their own hands. Feels off, but let me know if I’m reading it incorrectly.

Fwiw, I think it’s fantastic that these events are happening without ECC. :slight_smile:

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@joshs I don’t think there was an expectation that someone from ECC would attend. Dan mentioned he would reach out to ECC to see if someone would like to participate. The committee wanted to ensure that happened since we realized after the event that some at ECC weren’t aware of it. We agreed that these events need to be planned and communicated out further in advance when requesting broader participation like this.

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I think I can help clarify a bit. There was no assumption that anyone from ECC do anything more and nothing was asked of ECC specifically. @joshs and I communicated prior to both TwitterSpaces with my goal being to make ECC aware of the event so that someone could join if they wanted. As @wobbzz mentioned the committee had provided feedback to me that it would be better to plan these Spaces further out to increase participation from the ecosystem, including ECC. In regards to the comment of “not relying on ECC leadership to tell the rest of the team”, I don’t want this to be misinterpreted, I think it may be coming across wrong in the notes and during the meeting actually had context around spreading the word about these Spaces beyond just me reaching out to ECC leadership.

I want to be clear to the community and all involved in these TwitterSpaces that I will work to improve the planning of these Spaces based on all feedback & will continue to inform ECC leadership in advance in addition to spreading the word in other ways in order to get as many ecosystem participants involved as possible.

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Thanks for the clarification. Appreciate you all.

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