Zcash Community Grants Meeting Minutes 2/7/22

Below please find the latest @ZcashGrants meeting minutes and Public Dashboard link, as well as the “Key Takeaways” Section.

Attendance:

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

Key Takeaways:

  • All members agreed that the committee go with a 3 out of 5 majority vote for grant approvals with the stipulation that all members must vote (member incapacitated contingency TBD).
  • All members agreed to wait to see if there are more forum comments for node-Tor - Javascript implementation of the Tor protocol before making a decision; most members were soft nos.
  • The committee agreed to let comments evolve on the topic of Zcash Media YouTube channel to see community sentiment before moving in one direction.
  • The committee agreed to pay out BTCPay Milestone 2.
  • The committee agreed that they will evaluate all milestones on a case-by-case basis and, if a grant involves a dependency on a third party, they will do their due diligence to ensure the third party will be cooperative before the committee approves the grant (to prevent issues later on).
  • Winnie and Dan to work internally and with ECC to scrub “ZOMG” from all websites within their control. Aditya to create a Zcash Community Grants website.
  • The committee has reached out to 3 ambassadors for the initial cohort (and will possibly add 2 more). The committee discussed an initial payment of $1,000 USD/mo, guidelines for ambassadors, and ambassador-driven deliverables. Alex to get back to the committee on how the ambassadors will be classified on paper (he followed up after the meeting that Independent Contractors was the status that should be used).
  • New grant platform to launch by end of February.
  • They discussed RFPs for Zecwallet (ZF to draft the RFP/further brainstorming required), Zondax Ledger (backburner), posting RFPs on job listing sites and how to leverage contacts in academia.
  • Decided grants@zfnd.org would be the contact email for grantees.
  • All members agreed to have the ZF website link to the separate Zcash Community Grants website. ZF agreed to share the text that is currently on the microsite with the committee.
  • Discussed having a community call on Tues 15 of Feb 18:00 UTC with QEDIT and the committee (later changed to Wednesday Feb 16th).
  • Hudson to draft a forum post discussing staggered elections.
  • Hudson to add his ETH community contacts to an internal spreadsheet.

Notes:

Grant Process Update

  • Jason brought up the voting criteria that the previous committee had in place:
    • ≤ $20K: approve grant if 3 out of 5 approve. If a member is neutral they should be able to move forward with 3/5, but if someone has a strong opposition, they should stop and talk about it as the discussion solicits more awareness.
    • $20.1K-$100K: approve grant if 4 out of 5 approve.
    • ≥ $100K: approve grant if 5 out of 5 approve.
  • Jason brought up the committee’s decision to abandon existing thresholds and go with 3 out of 5 majority vote with the stipulation that all members must vote. Jason explained the reason for this change is the monetary thresholds are arbitrary and, for example, requiring a 5 out of 5 majority for a grant above $100,000 ultimately gives a single person veto power. All members agreed.
  • Hudson brought up the point that they should have a contingency plan if a member is incapacitated so it doesn’t hold up a grant. All members agreed that it was a good point and they should discuss further.

Open Grant Proposals

  • node-Tor - Javascript implementation of the Tor protocol
    • Michael commented that the technical nature of the grant was over his head but it could be cool.
    • Aditya pointed out that the applicants were able to answer all questions that were thrown at them on the forum but he wants to make sure the development is useful for Zcash and requested Zcash developers building on JavaScript & Browser to comment if they find the funding of such tools is beneficial to Zcash; as they cannot fund every open source project today.
    • Brian agreed that it’s not clear what the value is to Zcash and the Zcash community; he is okay leaving it open for a week or so for committee feedback; he’s a soft no.
    • Jason was also a soft no and agreed that they should leave it open for more comments; He asked if the engineers at ZF could chime in since it’s highly technical. Jack suggested they reach out to the Tor project themselves to see what they think; ZF has team members that used to work at Tor but it is difficult for ZF to answer if it’s useful for Zcash (not to suggest it’s not useful, but they wouldn’t necessarily have the context to give advice).
    • Hudson was also fine with waiting for more comments.

Zcash Media YouTube Channel

  • Jason said since the reason for 37L’s forum post was to gauge community sentiment on the Zcash Media YouTube Channel, it makes sense to let the community comment first rather than immediately state the committee’s opinions about the channel.
  • Jason asked about the urgency of the proposal; is it to get the documentary distributed so the reveal doesn’t leak?
  • Alex summarized that 37 Laines were out of pocket so we accelerated the payout once they met the deliverables so they could continue. Everyone wants to keep the process going; they are moving on the Colorado trip and have started a separate conversation with the license & distribution plan.
  • Aditya asked if the Creative Commons license had been agreed upon. Alex replied that because of their potential work with Netflix, they want to provide ZF with a separate agreement that ZF hasn’t received yet; they are aware that it needs to be included in the distribution plan.
  • Jack brought up that they may own the copyrights of their content but there was an expectation that they would deliver the content to the Zcash Community Grants Committee, and the channel proposal throws everything up in the air again.
  • Alex commented that when this gets resolved, ZF is confident what they deliver will be good for all parties. Alex assured the committee that they did not talk about distribution when he met with them, they just took him up on his offer to assist with creating deliverables that were accurate and actionable. Aditya agreed that ZF is acting as a facilitator, and added that the committee has to decide who to distribute it. Jack replied that he assumed it would be on the ZF YouTube channel because nobody had suggested otherwise; then, when they saw the quality (high) and content of the reveal, they realized they needed to have a distribution plan.

BTCPay Milestone 2 Payout

  • Jack explained that the deliverables for this payout was to be integrated in the BTCPay server; the applicant has submitted a pull request to BTCPay server in GitHub and it will probably be merged in the next release; he asked the committee if they are okay with paying it out.
  • Aditya clarified that his previous concern was that the ZcashCommGrants retweeted a tweet saying BTCPayServer is usable, and that we should be careful of retweeting community sentiment until the work is available for use.
  • Brian added that the committee should research before approving grant and communicate with the 3rd party to ensure they will be cooperative; he agreed it is case by case; there are developments outside the grantee’s or committee’s control and he leans toward paying out if the dev did the work; in summary, it’s case by case and they should do due diligence.
  • Michael stated that they should absolutely pay out BTCPay; the milestones are completed; they need to be sharks on milestones that are meaningful.
  • Jason and Hudson agreed on evaluating case by case and paying out BTCpay
  • Alex added that he is happy to talk to grantees on constructing deliverables and the committee is free to give them his contact info.
  • Jack stated, in his mind, it fulfills the criteria. All members agreed.

Zcash Community Grants Name Change: Scrubbing “ZOMG” from ZF/ECC/z.cash websites

  • Jason asked if ZF could have someone take on scrubbing the ZF website and reach out to ECC to have them do the same to their website and z.cash. Winnie and Dan agreed to follow up on this.
  • Jason brought up that they should make sure the logo is used consistently.
  • Winnie told the committee she is happy to provide them with any variations.
  • Aditya brought up that he is working on setting up the ZcashCommunityGrants website and he will connect with Winnie to obtain assets & content.

Global Ambassador Program

  • Jason announced that ZCG has reached out to three community members about the program and they will likely reach out to two more to be part of the first group of ambassadors.
  • Jason asked if $1,000 USD/mo is sufficient, ($60k/yr for 5 ambassadors); it is less than 1-3% of total funds and they should spend it on active members.
  • Alex asked if these will be considered grantees or contractors? Jason suggested it be similar to sponsorships. Alex replied that sponsors are still considered grantees on paper; he asked how the committee is going to govern and what the parameters of what they are responsible for are. Jason said he will jot up some rough guidelines. Alex asked if they are required to submit something every month. Jason replied, yes, they need to provide proof i.e. translations, twitter page, etc.; they want to get started with 3-5 active members; it will evolve over the next few months. Michael added that they will learn a lot so it’s good to start small. Alex added that he will need to think about how to structure it on paper; whether they are a grantee or contractor, it doesn’t change anything on their end.
  • Brian stated that they want ambassadors to take ownership and have the flexibility to come up with their own deliverables so they can be creative.
  • Aditya brought up that they plan to have more community members as ambassadors later in different parts of the world.
  • Alex told the committee that he will get back to them on the paperwork aspect of the relationship (completed 2/8 via email).

Grants Platform

  • Jason asked Alex if the release of the grant platform was still scheduled for the end of the month. Alex said yes, there aren’t any foreseeable problems with it going live by the end of Feb.

Calls For Grants / RFPs

  • Zecwallet Lite and full node continued support
    • Jason asked if ZF would do a spec write up for this and asked if it would be able to be done by the time the grant platform is running; TBD on who funds. Jack replied that they will draft the RFP but can’t promise it will be done by the time we launch the new grant platform. Aditya asked if there is any urgency of this. Jack said that Aditya K didn’t specify an end date for maintenance and emphasized that it will keep working through NU5; the Foundation is happy to pay for servers. Aditya pointed out if we have an uptick in users after the video is released, we want them to have a workable experience.
  • Ledger (Zondax) Grant (for inclusion to app store)
    • Jack commented that it makes sense to do Zecwallet first, Zondax isn’t as simple as putting out an RFP; it’s more of who they can partner with; Zecwallet is the obvious choice but we need to get the long-term support nailed down. ZF is in the process of trying to build bridges with ECC with a view to discussing whether it would make sense for Zondax to integrate with the zcashd wallet, but they don’t have a quick and easy solution for now; this is on the backburner.
  • Ideas to promote open Calls for Grants / RFPs
    • Jason suggested that they could leverage those who work in academia like Eran, Ian, Matt, and Andrew to encourage their students to submit proposals on some of the R&D grant ideas; he said that the committee will put together an email for ZF to send. Jason also suggested possibly posting RFP and grant ideas to popular crypto job websites or job boards Placeholder and DCG have on their websites.
    • Alex & Winnie suggested LInkedIn. Aditya thought it would be a good idea to create a Zcash Community Grants LinkedIn page. Winnie explained that it’s not about how many followers; with ads, you can target those with specific qualifications to target the right audience.
    • Dan brought up that ZF has been in contact with the Zero-knowledge podcast folks so that could be a good match. Aditya agreed and suggested that the committee discuss during their brainstorm meeting. Winnie advised them to add the question “how did you learn about us?” Alex added that posting on job sites, etc, is dependent on what you are requesting; there’s a lot of trial and error in the crypto field.

Zcash Community Grants Webpage

  • Jason asked who would be a good contact to put on their website for potential grant applications. Alex replied grants@zfnd.org would be a good address to use.
  • Review draft Zcash Community Grants microsite on the new ZF website
    • Jack showed the committee the Zcash Community Grants microsite and told them the text is up to the committee; they can either have their own separate website and ditch the microsite or just have the ZF website link to the committee website.
    • Michael shared that he thought they should have their own and not be categorized under ZF. Jason agreed. Brian said he was indifferent; ultimately if the committee owns it, they are on the hook for maintaining it in the long-term. Hudson referenced the Ethereum community website that lists everything as a resource and the committee is one resource. All members agreed to have the ZF website link to the separate Zcash Community Grants website via the “Learn more about Zcash Community grants” button. ZF agreed to share the text that is currently on the microsite so as to not duplicate work.

Proposed Community Call

  • ZCG Intro/QEDIT Discussion
  • Date/Time/Structure
    • Jack explained that they are waiting to hear back from QEDIT re: the details of a community call. Dan envisioned it being live streamed or only audio on Twitter Space, introducing the committee and then going into the 1st grant approved where QEDIT can present their vision; they proposed Tues 15 of Feb 18:00 UTC and most members said that could work for them; Jack to respond to QEDIT saying that time works.

Staggering Elections

  • Hudson wanted to put the topic of staggered elections back on the radar and come up with a timeline; what is the process if people have to leave suddenly?; How is the process decided?
  • Jack brought up that he had posted an idea before the last election for 2 or 3 of the committee (decided by volunteering or drawing straws) to announce that they are going to step down, triggering 2-3 vacancies, then ZF will run an election to fill spots; ZIP 1014 doesn’t specify how the vacancy is to be filled; what they did last time there was a vacancy was to fill it with the next person in line; with his idea, they would end up with 2-3 people that’s terms would end next June; he emphasized that it’s just an idea and entirely up to the committee.
  • Hudson replied that he likes it a lot but needs to think about specifics; at minimum they could make a forum post saying this is Jack’s original idea and list different scenarios; he brought up that nonprofits have ways of doing this.
  • Alex explained that nonprofits typically have 3 incoming classes; a typical nonprofit term is for multiple years and you would be elected based on a class (1 or 2).
  • Aditya brought up the possible issues around creating 2 different class of ZCG members serving 6 months or 1 year.
  • Alex clarified that he was talking about cohort like year 2023, not hierarchical class; also, this scenario would not be the way to move forward in this situation.
  • Hudson volunteered to draft a forum post and send it to the rest of the committee before he post to ensure it’s not too vague or specific. All agreed that was a good way to move forward.

Contacts

  • Jason asked Hudson how to leverage Hudson connections to orgs like ETH, the media, and the Zcash Ecosystem; the committee has an internal brainstorm matrix and want to maintain contacts so they don’t rely on ZF; Hudson said he is happy to add some folks but it is dependent on the as; some people are better contacted by him vs a blind DM.
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Wow very impressed. It feels like the committee is making a lot of progress :slightly_smiling_face:!

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We are working to improve Zcash Community Grants and meeting every other day since the start. Couldn’t be more proud of the group we have put together.

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I propose for all future grants that require a merge we split the final milestone into “Pull Request” and “Merge”. The expectation would be that for a “Pull Request” milestone to be paid out there needs to be an expectation that a reasonable maintainer could merge the PR.

A merge milestone would only be paid out when the merge actually occurs. This helps incentivise the continued work on the PR to address any issues raise such as not meeting coding/comment standards, overcomplicate code, security issues, merge conflicts, etc. If for whatever reason the original applicant isn’t able to get the PR merge the ZCG could advertise the final milestone to the community to increase the chances that someone is able to get the PR merged.

This would also incentivise the applicant to engage with the maintainer(s) of the repository early on if they want to ensure they’re work gets merged so they can receive final payout.

What we want to prevent here is ZCG grants funding work that sits in a PR forever. If the PR is so great it’s merged straight away ZCG payout both grants at one :slightly_smiling_face:.

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As there’s some positive response towards my grant idea, I’m thinking of submitting the proposal around this week or next. Should I wait for the new grant platform release? Or, should I just submit it to the current platform?

Cheers.

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No need to wait, go ahead and submit your request when you’re ready. The current platform will remain accessible until all open grants are cleared.

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