Zcash Community Grants Meeting Minutes 3/20/23

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

Attendance:

  • Amber

  • Brian

  • Burns

  • Jason

  • Michael

  • Jack Gavigan (ZF resource)

  • Alex Bornstein (ZF resource and acting as notetaker)

Key Takeaways:

Notes:

Open Grant Proposals

  • Birdcalls
    • Jason recapped the grant, $265,600. ZCG had a call with them last week to better understand the technical requirements and scope of the integration and obtain a general understanding of their marketing strategy and user base. ZCG asked them to connect with Hanh to talk about BTCpay server and then they’ll break the grant into two pieces: exploratory phase and integration phase. Grant will remain open.
  • Shielded Support for Ledger Hardware Wallets
    • Jason recapped the grant, $300,100. ZCG is setting up a call with Zondax and Hanh to get them to discuss the integration. Hanh has communicated that he’d like to work with Zondax. Cody said that all wallets should have integration with hardware wallets on their roadmaps, and other ZCG members agreed. Jack stated that the objective all along for ZF’s engagement with Zondax has been to provide an embedded Zcash Ledger app that any Zcash wallet can integrate with, with plans for a future roadmap that includes integration with Ledger Live, Orchard compatibility, mobile device support, and support for ZSAs when they are deployed.
    • Jack shared some information based on his conversations direct with Ledger:
      • Ledger definitely wants to add support for shielded Zcash transactions.
      • Ledger requires that new embedded apps are supplied with a third-party compatible desktop wallet to (a) test the new embedded app with, and (b) so that there’s an alternative method for users to access their funds (so that Ledger Live is not a single point of failure).
      • Ledger can recommend and vouch for Zondax. Over the past four years, Zondax has grown from just Juan by himself to a successful company that has a significant amount of experience developing apps for Ledger devices (approx. 40 apps), and are very familiar with the process. Ledger is confident that the Zcash embedded app developed by Zondax will meet Ledger’s requirements, and be suitable for deployment.
      • A successful security audit by one of Ledger’s approved partners is a prerequisite. If a project wants to leverage a full Ledger Live integration (on top of the embedded app), they are expected to provide the necessary changes to the Ledger Live codebase (open source) and run any necessary infrastructure (e.g. a node). Zondax is also familiar with this process, and has done it for other projects.
    • Jason responded that it was great to hear. Jason asked about timing, how long until implementation? Jack didn’t have a timeline to share. Jason stated that ZCG isn’t interested in Zondax submitting a grant request for a new wallet (like a forked Zecwallet). Michael stated his preference was Zondax working with existing wallets. Jack reminded the committee that integration with an existing wallet was ZF’s original plan but Zondax has had two negative experiences when they attempted to collaborate with existing wallet developers at ZF’s behest. Jason raised the question of whether Zondax has the skillset to build and maintain a wallet. Jack suggested that the committee was underestimating Zondax’s capabilities, and pointed out that Zondax had already demonstrated their Ledger app working with a fork of the Zecwallet Lite desktop wallet at Zcon3. Cody said timeline was important and would impact his thinking on the way forward. Jason responded that Hanh already has a functioning wallet, Cody responded that all wallets are open source. Jack pointed out that Zingo’s first grant was for a fork of Zecwallet, and recommended that ZCG clearly communicate their approach to funding wallets in order to avoid miscommunication with teams that submit grant applications in good faith. Brian stated that collaboration is the goal, not necessarily forked wallets. Michael said they need to be flexible regarding their funding strategy depending on what grants are submitted.
    • Update: On March 24, the ZCG committee unanimously voted to approve this grant at their weekly brainstorm session.
  • User Education Grant
    • Jason recapped the grant, $6,000. ZCG has voted to not approve the grant. Referring requestor to Zechub.
  • Simple Swap Service
    • Jason recapped the grant, $52,500. Too early to vote. Jack suggested that if they take custody of assets they may be subject to regulatory obligations. Another non-custodial approach that could be interesting would be to use atomic swaps, for which a proof of concept for Zcash and Bitcoin swaps already exists. Cody asked if we can make it a requirement that grantees use unified addresses (adoption ready standard)? The goal would be to have unified addresses from the start to save time and money in the future.

Brainstorm Session Follow Ups

  • Zcash Elastic Subnet Bridge on Avalanche
    • No grant request submitted yet. Brian said it sounds interesting but he’s more interested in 1-1 transferability. He’s open to the idea and he’s interested in meeting with them (they’ve requested a meeting). Michael said there are lots of interesting things in this grant that require more learning and discussion. Cody agreed and asked if ZF has a position on this grant. Jack responded that no, not yet, he has not yet fully reviewed the details.
  • Global Ambassador Program
    • Two new ambassadors are interested in participating from Italy and France. ZCG to meet with them to determine fit.
  • RFP
    • Jason wrote up a RFP for an outreach coordinator to work like a recruiter to conduct outreach to communities, schools, etc. to spur interest in grants. ZCG stated that this role doesn’t conflict with Dan’s role. Depending on budget, they may hold off contracting a person to support this role.
  • Trezor
    • ZCG to have a call with Trezor tomorrow. Agenda includes meet and greet, priorities, roadblocks, adding shielded support for Zcash.
  • ToDeFi sponsorship
    • Jason has been communicating with Lorenzo. Remote 15 minute presentation: What is Zcash, what is ZCG, community involvement, etc. Time zone is an issue (conference is in Italy). Jack suggested they record the presentation (might not work due to Q+A portion). Michael and Brian said they can make it work. Amber and Jason will attend as well.
  • Consensus 2023
    • Brian and Jason will attend. ZCG would like to order more round stickers and print up flyers.
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In the past?

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it says meeting was 3/20/23
and then in notes - tomorrow. so it probably happened on 3/21

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Hey, is there a way to somehow subcribe via email any time new communtiy grants meeting minutes are released? :slight_smile:

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You can setup notifications for the category and it will notify when you login:

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Thanks! Will also try the RSS way.

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Good job team ZCG.
Keep it up