Zcash Community Grants Meeting Minutes 4/13/2026

Community Grants Community Grants Updates
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Grant Dashboard

Zcash Community Grants Committee Google Meet Meeting: April 13, 2026

Attendance:

  • Artkor

  • GGuy

  • Hanh

  • Zerodartz

  • DecentralistDan

  • Alex (FPF resource, notetaker)

Key Takeaways:

All decisions this week were unanimous.

Open Grant Proposals

  • Zecret Ballots by Gnosis Guild (1st proposal)

    • Coercion-resistant secret voting app for ZEC holders using end-to-end encryption, homomorphic tallying, threshold decryption, and ZK proofs. Supports transparent and shielded wallets, gasless Ethereum transactions, configurable ballots/quorums. Deliverables: smart contracts, zk circuits, relayer, frontend, docs, 6 months maintenance. Requesting $100,000.

      • Gguy: We originally rejected but we’ve been in contact with the applicant who provide a demo and correct some misunderstandings. We will re-review the new application after we’ve had a chance to review the demo.

      • Artkor: After discussion, the committee decided to decline this proposal at this time. The main concern was not the quality of the team, but whether this work addresses a current priority for the Zcash community. Government’s tools already exist within the ecosystem, including the working mechanism used by ZecHub, and we were not convinced that additional funding in this area was necessary. The proposed budget was also viewed as high in light of the limited need.

      • Zerodartz: It would add private DAO voting, but it’s not anything time critical from ZecHub feedback I’ve seen. As ZecHub current voting is easier to use than the demo for this proposal was.

      • Decentralistdan: Interesting proposal but with unclear usefulness in the ecosystem at the moment. I appreciate the applicants interaction with the community and am ready to review the revised application.

      • Declined asnyc

  • Formal Verification of Halo 2 in Lean 4

    • 18-month project to formally verify Zcash’s Orchard protocol and Halo 2 circuits using Lean 4, covering soundness/completeness of five circuit gadgets, protocol-level security properties, and post-quantum migration analysis. All outputs open-source. Requesting $201,600.

      • Gguy: We’ve noticed that the participant has already begun demonstrating some early work which we appreciate. We hope we’ll be able to get more eyes on this application to see if this work would be useful to the core Dev teams in providing the validity and rigidness of their implementations.

      • Artkor: Another option will be to reject the proposal now, until the people currently responsible for advancing the cryptography have capacity to engage with this work.

      • Note: Applicant to present this grant for feedback at the April 16th Arborist Call.

      • Hanh: We will get feedback from the core protocol team. It is important that they have enough time/resources to review & guide the applicant.

      • Zerodartz: I know some developers have discussed Lean implementations in the past, but the current need for it needs more discussion.

      • Decentralistdan: waiting on more developer feedback post arborist call

      • Remains open

  • Rhea Zcash Gateway

    • Chrome extension wallet integrating ZEC into DeFi via shielded transactions, cross-chain lending, intent-based routing, and DApp support. Seven milestones, December 2025–May 2026. Requesting $54,200.

      • Hanh: It’s a strong team offering something unique, a wallet that works in a browser but connects to Defi without installation on a device, and they have pretty good liquidity. So, I’m looking forward to it.

      • Artkor: I supported this proposal because the Rhea team has an existing product relevant experience in web interface development and a clear record of practical execution.

      • Zerodartz: I would add that we have very few browser wallets so far and if you have more and better ones then that’s good for Zcash. Reasonable ask and strong team with proven past work.

      • Hanh: The only reservation we had was that the proposal may not be from a real person at Rhea. We verified, then we were good to go.

      • Gguy: Excited for this one and hope that this will broaden the range of Zcash users.

      • Decentralistdan: active team/community in the ecosystem, with a strong proposal for integrating ZEC into more DeFi usecases and IMO a needed additional browser wallet.

      • Approved async

  • Zcash Ecosystem Onboarding At Women in DeFi Summit 2026

    • Gold sponsorship at Nigeria’s Women in DeFi Summit (April 25, ~2,000 attendees) including booth, presentation, panel, and content assets. Targets Zcash’s absent presence at African crypto events. Requesting $4,960.

      • Artkor: We supported this proposal because Elzz has been a long-standing active member of the community and we believe her proposal represents a genuine and valuable education initiative for Zcash.

      • Hanh: We had a meeting with her, and she presented her work well.

      • Zerodartz: They have been actively working with ZecHub and proven they are capable of presenting and educating people about Zcash. It seems different than the average crypto event, so it would be interesting to see summary later about the event, what worked and what would they do differently next time. Zcash does in general need to have more people meeting real people in the real world as often more deeper and meaningful impact will happen there not online. 200-400 interactions at booth might be overly optimistic, but we will see.

      • Decentralistdan: Elzz has been doing great work contributing and participating in the ecosystem with ZecHub and I look forward to seeing the outcome of this proposal.

      • Approved async

  • Launching the First Zcash Privacy and Developer Education Initiative Across Kenyan Universities and Tech Communities 2026

    • 7-month, 13-event program across 5 Kenyan cities covering shielded wallet onboarding, ZK fundamentals, privacy dApp design, and build challenges targeting students and developers. Requesting $41,000.

      • Artkor: Kenya looks like a promising region for crypto-related education outreach, particularly given the level of engagement among part of its younger population. At the same time, I believe ZCG should apply consistent standards to new applicants, with real weight given to sustained ecosystem participation. Engagement through ZecHub has proven to be a fair and practical filter. It remains open to everyone, while helping us identify teams that are serious about long-term contribution to the Zcash community.

      • Gguy: Yeah I agree. I would encourage these applicants to continue to participate. I like some of their ideas and if they can prove themselves over a period of time I’m sure they can come back and reapply for the grants program.

      • Zerodartz: Similar thoughts. Would love to see them become active first and after a while try out ZecHub mini grant.

      • Decentralistdan: I would like to see new teams with proposals of this type contribute to the ecosystem first before submitting a grant of this size

      • Declined async

  • Zallet ↔ zcashd Wallet RPC Parity Harness: Reproducible Diff Reports for Migration Testing

    • Tool comparing RPC behavior between zcashd and Zallet using identically seeded wallets, producing MATCH/DIFF/MISSING/ERROR reports. MVP is in PR #404; grant funds normalization, configuration, v1 method suite, and upstream polish. Requesting $20,000.

      • Gguy: We rejected this one. We didn’t think that the value added by an external contributor would provide enough value to offset the cost of review, fixing, feedback and final merging so unfortunately we rejected.

      • Hanh: This project was rejected before. They resubmitted, and it kind of proves they are AI slop because they didn’t notice that it was already rejected.

      • Zerodartz: Not enough proof this team can likely manage the project.

      • Declined async

  • Zcash Ghana (April 2026 - June 2026)

    • Continuation of an active Ghana community (launched June 2025, 150+ onboarded, 300+ followers) running monthly meetups, developer workshops, hackathons, road shows, X-Spaces, and social content. Requesting $12,600.

      • Gguy: We would like to give this team an opportunity to prove themselves over the next three months. I hope we see great things from them.

      • Zerodartz: Last year they got ZecHub support and they managed to organize a few successful events. Want to see them continue and improve. It might be a bit ambitious but all progress on growing and building a community will help them improve Zcash education in Ghana region.

      • Decentralistdan: applicant has been around and contributing for some time now, and has shown what they can do over the last year with ZecHub support. I am hopeful they can provide a strong impact going forward and continue to improve.

      • Approved async

  • Reputrans

    • Privacy-preserving reputation protocol for gig workers using Noir ZK circuits, threshold EdDSA credential issuance, and on-chain nullifiers, enabling workers to prove credentials (e.g., ratings, trip counts) to lenders/insurers without revealing identity or platform. Requesting $45,000.

      • Artkor: I did not support this proposal because even after a closer look, I still did not see a clear use case or evidence of real user demand. In my view, it did not appear to strengthen the Zcash ecosystem directly, but rather to build on Zcash technology without a sufficiently clear benefit to the community.

      • Gguy: I agree it’s hard to see these kinds of projects actually meeting expectations and becoming successful. Onboarding new users is a really big challenge and unfortunately I don’t think ZCG is ready to fund these kinds of projects.

      • Zerodartz: I like the idea, but real world implementation is super unlikely to come from this project. It’s something that needs proof that there is demand for it from applications.

      • Decentralistdan: agreed, no clear demand/usecase currently.

      • Rejected async

  • Marketing at Berlin Blockchain Week & 2-Day Event with WebZero

    • Two-day branded pop-up at Kreuzberg’s MENA venue during Berlin Blockchain Week with gamified shielded wallet onboarding targeting 300+ new wallets and 500+ attendees, plus presence across DappCon and NEOCypherpunk Summit. Builds on prior grassroots activations. Requesting $63,820.

      • Artkor: I support this proposal and vote to approve option A. While I understand concerns raised about cost and audience size, I think the WebZero team is capable of delivering a strong event, and option A seems justified given the relatively small price difference and the benefit of preserving the fuller package, including analytics. So I approve.

      • Zerodartz: We had a good call with both teams. We got more details about the event and planning.Berlin Blockchain week already has a lot of events and I think Zcash event there could get some attendees that are interested in privacy and want to learn more about Zcash even if they know about it a bit.Also it could be a good meeting space with other privacy people and based on webZero previous events i expect it to be well organized. Readymouse team has already attended many events and have done a good job representing Zcash. I will add that for the event to become a success we at ZCG will keep in close touch during next months to make sure the direction and vibe of the event matches well with Zcash culture. I suggest all Zcashers who can attend and invite friends from Europe in June to try to make this event.

      • DecentralistDan: I approve as well. I like what readymouse and V have been doing, and the WebZero team seems highly competent as well for putting on this type of event. I’m excited to see a Zcash specific event at Berlin Blockchain Week.

      • Gguy: Yeah, I’m excited for this one, too. I think this is the first of this type of event that we’ve funded before which means it’s a little bit of an experiment but I both teams a track record of delivering and I’m excited to see the outcomes from this. I think now is the time that Zcash can really push and aim to not only onboarding new users but to start converting these users to core advocates for Zcash. These creates a compounding loop where these users bring in more new users. So I think now is the time to try these types of events.

      • Approved

  • Zcash Integration for the Open Wallet Standard

    • Integrates Zcash into the newly launched Open Wallet Standard (backed by PayPal, Circle, Ripple, Solana/Ethereum Foundations) via ZIP-32 key derivation and PCZT spend authorization for Sapling and Orchard, making Zcash the first privacy chain in the standard. Cryptography complete; integration work only. Requesting $25,000.

      • Gguy: I think that this applicant has been able to prove themselves over a small period of time and I’m excited to fund this.

      • Artkor: While open wallets are still a relatively new initiative it already supports a range of major blockchain ecosystems through a unified interface, which gives it a meaningful potential for broader adoption. The applicant has also shown a high level of energy and consistent engagement. I approve this proposal.

      • Zerodartz: The standard might be early but it’s a strong applicant and I support them as they have shown they can get stuff done and are actively pushing to have Zcash payments in more places. I approve.

      • Hanh: It’s a fairly simple standard so even if it doesn’t work out the code base will be reusable for other purposes. Not much risk here. I approve.

      • Decentralistdan: strong applicant who has proven they can deliver.

      • Approved

  • Feature Branch Testnet and Compatible Developer Tooling

    • Dedicated testnet for NU7-deferred features (ZSA, NSM), starting single-node and expanding to multi-node, synchronized with mainnet changes. Fills the gap left by the main testnet. Requesting $412,410.

      • Gguy: This grant we’re going to leave open a bit longer. We’re reviewing current activities in the ecosystem. We are aware that Shielded Labs has some initiatives that have a little bit of overlap with this grant so we’re just gathering more information so we can better understand ecosystem requirements and what parts of this grant are required.

      • Remains open

  • ZAP1 Protocol Hardening and Zaino Integration

    • Hardening grant for the production-deployed ZAP1 memo protocol (structured envelopes, BLAKE2b hashing, Merkle commitments, on-chain anchoring). Funds target protocol layer improvements, not specific deployments. Requesting $18,000.

      • Hanh: It’s an attestation protocol. Personally I think it serves some purposes but I’m not convinced that it has to be that complicated and that it has the traction it needs to be successful. So the submission here is for a ZIP and integrating that into wallets at the very least. I would like that project to have more users (besides the applicant who has implemented it) before we can fund it. So maybe it would be a candidate for retroactive grant, but at this point I’m a bit reluctant to add it to my wallet. In other words, in order to do attestation, there are simpler means. Maybe not as powerful in terms of functionality, but there are definitely easier ways to do just that.

      • Artkor: I definitely agree. I can see why this functionality could be useful in principle, but I don’t think it makes sense to support it as a standalone implementation at this stage. In my view, this kind of approach would only be meaningful if it emerged as a broader protocol-level standard. For that reason, I reject this proposal.

      • Gguy: I agree that attestation systems and protocols are important and they’re going to become more important over time. This specific proposal doesn’t provide value unless it achieves broader adoption. I’d rather wait until more parties are interested in contributing to this. I reject.

      • Zerodartz: My main concern is wider ecosystem adoption and if that doesn’t happen then I don’t see the point of funding it right now.

      • Declined

  • F-PoC: Fair Proof-of-Contribution for Zcash

    • Research prototype integrating Flexible Proof of Capacity with Zcash’s Equihash, delivering a Rust implementation, Yellow Paper, benchmarks, testnet, and ZIP. Targets mining decentralization and incentive alignment discussions. Requesting $48,000.

      • Gguy: Now is not the time to be spending resources on this type of grant. I’m worried that if we were to invest in this type of work it wouldn’t actually be utilized within the Zcash ecosystem. It’s also not the right time for experimental changes like this to the core protocol.

      • Zerodartz: Another point we discussed is that ZCG shouldn’t be the one to decide the sort of algorithm change or something mining related at least.

      • Artkor: My reasons for rejecting this proposal remain the same as last time.

      • Decentralistdan: I consider this out of scope for ZCG funding

      • Declined async

  • Zecboat Bridge: FROST-Secured Wrapped Asset (wSOL)

    • FROST-secured bridge bringing Solana assets into Zcash’s Orchard shielded pool via a dedicated zebrad node fleet and desktop client. Treats shielded minting as a curated service to minimize attack surface. Requesting $99,000.

      • Artkor: ZEC already has access to existing exchange infrastructure, cross-chain swap routers, and Solana-facing interoperability pathways. I am not convinced this proposal demonstrates a sufficiently distinct unmet need to justify funding another bridge in this area. Its main technical distinction appears to be the use of FROST. But in the proposed model that does not meaningfully reduce the core custody and trust assumptions, since signer control remains concentrated with a team. For these reasons, I reject this proposal.

      • Zerodartz: With recent attacks against many crypto bridges, the builders of the bridge need to bulletproof them. And that’s a really hard mission in the current age of AI helping to find loopholes either in code or in people operating the bridges. Also this proposal is more in the area of what ZSAs would do, which we know are not going live in near future at least.

      • Declined

  • Mastering Zcash Video Series

    • 8 long-form videos and 3 podcast episodes expanding the existing Mastering Zcash resource. Milestone-based payments; production equipment already secured. Requesting $23,500.

      • Gguy: We appreciate the enthusiastic support the community has provided to this applicant. I think it’s deserved. I am a big supporter of continuing this work. I approve this grant

      • Artkor: There is no doubt it’s a perfect idea.

      • Hanh: The book has very good quality, and the line-up for the videos is interesting, therefore we can have good confidence that the videos will be as good as the book.

      • Zerodartz: Strong candidate with proven work on Zcash education. The community is supportive and has seen their previous work being useful already. Realistic budget, milestones paid after videos are released. I approve.

      • Decentralistdan: highly engaged and active community member who has proven they can deliver value, I look forward to seeing these videos and the impact they can have.

  • Approved

  • ZecShield: Universal Privacy Bridge between Solana and Zcash

    • Trust-minimized bridge for shielding any SPL token in Zcash’s Orchard pool using FROST 3-of-5 threshold signatures, 1,000 ZEC bonds per signer, slashing, hourly Proof of Reserves, and a Next.js frontend. Target launch December 2026. Requesting $48,000.

      • Artkor: I think this proposal is very similar to Zecboat Bridge. I have the same reasons for rejecting this one.

      • Hanh: Besides the issues with governance and implied trust given to the signers there’s a concern about the scalability of the FROST protocol which is n square of signers. So if you have five or five six seven signers it is manageable. It would be like 50 messages. But if we are to the scale of 20-50 signers it becomes very hard to run the FROST completely. That’s one aspect. The second aspect is in order to observe the fairness of the system we need a way to decode the transactions. So a fully shielded exchange is not that easy to do and the specifications here do not go into sufficient details about how to do that. But mainly it’s because the team doesn’t go into enough details regarding how they’re going to deal with the vault and how they’re going to manage liquidity and make sure that nobody can run away with everything.

      • Gguy: I think it’s very hard for ZCG to approve grants like this that have questions about the governance structure and safety of funds. As ZCG committee members I think we need to first consider the safety of community members and their personal assets and unfortunately this grant doesn’t reach that bar. Declined.

      • Declined

  • Zcash CIS Media & Community Growth Program 2026

    • 3-month Russian-language campaign across Telegram, YouTube, and livestream: 9 posts, 6 livestream mentions, logo placement, one podcast interview. Requesting $9,000.

      • Artkor: I suggest we keep the proposal open for now. We need to evaluate in more detail.

      • Gguy: There are lots of aspects to this grant that require more investigation.

      • Zerodartz: Interesting proposal but not sure I can see enough value in the proposed deliverables. Would love to see more feedback also from the community if they think it could be worth it.

      • Decentralistdan: waiting on more feedback/discussion

      • Remains open

  • Zcash Network School

    • 3-month structured hub near Singapore (May–July 2026) with office space, weekly office hours, workshops, wallet onboarding, and merchant POS adoption. Targets 100 new wallets and 4 POS integrations. Requesting $13,600.

      • Hanh: So far I’m generally positive on this one. They are already there and they are proposing to come up with content they can present to other members of the school. Considering that these members are already committed to the cryptocurrency ecosystem since they are living at that school and they are working on cutting edge projects, I think exposure to Zcash is going to be very beneficial and we may see applications of Zcash that we haven’t thought about. That cost is very little risk again. This one seems to be very educational oriented.

      • Arktor: I personally have confidence in the people behind this project and I want to support these efforts.

      • Zerodartz: While the longer history of one of the people on this team is questionable in some ways, they have turned around in the last years at least and have started to support Zcash in a positive way. Or that’s what is possible to see publicly. Zcash.me is pretty good for Zcash already I think and this project they want to run in the Network School could be impactful and I’m leaning positive on it.

      • Decentralistdan: interesting proposal that I am leaning favorably toward. I think Zcash having a strong presence at the Network school is important.

      • Remains open

  • Zecret Ballots_2

    • Extended CRISP-based coercion-resistant voting for ZEC holders with homomorphic tallying, threshold decryption, shielded wallet support, and gasless transactions. Target deployment: ZecHub governance. Requesting $132,391.

      • Gguy: This is the reopened previous grant. We’ll be in touch with the applicant and setup a call before we vote.

      • Remains open

  • ​​BTCPayServer Multi-Account and 0conf Mempool Support

    • The applicant proposes to improve the existing BTCPayServer Zcash plugin by adding zero-confirmation (0conf) mempool notifications and multi-account/multi-store wallet support. The work includes building a new wallet RPC service on the Zkool GraphQL API, updating the plugin, and retroactive compensation for prior bug fixes and maintenance. The improvements would allow merchants to accept Zcash payments without waiting for block confirmation and enable shared BTCPayServer hosting across multiple merchants. Requesting $42,000.

      • Artkor: I’m happy to support this grant. The applicant is constantly working to ensure the BTCPay Server Plugin remains operational.

      • Zerodartz: I think the multi-account feature could be useful. Waiting for more feedback from community members who also would use this feature.

      • Remains open

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Request, if it isn’t too much trouble: add the applicant’s name into these minutes so that when you all say nice things about an applicant I don’t have to click to find out who you’re talking about. :slight_smile: (It was Kenbak this time.)

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Zcash Developer Feedback

The rejection feedback indicates a few critical misunderstandings regarding both the technical reality of zcash today and the fundamental difference between trading assets and users holding assets in a the orchard pool. It is important to clarify these points for current and future users.

A) Swaps vs. Private Custody @Artkor feedback
The feedback states that “ZEC already has access to existing exchange infrastructure and cross-chain swap routers,” arguing this negats the need for bridges. This conflates trading with private user custody.

Swap routers like Near Intents or THORChain allow a user to sell SOL to buy ZEC.They do not allow a user to hold Solana exposure within zcash’s orchard pool. Existing bridges primarily exist to drain liquidity from zcash to be used on Solana (minting zZEC SPL tokens).

The zecboat wSOL bridge does the exact opposite: It imports foreign liquidity into the zcash ecosystem. Arguing that swap routers solve this like saying zcash doesn’t need stablecoins because users can just trade USDC for ZEC on Binance.

B) Verifiable Custody vs. Blind Trust @Artkor
The debate that our use of FROST “does not meaningfully reduce the core custody and trust assumptions” because the MVP utilizes a team signer set.

Phase 1 is a Team Model for speed-to-market, the trust assumptions are drastically reduced compared to existing pathways because of cryptographic verifiability.Unlike centralized exchanges where reserves are a black box, the wSOL asset utilizes the ZMAP standard to link directly to a real-time Proof of Reserves dashboard. The L1 Lock on Solana and the L2 Mint on zcash are mathematically provable on-chain 24/7. We are centralizing the signing initially, but the verification iscompletely decentralized and trustless from Day 1.

C) ZSAs Are Live Today @Zerodartz
The feedback states this proposal “is more in the area of what ZSAs would do,
which we know are not going live in near future.”

This is a fundamental technical misunderstanding. The wSOL project does not rely on protocol-level ZSAs. It utilizes the ZMAP (Zcash Memo Asset Protocol) standard, which is live and functioning today inside standard Orchard memos. Zecboat has already executed live-fire bridging on mainnet. The technology is here, and it works and pays big transactions fees.

D) Minimizing Bridge Attack Vectors @Zerodartz
We agree that bridges are prime targets for exploits. That is precisely why we
rejected the standard model of deploying complex, autonomous smart contracts
on both sides. By treating shielded minting as a highly constrained, off-chain
curated service, and entirely separating the “Hot” minting keys from the
“Cold” FROST vault, we have minimized the attack surface that typically
plagues cross-chain infrastructure.

For all zcash users an more importantly for developers building infrastruture for future liquity and grow. Please do not stop. The need and demand is real.

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Well, even if ZCG members didn’t see the value in this, the wider community will likely appreciate the idea. The retroactive grant program is open to everyone.

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Good to see the Mastering Zcash video series approved. Educational content with production quality is one of the cheapest ways to expand the developer pipeline.