Zcash Community Grants Meeting Minutes 7/10/23

Community Grants Community Grants Updates
1

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

Attendance:

  • Amber
  • Brian
  • GGuy
  • Jason
  • Michael
  • Alex (ZF resource)
  • Daniel (ZF resource)
  • Deidra M (notetaker)

Key Takeaways:

  • Open Grant Proposals
  • Brainstorm Session Follow Ups
    • Global Ambassador Program - ZCG decided to extend ZecMec and Olek’s contract and four other ambassadors. Two ambassadors had their agreements terminated.
    • Outreach Coordinator - ZCG is excited about what Beth will bring to the table with this new position.
    • Transparency Reporting Requirements - Past grantees will not be held to the standards of ZIP1014 transparency requirements.
    • Dashboard: Grants Category - ZCG and ZF will add “category” to the dashboard to specify the type of grant going forward and categorize past grants.
    • Ledger - Hanh is waiting to hear back from Ledger.
    • Zcon4 - 3 ZCG committee members will attend this year’s conference.

Open Grant Proposals

  • Bird Calls - Formally posted the second phase of the project, the integration phase, asking for $245,600. They think it will take a significant amount of work to integrate BTCpay into Birdcalls. At the 05/29 meeting, the committee voted to put Birdcalls on “hold.”.

    • This proposal was put to a revote as our new ZCG member, GGuy, has officially started with the committee.
    • After Jason recapped this proposal, Michael and GGuy voted to reject it because of the high price and big question mark regarding results for a significant benefit for Zcash. Amber, Brian, and Jason voted to keep it on hold and would reconsider it if the budget was stronger. Ultimately, the committee voted to keep this grant on hold due to the high cost and the current budget.

  • Zcash: Ecosystem Website - Jason outlined this proposal. The applicant is asking for $7,630 to develop an Ecosystem Website for Zcash that will provide a summary & information about Zcash projects. The applicant says the ecosystem website would provide information regarding Zcash projects to investors, traders, users, and other projects and partners.

    • ZCG discussed this proposal at the last ZCG meeting and was leaning toward rejecting it. During their latest brainstorm session, they unanimously voted to reject it.

  • Nfticks - Defi - Jason recapped this grant. The applicant requests $200,000 to develop the world’s first fully decentralized ticketing platform on top of Zcash.

    • The committee discussed this proposal during their brainstorm session and voted to reject it because It’s out of scope for projects ZCG is interested in funding and not within their budget.

  • UniFFI Library Addenda - Jason gave the background for this resubmitted proposal as he has a conflict of interest with Eiger and did not give his opinion. The committee rejected it at the May 25th meeting, citing that ZCG wanted the UniFFI team to finish their original grant and demonstrate that the UniFFI Library is something that the Zcash community can easily use. They completed Milestone 5 of the previous grant and have re-submitted this second proposal. The UniFFI team is asking for $96,000 to

    • (1) move the UniFFI-supported library closer to the original library
    • (2) create a small demo of a wallet showcasing how to use this library on Android and iOS.
    • This grant was discussed further at their brainstorm meeting. ZCG decided syncing was important and would like the UniFFI team to add that component to their proposal before officially voting. Dan will contact the team about adding synchronization to the current grant.

  • Arculus Cold Storage Wallet - Jason recapped this grant. Brian, Dan, and Jason spoke to Arculus at Consensus earlier this year. They had previously submitted a proposal last year but never posted it to the forum. Now, they’ve revised and fine-tuned their proposal. They’re asking for $228,151.60 to integrate shielded ZEC into the Arculus cold storage wallet. They say they’ll provide full Arculus ecosystem support for Zcash and Zcash Orchard shielded transactions.

    • This grant was discussed during their brainstorm session. After a call with Arculus, ZCG decided that the grant could be broken up into two phases: exploratory/research and integration.
    • Jason asked the committee to put their thoughts on the record. Jason said he would either reject it for the reasons he cited last meeting or put it on hold. Michael said he would reject with a heavy heart because there is a lot he liked, but the tech is a speculative if. He also said he did not care for the “hold” category.
    • Jason asked why he disagreed with the hold category. Jason said he saw it as a consideration for future funding. Michael said he felt it was stringing people along. GGuy agreed with Michael.
    • GGuy voted to reject. Brian said he liked the product and voted to fund Milestones 1 and 2, for now, to see if the outcome would be feasible. Amber echoed Brian’s points and voted to approve.
    • The committed voted to reject. Although ZCG rejected it, they would like Arculus to keep in touch and possibly submit their proposal in the future once market conditions improve and ZCG’s treasury is stronger.

  • Glitter Finance Cross-Chain Privacy Infrastructure - Jason summarized this grant proposal. The applicant is asking for $75,000 to develop a privacy cross-chain infrastructure for EVM & non-EVM networks using Zcash. They say that the Glitter Bridge offers easy-to-use liquidity movement across multiple blockchains. It also allows users to invest in cross-chain DeFi seamlessly.

    • Although this grant was too early to vote, the committee went around to give their initial thoughts. ZCG unanimously leaned towards rejecting this proposal.
    • ZCG will hold a mobile vote at the appropriate time.
    • Update: ZCG unanimously voted to reject the Glitter Finance proposal and informed ZF of this decision via Signal on July 12.

  • Ywallet Maintenance & Minor Improvements - Jason outlined this proposal. It’s for $150,000 for Ywallet maintenance and support. Notable about the proposal is that Hanh hired a team to help him support Ywallet. This is something ZCG brought up to him a couple of months ago because of concern if something were to ever happen to him or he walked away from Zcash; no one would be able to support YWallet.

    • GGuy said he noticed that Hanh hired three part-time developers for this project.
    • This proposal was submitted on the morning of 7/10, so voting is put on hold until the appropriate time for the community and the committee to review.

Brainstorm Session Follow-Ups

  • Global Ambassador Program

    • Program Updates - Olek and ZecMec’s 3-month trial ended on June 30, and ZCG has decided to extend for another six months. The committee also extended Yoditar, Aiden, Madison, and Eric. Zoz and Jacob’s agreement was terminated. Zoz has asked to be an unpaid ambassador, and both plan on staying active in the community.
    • ZecMec Promotional Merch Request - This request for EUR 2,240 for promotional merchandise and to cover the cost for a license to serve liquor at public meetups was made in May but was put on hold until June 30, after his trial period. ZCG unanimously approved this request. Jason will reach out to ZecMec to let him know.

  • Outreach Coordinator

    • Beth is working on posting an introduction of herself and her plan for this role to the community. ZCG is looking forward to how this position evolves.
    • Dan suggested to ZCG that Beth attend Zcon4 at the last brainstorm meeting. Jason asked Beth if she would be interested in it and said she was unsure if she’d be able to attend. Jason will tell Beth to contact Dan directly if she plans to attend. If not, 3 ZCG members are attending the conference and will pass along Beth’s information if need be. GGuy asked if ZCG had business cards, and Jason informed him that they didn’t, but ZCG does have fliers and that the committee could get Beth business cards if she were interested.

  • Transparency Reporting Requirements

    • ZCG discussed grant recipients reporting obligations under the Transparency and Accountability section of ZIP 1014, which was recently brought up by @nighthawkapps as a question to ZCG candidates on the forum.
    • In an email to Jack on June 15, Jason noted that according to Article VIII, Section 2 of the ZF Bylaws, the scope of responsibilities for the MGRC is limited to the review of grant applications and the selection of grant recipients. Furthermore, Article VIII, Section 4, states, “[ZF], whether through the MGRC or otherwise, shall determine the circumstances and criteria according to which grantees shall be required to furnish a periodic accounting to demonstrate that the funds granted by [ZF] were expended for the purposes approved by the MGRC.”
    • After the email correspondence with Jack, ZF felt the best path forward is for ZCG to determine the reporting obligations. While ZIP 1014 states that major grants recipients are subject to the same reporting requirements as ZF, ECC and Bootstrap, ZF may only exercise its veto to reject a grant in situations where the grant would violate US law or ZF’s obligations under 501(c)(3). Therefore, ZF believes it is effectively up to ZCG to decide what reporting obligations should apply when they approve a grant.
    • ZF and ZCG believe @nighthawkapps (cc: @aiyadt) and all other grant recipients are under no obligation to meet the reporting requirements outlined in ZIP 1014. In their previously-approved grant proposal, NightHawk stated that they would shift from monthly updates to quarterly updates, and ZCG is okay with them providing updates on a quarterly basis.
    • Going forward, when ZCG approves a grant, it will determine the reporting requirements and frequency for each grant recipient.
    • Jason asked who would be responsible for remembering to do this. Alex answered that ZF would add a column to the grants dashboard specifying the reporting requirement as determined by ZCG, and then ZCG and ZF would have to make it a habit to ensure that ZCG set the reporting obligations when they approve a grant.
    • Brian suggested that there should be 3 categories in the dashboard to specify what type of reporting would be required for the designated approved grant: Milestone, Quarterly, and Monthly. ZCG agreed.
    • GGuy added that ZCG would also have to determine the level of detail in the reporting for each grantee. Alex agreed and said the level of effort should be considered and to be specific about what ZCG would want from them.
    • The committee will discuss the specific transparency requirement deliverables at their next brainstorm session and let ZF know what those are.

  • Dashboard: Grants Category

    • A community member reached out to Jason to see if there was a way to determine how ZCG has allocated funding in the past in what types of grants have been funded. Jason suggested that ZF and ZCG add a “category” to the dashboard that would specify the grant type.
    • ZCG agreed that an analysis of the past would be helpful and will discuss the categories at their next brainstorm meeting; then, Dan will work with ZCG to add these categories on the dashboard.

  • Ledger

    • Hanh let Jason know that no one from Ledger has reached out to him as of yet. Jack has reached out to Ledger to ask for an update from them.

  • Zcon4

    • Brian will not speak at the conference but will be in attendance as well as Jason and Amber. Jason and Amber will split the days at the conference for ZCG representation on panels.
6 Likes
2

Is there a specific reason why the Nighthawk Maintenance & Self-Funding Improvements proposal was not acknowledged, even though it was submitted prior to the committee’s meeting?

3

This situation is intriguing as it suggests that the ZIP-1014 requirements may not be binding, allowing the ZCG committee to selectively interpret various standards for grant recipients. Such practice raises concerns about fairness and appropriateness. The lack of a standardized approach might make it challenging to determine how decisions are made and who is responsible for the final outcomes. This could potentially lead to ambiguity and make it difficult to hold anyone accountable for the grant allocation and reporting deliverables.

4

Apologies for not keeping up with the developments surrounding Shielded ZEC support for Ledger, which was initially undertaken by Zondax and later passed on to Han.

Can someone who is knowledgeable shed light on the timeline of events and any blockers hindering this crucial integration from materializing? Particularly noteworthy is the recent approval and disbursement of a substantial grant for this project, making its progress and challenges all the more relevant and significant.

5

Hi Adi. Our meeting occurred on Monday, July 10 at 3pm PDT. Hanh submitted his grant 13 hours before the meeting on Monday, July 10 at 2am PDT. You submitted your grant 9 hours after the meeting, on Tuesday, July 11 at 12:12am PDT. The time stamps are available on each grant proposal’s forum post.

6

Thanks for the clarification. It appears that the key factor in this situation is timing the meeting correctly. I appreciate the additional information.

7

Hey, just wondering here regarding the Uniffi Project

This grant was discussed further at their brainstorm meeting. ZCG decided syncing was important and would like the UniFFI team to add that component to their proposal before officially voting. Dan will contact the team about adding synchronization to the current grant.

The reason for the missing sync part is that it requires work from ECC to happen first, and that will still take quite a long time. All the things mentioned in the current RFP can be done way earlier.

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