@Dodger Thank you for your response. I have reviewed the documentation available on the Zcash Foundation’s website, including all blog posts, quarterly reports, and board minutes.
I wanted to do something relatively modest: independently assess on an annual basis (1) what the foundation set out to do and (2) what it accomplished. However, I am unable to make that assessment using the documentation you referenced on the Foundation’s website.
I could only find the roadmap for 2020 and the retrospectives for 2018 and 2019. There are “Quarterly Reports” for Q1 and Q2 2020, but they didn’t exist before 2020 and they are no longer being produced. The board minutes started out with a decent amount of detail in 2017, but became much less detailed as time progressed. The most recent minutes lack any substance whatsoever (see Jul & Oct 2020), and it appears the minutes for the meeting in June 2021 have not been posted.
The Foundation lists “Transparency” as its #1 value under “Values and Goals.” It states:
Transparency. We are committed to accountability. Our policies, significant decisions and their rationale, and software shall all be publicly visible. We will strive to accurately and accessibly communicate the security properties of Zcash and of proposed changes.
But compare what exists for the Foundation to the roadmaps the Electric Coin Company produces or the meeting minutes produced by ZOMG. The difference is as clear as night and day.
It appears the Foundation is merely paying lip service to transparency and accountability; it is certainly not delivering it. I think the Foundation can do a much better job and it should make it a priority to “walk the talk.”
There is a growing consensus within the community that the Zcash Foundation is not sufficiently transparent and does not adequately serve Zcash holders or the Zcash ecosystem. Its mission is to “build financial privacy infrastructure for the public good, primarily serving the users of the Zcash protocol and blockchain.” Is the Foundation succeeding in that endeavor? How would you rate its track record of building financial privacy infrastructure? Zebra has been a major priority for the past few years, and when it’ll be completed and released to production is still unknown. What happened to projects like the Zepio Wallet, which were publicly announced and commissioned, then quietly abandoned for unclear reasons?
What’s the Foundation doing to bring new users to Zcash? Or to educate the public on the benefits of Zcash’s privacy-preserving technology? Why are there no education materials, position papers, or regulatory-friendly marketing campaigns?
Where’s the community engagement? Compare your Twitter account and the account of the Foundation to those of the Electric Coin Company, Zooko Wilcox, and Josh Swihart. The latter actively engage with the community, the former do not.
To be clear, my opinion of the Foundation is not completely negative. It does an excellent job organizing and producing the Zcon events. The biweekly Zcash Arborist calls are also a great resource for those who want to keep up to date on what developers are currently working on. But there needs to be better “high level” communication from the Foundation. Hiring a Communications & Ecosystem Relations Manager might help, but it’s not going to solve the problem.
I understand you just started at the Foundation in February 2021. You’ve recently hired a new management team, including a Chief Operating Officer and Operations Director. But looking at the announcements for these new hires, it’s not clear what their positions within the Foundation entail. For example, the COO announcement generically states that Alex Bornstein will “support the Foundation’s mission of building and supporting privacy infrastructure for the public good while upholding and advancing the Foundation’s three values: transparency, inclusivity, and humility.” Those are important focus points and issues that need to be addressed, but what are his specific objectives and how does he plan on accomplishing those goals?
ZEC holders pay for the Foundation through inflation. The Foundation receives 5% of the block reward and should have sufficient financial resources and staffing to do more. Most of the issues I’ve brought up are due to poor communication and poor management, which can be improved by implementing proper controls and procedures. You are ultimately accountable as Executive Director.
I am voicing the community’s concerns here because I care about Zcash and I want to see it succeed. I am financially invested as a long-term holder and personally invested in its mission to empower people with economic freedom. I want to ensure these issues are addressed. Going forward:
- What will the Foundation do to aggressively increase transparency and accountability?
- How will the Foundation better serve Zcash users and the Zcash ecosystem?