I believe in a path towards consensual funding.
Profitable businesses within the Zcash ecosystem should have a chance to contribute financially to grantors and grant proposals.
I propose that no funds are disbursed to any entity until the public has had a chance to contribute for 30 days. Then funding bodies and lockbox keyholders can decide whether to cover any shortfall.
But, where are the profitable Zcash businesses? A huge problem here is that it is too hard to name even three Zcash success stories.
Today there is little incentive for Zcash contributors to build profitable businesses. We need to rally around starting businesses that accept Zcash, and being their loyal customers.
Guaranteed funding from block rewards breaks the typical fundraising incentives, especially for a nonprofit. Entities need to be “hungry” to be productive, innovating to survive. They need to show their progress or potentially fail to fundraise further.
There’s not yet a sense of hunger around here.
The Linux Foundation, Bitcoin Foundation, and Monero’s CCS are great examples of voluntary fundraising that we should experiment with. No profitable businesses using your technology? No funding.
Requiring that all grants include a public donation Zcash address (with view key) would allow us to collect metrics on the community’s ability to self-fund, and to plot a path towards consensual funding: phasing out the developer block reward.
Let’s build profitable businesses and become known for our consensual generosity.