But… $6,955 to make 10 people aware is… not a good ROI, is it? The resulting street interview would also likely not be worth much.
The “street interview about ” format works well for socially recognised things such as MrBeast because:
a) Either they are likely to know about it in the first place and will be interested to talk about it,
b) or they are being paid or something is done that makes it share worthy
A majority of the interviews about a specific token are staged, and not saying that yours will be, but due to this, most people automatically think that an interview is staged if it feels like its “shilling” something, so regardless of how good it is, its impact is minimal. Which leads to the algorithm deprioritising it, and the video eventually gets lost.
Along with that, your YT channel’s reputation (past videos) isn’t exactly great.
First this proposal is not about making 10 people aware of Zcash
It is a 10 part Turkish education series plus 3 full days of street interviews with as many people as we can reasonably reach
My main active platform is X where I publish consistently and engage with my community
I use YouTube mainly when a topic requires a longer format or when an important project needs a dedicated video
I will also share my X analytics separately so the community can evaluate the actual reach instead of judging the project only by recent YouTube activity
There is also no personal compensation included in this grant
My compensation is $0
The budget is for professional equipment editing design travel accommodation and the field production itself
And this is not intended to be a one time interview
The equipment will continue to be used for future Zcash interviews in different parts of Türkiye
I also attend many Web3 events throughout the year through my work as a KOL and I plan to use the same format at KOL gatherings and community events where I can interview Community Leaders founders and other Web3 participants about Zcash and financial privacy
So the Istanbul campaign is the starting point not the end of the project
Regarding the reputation comment I would appreciate it if you could point to the specific videos or issues you are referring to rather than making a general statement about the channel
I understand the concern, but this proposal is different from a paid KOL promotion.
I am not requesting any personal fee, KOL payment, or compensation for promoting Zcash through Crypto Epoch. The budget is for the actual project costs: production equipment, editing, travel, and field work.
The goal is to create educational content about Zcash and financial privacy, and then continue the same format through street interviews, community events, and Web3 gatherings.
So this is not “paying a KOL to promote Zcash.” It is a community education and outreach project where I am not taking a personal share from the grant.
Thank you for your submission. After consideration from ZCGand sufficient time for the community to provide feedback on the forum, the committee has decided to reject this proposal.
The committee appreciates your grant submission efforts and encourages you to continue as an active member of the Zcash community going forward! Meeting minutes.
I respect the committee’s decision, but I am genuinely curious about the reasoning behind it and would appreciate more detailed feedback if possible.
From my perspective, bringing Zcash directly to people in the real world, explaining financial privacy in simple terms, and collecting honest feedback from people who may have never heard of Zcash seemed aligned with the broader mission of expanding the reach and real-world use of Zcash.
The idea was not simply to film street interviews. The educational series would create Turkish resources that remain available after the campaign, while the interviews would give us a chance to see how ordinary people actually react to Zcash and the idea of financial privacy. The equipment would also continue to be used for future Zcash content and interviews rather than being purchased for a single campaign.
I also remember Zooko speaking many times about Zcash as something meant to empower real people, not simply remain an interesting technology inside the crypto community. That is one of the reasons I thought this kind of real-world outreach could be valuable.
So my question is not really about challenging the rejection. I would genuinely like to understand what the committee felt was missing or weak in this proposal. Was it the budget, the format, the expected impact, the way the results would be measured, or something else?
More specific feedback would be very useful for me to understand what kind of real-world education and outreach the community believes is worth supporting.