Zcash Media 2022-2023

Community Grants
167

What if ZCG paid Zcash Media a once off payment of $1,000,000 USD paid over the first 6months and assign Zcash Media a 2% slice of the dev fund (starting immediately and ongoing indefinitely).

Final dev fund breakdown:
7% Electric Coin Company
6% Zcash Community Grants
5% Zcash Foundation
2% Zcash Media

EDIT - Extra math:
This would leave ZCG with ~152659.14 of uncommitted ZEC at the end of 2022. That’s over $10M USD in uncommitted funds at the current price of $66USD. How long will it take ZCG to spend $10m? Years! ZCG hording ZEC doesn’t benefit Zcash. We should assign the funds to someone who can use them.

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168

Would be in favor with this if Zcash Media can somehow help with getting more people to submit quality grant proposals to build out the Zcash Ecosystem.

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169

Hi everyone! Let me start by saying this is my first post here and that I really appreciate the community vibe and the thoughtful communication and respect the Zcash community has for one another.

Full disclosure: I am one of the team members in the 37L proposal and have been working as a non-fiction editor/filmmaker for major television networks and studios for over a decade, and even have a couple Emmy awards under my belt.

In around 2012, I became an early adopter of Bitcoin. I’d been working on films about whistleblowers and shady government dealings and had developed a healthy distrust for the FED. The concept of peer to peer decentralized transactions was a really interesting idea. But as time went on and crypto grew it became apparent that it had evolved away from its roots and had become flooded with money grab schemes that had no real vision and purpose. I’d also been very much conscious of the surveillance state that was emerging and that which threatens our ability to live and function freely in society.

I became aware of Zcash not long ago. The advancement of zero knowledge proofs combined with the vision of privacy built in and the cypherpunk reputation drew me in. The community and the dedication shown by Zcash adopters and enthusiasts around my same personal beliefs is what inspires me and is why I got into Bitcoin in the first place.

IMHO, I think as more and more people become educated in the concepts and tech of Zcash they will see the benefits it has over Bitcoin and how it can be a powerful solution to government intervention in transactions and why this is vital for a free and prosperous society. That’s why creating quality, lasting content featuring some of the biggest players in the space to share the Zcash mission in its unadulterated form will be invaluable to grow the community of users.

As a working editor, I have plenty of options to find work, but at this point I try and seek out projects that motivate and inspire me. This is one of those projects. I hope to contribute to putting out powerful and influential content that can galvanize and grow the community of users to make Zcash a household name and to let the world know the importance of economic freedom and privacy and how Zcash can contribute to that mission.

I feel like video and storytelling has always been and will be the most powerful way to accomplish this.

Thanks for hearing me out and I look forward to contributing more to the community in the future!

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170

@Bigknows

Beautiful, genuine, authentic post. I concur on every level and I’ve been on this form since October, 2016.

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171

Zcash media is not catch all for everything. Undertstand their expertise which is producing high-quality content.

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172

I actually think shorts have the best shot at making impact. Think School House Rock length. Even 10 minutes is too long for someone who doesn’t already have interest to invest. TV ad length to pop song length feels like a sweet spot.

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173

3 posts were merged into an existing topic: Zcash Media - 2% slice of dev fund

176

Appreciate the discussion, but could we move dev fund discussion to this thread: Zcash Media - 2% slice of dev fund

So as not to confuse newcomers what this thread is about. Thank you!

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177

Great idea! Maybe @37L and @ZcashGrants should sit in a room and nut out some strategies/ideas on creating videos that explain the dev fund, ZCG, and how grant proposals work. This might encourage more participant to make proposals. ZCG having expert communicators on their side would be an incredible asset IMO.

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178

Just incase incase anyone missed it. Has everyone been to @37L website.

I hope it’s obvious that @37L don’t “need” us and that they are obviously passionate about Zcash. How often does any organisation get the opportunity to work with a media production company that’s truely passionate about the project and mission. It’s rare, very rare…

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179

I’m not sure we can make any promises about getting more grant applicants, and regardless of any discussion about dev fund stuff, etc. exploring the Zcash funding process in a video is a personal top priority of mine. I think it’s one of the most novel and natural funding feedback loops I’ve come across. Accurately and understandably explaining it and placing it in context with other public goods funding models is something that’s a passion of mine. If you notice, it already has the bones of an outline in the topics sheet :slight_smile:

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180

bumped from above because nobody commenting “in favor” bothered to share counter points:
Spending $1.8 million does not feel responsible to the project in its current state. I’d also draw specific attention to questions about how that would be paid. Would that pay out in Cash only, or Zcash only, or a blend of both units of money?

If this can be paid out entirely or close to entirely in existing $USD funds, I am generally in favor.

If these funds are paid in ZEC we’ve got to consider what risk this creates toward coin distribution (giving centralized control to deep pocket buyers)/ and a negative impact on spending in a few years (supposing that ZEC can eventually reclaim value near $200-300 a coin or more, then the fund in affect has sacrificed upwards of $4,000,000-5,000,000 of additional spending power)

Spending this much ZEC in a bear market, during a low liquidity cycle means that we are turning over valuable, discounted assets to Barry Silbert types who prey on distressed zodlers.

We should all be asking ourselves? Am I happy to sell all of my ZEC to the next person for 50-60 bucks a coin?

If your answer is No, then I encourage you to think in the same economic mindset about how we ought to be selling the ZCG Zcash coin fund. The time to allocate ZEC coins to a massive spend like this is when they have value up at $200 or more.

I also draw attention to shortcomings from the original 37L work. They delayed the schedule on multiple occasions and also demonstrated “mission creep” the original proposal changed significantly, and they required a huge tack-on proposal.

In the end, the community got two great youtube videos (delivered significantly later than planned) and about 300,000 views for well beyond $500,000.

I support the suggestion from multiple other community members - that this proposal needs to be separated into smaller work efforts with measurable Win/Loss criteria.

Lastly, I raise a basic question that we’ve got to consider. “Who is the audience for a series of 12 videos of the nature described in the proposal?”

My evaluation is that the proposed series of videos will be consumed by people already tuned into the Zcash ecosystem, and secondarily by already-in-crypto people. That creates a diminishing returns outcome, especially considering the costs to be paid.

A proposed 12 videos in 12 months approach is not setup for good odds of having any of its content go viral. Going viral is the ideal path to reaching the stated result (?)

We are much better served by a proposal that creates 10 videos per month on significantly lower budget and production value. Have discussions at 37L been held to make an alternate proposal where content throughtput is 1000% more, with an emphasis on quantity-size, rather than quality?

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181

I believe during the bear market, we must double down on the teams that are building quality additions to the Zcash ecosystem. We have a lot of money and very predictable cash flows (obv pegged to the value of ZEC). In my humble opinion, our biggest challenge right now is a lack of base. When I engage with “Bitcoiners” & “Monero Chads” they are easily the most educated in the crypto space. (I’m not saying the smartest people work on these projects but that the average user really understands the problem their project is solving)

Full Disclosure: I will be working with Zcash Media

The only way to grow a base will be through EDUCATION. I don’t care if we get 10,000 views or 100,000 views but what I do care about is that the people viewing Zcash Media’s content leave EDUCATED.

There are only 21 million coins available for sale and it doesn’t take much to truly create a supply/demand imbalance if we have a base! Innovations in various payment rails like Flexa showcase the use case for ZEC but if no one knows why they NEED to use ZEC ~ what’s the point?

In my opinion, we have a simple task at hand. Create an educational series of content that teaches market participants or soon to be market participants the differences between Fiat & Hard Money… Then we educate them on why Digital Assets are the best Hard Money. Lastly, we show why Zcash is the best digital asset to fill this role! If we invest heavily in making the educational rails necessary to properly educate on these various economic concepts the sky is the limit for what we can do with Zcash.

As Thor said earlier, many people don’t know Bitcoin is public! In my opinion, the bear market is when all the NOISE gets drained out. This is an opportunity for us to be LOUD. The beautiful part, is that we don’t have to rely on shady yield schemes or complex smart contract structures. All we have to do is show people Zcash is the best MONEY created…

I really hope this grant is funded! Shields Up!! :shield:

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182

It’s disappointing to see this thread focus on the market value of ZEC and view counts. Are we not here out of passion and in the pursuit of freedom?

I personally think maybe the target audience is incorrect because all crypto is on an attention down-trend but that doesn’t really matter. These videos will help enlighten and educate some folks who may become key to the Zcash ecosystem which is also why the YouTube view numbers don’t really matter.

Good luck @37L !! Zcash needs this!

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183

I want to echo this sentiment and also support this fully. This proposal, as I understand it, is for one year. I base it on the work we’ve seen so far, and the feedback both from outside this community and inside it from people I’ve come to value. Most times I’d share that article from Fortune magazine about building a better Bitcoin, because it told a story that people could relate to. I’d much rather share these since they are more easily consumed and have the kind of quality that actually reaches people. Whenever this comes up for a vote, I’ll be supporting it.
As for the part of the discussion about market cap and price appreciation: this marketing effort may drive that forward in the form of increased adoption. The reason price appreciation is important even for those that don’t care about it, is that it will attract more development. I believe it’s important to incentivize everyone that helps ZCash move forward and reach more people. There will only be so many people who stay with ZCash purely for its main purpose, and that is very valuable. But also more will come because it’s profitable to develop a business around it, or invest in it in some form. In Ethereum’s early days, there was discussion around active development and it’s correlation to the price. Now even in hard times, they maintain their developers. We’ve outlasted many projects because of our funding model, but to attract more users, developers, and businesses that want to rely on ZCash, it is my feeling that price appreciation will help this along. We do need to scale and reaching people with accurate information presented in a compelling way is something I will be supporting for the long term.

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184

(Speaking for myself, not for ECC or as a ZIP editor.)

Based on the track record of Zcash Media and quality of their previous work, I strongly support this proposal. The content will be extremely useful for a long time to come, and having these materials coming out regularly is important to maintain visibility of ZEC and Zcash especially in these market conditions.

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185

A lot of good points have been made here from a lot of perspectives, proponents and opponents have been convincing.

I really enjoyed the videos from the first grant and will continue to get a lot of use out of them, showing them to friends and family.

why not?

I’m extremely sympathetic to those who would prioritize UX over all else at this phase. I send a lot of z2z transactions, perhaps more than anyone in the world right now. At my modest scale, the only wallet that I expect to work with >= 99.9% reliability is a zcashd full node.

I can get a steady stream of people jazzed about “private internet cash” and have them ready to participate in z2z fun. But, I can’t really recommend any lite wallet right now, TBH.

Ultimately “UX” is a goal almost at the highest level. But, some of the foundational means also need attention, perhaps even more so as prerequisites to quality UX. Namely, what I often call “developer ergonomics” is lacking. We need rock-solid, slick, stable libraries in common languages and guides and tutorials, boilerplates, reusable components! Deterministic and streamlined builds! We need reliable lightwallet infrastructure. We need obvious ways for developers to more easily contribute.

back on topic

The “why not” arguments are centered on competing priorities with limited resources. These are debates worth having. We don’t want to over-invest in slick videos when there is no reliable, slick wallet to point new users to.

Given the market lows, I share concerns that this is an extremely large grant at this time. BUT STILL, Zcash Media is probably the right team at the right time IMO. I basically support this grant but with caveats, preferences, suggestions and comments.

Flywheels over fireworks. Focus on durable and consistent output.

Please don’t liquidate a crapton of Zcash to give Facebook or others USD ad revenue. Focus only on the quality and quantity of the content, durable and consistent. If my friends were seeing advertisements for Zcash on Facebook it would be downright embarrassing TBH. OTOH, a library of nice videos on targeted topics could be useful for decades. Prioritize “useful for decades” over “100k views today” IMO. Views can be bought.

Try to be as thifty as possible.

A 50-second video might be worth more than a 15-minute video.

I would more vocally support a pared-down proposal that would keep Zcash Media flowing without being such a large portion of the dev fund upfront. But, I’m also sympathetic to the idea that there is some efficiency to be gained by a larger grant that spans a longer time.

Free2z

Zcash Media and Free2z have similar goals and challenges to educate new users. Free2z plans on making a bunch of videos as well. I did a UX study focus group on Free2z with some people who had never owned crypto. One of my favorite reactions was “what is 2 cash?”. These are intelligent people who can understand the importance of “private internet cash” and why it would be cool to “crowdfund without intermediaries”. But, they are a long way from downloading a wallet and putting Zcash into it and using it.

I happen to have a little kanban board with video ideas to weave into the Free2z UI -

Would Zcash Media be interested in providing content for Free2z and other projects in the ecosystem? That actually might sweeten the deal for me ;). Can you do ~50 second videos for every grant recipient who wants it? All of the governance entities? All of the major partnerships? Will Zcash Media be mostly visionary stuff or will there be some practical nitty-gritty content for nubs as well?

Also, please add a page on free2z.cash so I can link to a proper url such as free2z.cash/zcash-media (404) and not have to resort to visiting YouTube and searching to find your videos ;9

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186

You don’t have to worry about seeing anything on Facebook related to Zcash, and in my opinion that is a very big problem. am I taking crazy pills?

Facebook is the largest social media platform on Earth, with the largest user base of ~common people - the people who we are attempting to on-board directly as Zcash users (for both the Z2Z messaging feature, and for private, scarce digital money).

I really am lost to the fact that so many in this community have an elevated, holier than thou concept of Zcash, and that its some sort of heresy for us to push boosted posts/ ads on the World’s largest social media platform. I really am stumped to see this attitude proliferated so broadly.

Our mission is to create viral content, that will help the Zcash user base grow virally, right?!
(phrase this however you prefer with different verbiage)

Did anyone else notice that after the community spent near $600,000 on those 2 nice youtube videos that we didn’t even have them posted on Facebook by the Electric Coin Company page?

That is simply pathetic. How can such low-hanging fruit for expanding reach for views be over-looked by a project that consumed more than a half million dollars of community funds?

Also note, It is a risk to make a pattern of driving project decisions based on the anecdotal traits of our friend groups, rather than following the playbook of conventional “marketing” tactics.

1 Like
187

@David_Heisenberg would love to see that video! Grant money throughout the crypto ecosystem is very available but all projects struggle with getting applicants - perhaps explaining the architecture and process of the grants program would do wonders :slight_smile:

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188

New unseen Zcash Media footage.

Seems they have footage that hasnt been used yet.

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