I think your questions are reasonable. Can we agree that it’s important to get some answers about staffing (size and retention) without slowing the effort?
Maybe we could ask for those insights to be included for the first milestone(s)?
Per video length… could we instead ask for data on how videos are received as a function of size? And/Or other metrics?
Basically I am asking, can we add asks to the results rather than making the initial payout contingent on more up-front work? My guess is that we’ll get better insight if the team has more direct observations to work with.
Is that a possible win-win? Where ZcashMedia gets to work, but concerns are also addressed?
My questions are straight forward and should require minor effort to answer; particularly considering the context that Zcash Media has already spent about $700,000 of community funds on their first set of videos. To that completed work, it shouldn’t be a major challenge to look at how the staff (and specific roles) ebbed and flowed, and what deliverable narratives and their sizing discussions were had.
I don’t think the team would be significantly negatively impacted by waiting the 2 more days of the 7 that we normally enforce, and it seems like a reasonable policy to allow a week.
Good intention and competence aren’t the only reasons to fund a project. What about the need, impact and value?
The media videos were fun to watch but I doubt they made any significant change to the perception of zcash. Actually, now MSM associate Snowden with zcash and not in a good way of course.
I am in full support for this grant proposal. Zcash media have made the best three videos in the entire crypto and I believe that we should continue to build on this momentum. Video content has the power to spark emotion and change sentiment, thus by far the best form of media to deliver the core of what Zcash stands for.
One thing to note and probably capitalise on if possible, is the narrative (amongst the crypto community at least) of Zero Knowledge Proofs. It’s only fair that they associate ZKP with Zcash as they associate Blockchain with Bitcoin; regardless of what project they’re invested in or look up to. Zcash is the founding father of ZKP and hence she deserves the credit, glory and publicity of such an achievement. It would be a big pity if otherwise and unfulfilled potential from Zcash media. I say this as I believe that ZKPs as a point of discussion could surpass that of Blockchain, and where ZKPs go in terms of exposure, Zcash should follow.
Grayscale’s “Drop Gold” campaign is far and away the best video in all of crypto… you could also put the FTX super-bowl ad up there (in spite of the subsequent collapse and brand destruction)
It really does not. ZCG would be spending a million dollars on literally the least effective type of communication channel for innovation adoption, at least according to the most widely respected theory on technology diffusion.
And if you need any evidence of how that plays in real life, just take a look at the non-existant impact on adoption that a (very expensive) youtube video with the grandiose revelation that Snowden “played a key role in Zcash privacy coin’s creation” had. And it will certainly only go downhill from there.
ZCG spending a million dollars on expensive youtube videos in hopes of having any meaningful impact on ZEC adoption would be a terrible idea under any circumstances, but with a price of 43 dollars per ZEC it would be just plain lunacy.
I hope it is common sense, and not politics or self-interest from the powers that be in Zcash, that prevails here.
Is it really the goal of these videos to promote ZEC? They are mainly about the importance and the right to privacy. Most of the content could be applied to any private coin.
Personally, I think ZMG money should be used for zcash only projects but many people disagree.
ZMG is funding Arti for example.
Just setting expectations…
@David_Heisenberg, Zcash Media, & Zcash Community, I am happy to announce that the @ZcashGrants Committee unanimously voted to approve this Grant Proposal at the most recent meeting.
Excited to get (keep!) going. The community support means a lot to us. We’ll all work together to bring the values and benefits of Zcash to the world, one step at a time.
I am dumbfounded by how rapidly this was funded (and with no respect to my questions raised). Despite a long list of more materially value-additive efforts remaining unaddressed and unfunded.
The rapid funding of this proposal, despite a clear lack of staffing conditions, or sizing of deliverables really calls absolute question to the nature of the committee members who voted in favor.
How much blind trust are we giving to 37L? This community to my understanding is one founded on principles that assert the elimination of trusted parties and black box processes!
Not even 15 calendar days elapsed, and many questions and concerns beyond just my own were never addressed by the proposal creator.
A very disturbing precedent has been cemented into the history of Zcash Community Grants today.
Well, I can not say that I am surprised about this outcome, you could see from miles away that it was written in the stars that a million-dollar proposal from “Zcash Media” was going to get funded no matter what:
It is sad because this almost certainly will end up extracting value from the community rather than adding it, at least according to copious amounts of academic research on what drives innovation adoption. It will not be too dissimilar to how funding the very expensive first set of videos ended up extracting value from the community in net terms, and as I said, it only gets downhill from “Edward Snowden” in terms of impact that a youtube channel can have on driving awarenes/adoption for zec (or for any new technology, for that matter).
To the poor zodlers who have been getting abused for years: please remain vigilant with all this as it is not unlikely that this new “more videos are coming!” narrative will be used by Zcash market makers to manufacture artificial pumps (and its subsequent monster dumps, of course) as it has happened many times before (ie. halo 2 launch → halo 2 delay for no technical reason, halo 2 launch → halo 2 delay for a bug that was found only after the pump had already taken place, launch of edward snowden video → subsequent dump). But hey, focusing on the positive this will create an exit opportunity for those who have realised what Zcash really is about and want to leave.
I mean, after all it is not gratuitous that the crypto masses are certain zcash is little more than a honeypot for the powers that be, and won’t touch zec with a stick.
And finally, to the team on the receiving end of this grant, congratulations. You showed absolute determination on getting this money one way or the other, and did not let go until it happened. We can not say that you lack grit. I really hope someday you will be able to use your skills to create actual value for the people you work for.
Are there any minutes or details available related to this vote and any discussions held outside of the public thread here?
Can you provide any feedback as to why the proposal was approved on a fast timeline, and with multiple community questions unanswered?
Why such a sense of urgency about this?
$900,000 is a lot of community money to commit for a proposal that did not even give napkin math about their deliverables, or their staffing estimates for a 12 month project.
