Launching the Zcash Minor Grants Program by ZFND

Today, we are announcing a new, experimental Zcash Foundation (ZF) grants program, which we have nicknamed “Minor Grants”. This is intended to complement the Major Grants program (aka Zcash Community Grants) by providing a source of funding for smaller grants. We hope that this will reduce the number of smaller grant applications that are submitted to ZCG, thus enabling them to focus their attention on larger, more significant grants that are more in line with what the Major Grants program is intended to fund. Additionally, we would like to create a channel for grant applications that are not directly Zcash-related but explore broader applications of zero knowledge proofs or other approaches to financial privacy, in line with our charitable purpose.

The maximum grant size for this Minor Grants program will be $25,000, and the budget is $75,000.

We also want to engage the Zcash community, and take advantage of the “wisdom of the crowd” by polling the Zcash Community Advisory Panel (ZCAP) regarding which grants should be funded.

We plan to see how this first iteration of the program goes, how many and what sort of grant applications are submitted, how the community responds and the feedback we receive, before deciding whether to repeat or extend the program in the future.

More Info:

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Congrats! This is amazing. As I read it these grants would be funded from the ZF pool of money?

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Yes, that is correct

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This is SO COOL!

I’m looking forward to seeing what clever projects come out during the application period. The governance process will be fun to watch, too :movie_camera: :popcorn: :champagne:

Through the ZF A/V Club channels, I’ll be available to any Zcashers with big ideas for Minor Grants.

Let’s make stuff together!

:tada: :zebra:

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Looking for public opinion on one idea I have:

Finance courses for under-privileged teens and young adults in Indonesia. Think https://electriccoin.co/crypto-in-context/ but with those who has dropped out of school but now trying to finish their high school diploma. Will probably be focused on personal finance with some intro contents to Zcash.

Based on napkin math, I believe this will be $5000 max with 4 or 5 sessions as deliverables. Initial target is 10 students aged between 15 to 25. Confident we can attract 20 students if we can provide $20 stipend per class for each student, covering their transport and lunch.

I promise I will act on this idea if this post gets more than 10 likes before next weekend (until March 3rd 2023).

Edit: as promised I have submitted a proposal based on this idea for the minor grants :wink:

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Great concept, Cheers Zcash Foundation

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Absolutely worth, also as a pilot for other similar grants.

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This is awesomely awesome

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Applied :grinning:

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Thank you for your excellent initiatives, but no offense, I am sad to see how inefficiently we continue to spend the funds, given the current coin prices. We are firing a cannon at sparrows.

I really appreciate everyone’s contribution, but the narrative “we have money for development” is melting at 10% a day. And we ourselves push prices into the abyss when we lay down expenses requiring the sale of ZEC for dollars.

Maybe just buy an advertising budget from Google to show this video to an unlimited number of people? In my opinion, this is much more effective, based on the number of people who would know about cash for $1 spent.
People who invest their finances in the purchase of ZEC are very upset about the current situation in the market and some grants looks like they are just donating money.

PS As an ambassador, I haven’t sold a single coin in a year of work, because I have other incomes and can afford it. So that you understand how much I doubt the need for budgeting projects at current prices, I wrote this question:

Let’s discuss this. ZEC is not a cash cow.

UPD Correction, when I wrote “we continue to spend inefficiently”, it does not mean that the accepted grants are not effective. I don’t think so at all. I mean precisely the inefficiency of converting ZEC into dollars at current prices.

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Did the deadline get extended? I could have sworn I read that somewhere just yesterday maybe

I second this point! Regardless of the presumed short- and long-term value of a proposed project, we’ve also got to be highly disciplined and respectful to where ZEC is valued by the market, and how much fiscal irresponsibility we are undertaking by releasing community ZEC at depressed market rates.

An interesting thought experiment would be to whiteboard an idea about a ZCG community funds auto-furlough, where for example, under any market conditions where ZEC are market trading at 30% or more beneath the weekly 200 moving average, then all grants approvals and ZEC spend are suspended until the ZEC valuation returns.

For the current outlay, ZEC has a weekly 200 moving average at approximately $90 and 30% less would be $60. By the logic of an auto-furlough policy, the ZCG will place any new grant approval and spending on hold until ZEC have regained $60 per coin of value.

The exact measures and static numbers should be debated. Using 50% as a second example, the auto-furlough level would be around $45.00 per coin.

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I do not know which option would be correct. But it looks like a financial protocol. Any structure that has a budget must have a financial protocol, otherwise it is our common naive irresponsibility.

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today is the day, 3rd april when the list of projects get published. if you could share the link here seeing the list that would great. let the best win :slight_smile:

We have published the list of grant applications that will be submitted to ZCAP for approval:

The ZCAP poll will open later today, and will close at 09:00 UTC on 17th April 2023.

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Great to see those proposals, and I liked the format/layout, very neat to read!

Will there be another batch for more people to create proposals for Minor Grants?

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Great @Dodger , thanks for the swift reply.
kindly let me know where to find the poll. cheers

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@Dodger or is it the numbers next to the title?

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The numbers near the links are just a counter how many times the link has been clicked.

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