Applicant background:
My nym is @decentralistdan on twitter & the forum. I have been in the cybercoin space since 2016, as well as an engaged Zcash community member & ZEC accumulator since 2018. I am regularly on the various community calls, I am an unelected MGRC candidate; my candidacy post can be found on the community forum. I participated in the Gitcoin Grants program & received generous community support. I was also recently voted to be a volunteer forum moderator by the community. Finally & most relevant to this application is the launch of zcashzeal.org & the @zcashzeal Twitter handle.
Some encouraging initial Zcash Zeal stats since launch, 2 months (Nov. 19th - Jan. 19th) are below:
On Twitter: 240 New Followers, 299.8K tweet impressions, 2.7% engagement rate, 964 Link Clicks, & 4.7K Video views, on the Website: 1190 Unique Visitors & 1986 Page Views, on Discord: 30 Members, & on Substack: 32 Signups
Outside of the crypto space, I have 6 years experience as a broadcast & audio/visual freelance technician, working on live & recorded events including the NFL Draft, NBA playoffs, 2016 Election Debates, & the 2020 Democratic Convention. My skills & roles for this job include, production coordinator, camera operator, audio assistant, & video operator.
Motivation and overview:
“There exists a trilemma when maintaining a public chain protocol, one that requires a multitude of entities working separately in tandem to sustain the protocol itself. Protocol advancement, community stability and growth, as well as speculative and long term value creation, all play major roles in creating a funnel of participants into each of the various groups to maintain a public chain system." - Amentum
This quote resonates with me & helped to shape my view of the role ZcashZeal can play in this new era of the block reward distribution. I feel that ZcashZeal can be an entity that works in tandem with the ecosystem to focus on community stability & growth.
The most important high-level goal for ZcashZeal is to be a driving force for Zcash adoption & retention of users & builders. We would like to cultivate a strong community(Zeal) by coordinating the creation of community content. This would include a social media campaign, educational resources, & multimedia content(website, podcast, video tutorials, & newsletter) + launch of zcashmemes.com. Another high-level goal is the growth of shielded Zcash adoption, we plan to focus a lot of our time & resources specifically on the education & onboarding into the shielded Zcash/z2z ecosystem & launch shieldedzcash.com.
Since the ZcashZeal launch we have published multiple how-to articles on our blog, created several video walkthroughs of using Zcash, & built up strong relationships with other community members(zealots) along the way. I feel these goals are directly connected to not only the ZF’s mission but also the ECC’s, & ultimately the community’s mission.
Technical approach:
Our approach is to learn & build in public.
My iPad is the most important tool in my workflow, as almost all content creation is done using it.
Execution risks:
Some obstacles could be community pushback on not using open-source & more private tools for the infrastructure I use currently. Ultimately I would like to transition but it could be an obstacle. The project could also lack the community support needed to really thrive & signal boost. Another factor that could limit the success of our goals, would be not being able to get permission to use the Zcash trademark in our content. Contingency plans include just pushing through because ZcashZeal was started to scratch my itch & I will continue to support the ecosystem.
Downsides:
All downsides listed seem possible but resolvable.
Evaluation plan:
We will continue to monitor the stats listed in the top section of the proposal in addition to monitoring podcast stats after launch, amount of z2z memo engagement we receive & the feedback we get via emails & social channels.
Tasks and schedule:
by April 1st: podcast launched + ZcashMemes.com launched + shieldedzcash.com launched + newsletter launched
by Jan 1st: bi-weekly content has been released on average over the last 2 quarters (blog post, podcast episode, twitter thread, newsletter)
Budget and justification:
1 year proposal My time: 10 hours/week x 52 weeks @ $20/ hour x 520 hours = $10,400 -All additional time that is required for the success of the project will be done voluntarily.
-Website Infrastructure costs: 1yr $216 per domain per year x3 =$648 (Squarespace) zcashzeal.org + zcashmemes.com + shieldedzcash.com
-$1200($100/mo) for community content creation rewards/incentives + z2z onboarding via memos, & zecpages marketing.
=$12,248 Total Budget
We would love a two year grant if the ZOMG sees the value in that & that budget would be the above proposal x2 = $24,496.
We look forward to seeing ZcashZeal grow and help expand awareness and adoption of Zcash!
