I wanted to voice my concern about the cut to the ZCG committee stipend as well.
While I understand that adjustments must be made in times of austerity, and I support all Zcash organizations in taking appropriate action to preserve runway, I think this cut may be too deep and inappropriately placed.
As we have seen ECC has already made deep cuts to what they are contributing to the ecosystem - They have eliminated vital functions including global regulatory work, partnerships, marketing, strategy, technical support, and building any new protocol features, etc. To my knowledge, they are only focused on research and building a wallet and this has left an enormous hole in work for Zcash.
I have worked closely with the committee since I began working on partnership efforts with ZCG. I have found them to be extremely dedicated to their positions and willing to put in the effort above and beyond what is asked of them to ensure success of the program. I believe that ZCG is likely the only organization that can help fill some of the gaps left by ECC and should therefore retain their talented team.
I am concerned that this deep of a cut could disincentivize members to continue their valuable work. The last few elections we have not seen a surplus in folks interested in running and this lower stipend will likely result in little to no momentum in attracting committee members.
I believe that we should strongly consider splitting the cost of stipends between ECC, ZF, and ZCG to evenly distribute the burden, especially since ECC has cut 95% of their commitment to the community and are receiving the same amount of funding. I think it is fair that ZF not shoulder the burden alone in difficult times.
Ultimately, I think this cut will result in a lack of talent for the committee and further harm the progress towards Zcash growth and decentralization. It highlights again how little say the community has in what is funded for the project and where resource allocation is ultimately given.
We need to begin addressing these concerns together holistically as a show of good faith in one another in order demonstrate to the community that we all have the best interest of the project in mind, not the best interest of ourselves in these difficult times (not intending to imply that is what anyone is doing).
I would like to see ZF, ECC and ZCG work together to cover the stipend as is until we weather the storm that is this crypto winter. We are an ecosystem and a community first, we are individual organizations second. Let’s work together to keep our valuable teams build and growing the project!