ZecHub: an education hub for Zcash (2024 continued)

dismad · June 11, 2024, 10:10pm

Hi all,

We are excited to share our recent proposal to Zcash Community Grants. Any questions let us know.

Application.

Applicant name:

@squirrel

Team member name:

@dismad

Pitch: A one-liner elevator pitch version of your proposal

This proposal seeks to grow Zcash’s open-source education hub and onboard more contributors to Zcash.

Total Request (USD):

$46705.00 USD

Have you previously received a grant from Zcash Community Grants (formerly called ZOMG) or ZF?

Yes

Please provide details:

ZecHub has received two prior grants from ZCG since February 2023.

Are you seeking or have you received funding from other sources for this proposed project?

Yes

Please provide details on funding amount, funding source, and any other relevant information.

Namada community builders program RPGF round.

Applicant background:

@dismad: Background in Mathematics, Computer Science, and Education. Key ZecHub contributor, Cypherpunkzero holder and Moderator, experience in the Automotive Industry for 15+ years

@squirrel: Zcash Arborist Community Notetaker. The ZecHub DAO is a community-led group that governs ZecHub’s strategy and direction. 17 DAO members (active Zcashers) Voting duration – 3 days Passing threshold 67% Quorum 40% Deposit: none Proposer: Anyone

Description of Problem or Opportunity:

ZecHub provides an open source platform where community members can work together on creating and promoting educational content that supports the Zcash ecosystem.

Proposed Solution: Describe the solution at a high level.

ZecHub provides easy to understand education resources, primarily through the wiki site. We also create video tutorials, animated explainers of Zcash, podcast episodes and a weekly Zcash ecosystem newsletter. Anyone can review our documentation for accuracy, create new content and use the hub’s structure to facilitate new ideas that benefit the hub’s education stack and the Zcash ecosystem.

This process has incentivized community members to become more active contributors to Zcash and adjacent crypto ecosystem communities to come in and eventually contribute to the protocol.

ZecHub rewards every contribution by distributing ZEC from a pool of funds that is overseen by the DAO. We focus on advancing Zcash education and provide a uniform and easy process for people to earn ZEC.

Solution Format: What is the exact form of the final deliverable you’re creating?

Zcash & Privacy Technology Wiki site
Zcash Ecosystem Weekly Newsletter
Consistent Zcash education for Crypto 𝕏/Twitter
Animations, Video Tutorials, Podcasts and other media Wallet tutorials
User guides X spaces / Community events / Workshops Media about other privacy projects (i.e. Namada).
Trial of Retroactive Compensation for Global Ambassadors
Support efforts towards My First Zcash v2

Some of our recent work:

Zcash Orchard Thread Zcash Shielded Assets Video

ZecHub Podcast with Kurt Opsahl

Zcash Shielded Supply Charts

Technical Approach: Dive into the how of your project. Describe your approaches, components, workflows, methodology, etc. Bullet points and diagrams are appreciated!

Starting June 2024:

Creation of new Zcash & Privacy Ecosystem documentation / network metrics
Bi-weekly Sync Meetings with Discord community + DAO members
ZecWeekly Ecosystem Newsletter Work with Design SubDAO on Zcash Projects
Trial a retroactive compensation program for Global Ambassadors

Everyone is free to use our materials to support their own channels. The ZecHub bounty program is ready to scale, and we believe the best way to elevate this program is to partner with the Financial Privacy Foundation (FPF).

ZecHub proposes that the bounty funds (500 ZEC + 10% administrative fee) be directly donated to FPF for distribution according to ZecHub’s instructions.

This approach offers several benefits:

Increased decentralization - Removal of the current annual earning cap
Simplification of ZecHub’s operations

ZecHub will retain ownership of the bounty program, its strategic direction, and decisions regarding bounty recipients. FPF will handle only the administration of program payouts and the associated due diligence and accounting activities. This partnership with FPF will strengthen both ZecHub and the bounty program, ultimately benefiting the Zcash community.

Dependencies: What external entities is your project dependent on? What involvement is required from ZF, ECC, and/or other external organizations? Who would have to incorporate your work in order for it to be usable?

Availability of FPF operational support will be necessary for the bounty program. The podcast and twitter spaces events are dependent on Zcash community members and other projects being open to attending. ZecHub is dependent on its DAO members and open-source contributors to create & vote on governance proposals.

Execution risks: What obstacles do you expect? What is most likely to go wrong? Which unknown factors could jeopardize success? Who would have to incorporate your work in order for it to be usable?

The biggest execution risk would be misallocation of the Bounty Pool. It is vital that ample time is provided for project planning. Another education risk is the hub’s dependency on one person for media materials.

Unintended Consequences: What are the negative ramifications if your project is successful? Consider usability, stability, privacy, integrity, availability, decentralization, interoperability, maintainability, technical debt, requisite education, etc.

n/a

Evaluation plan: What metrics for success will you share with the community once you’re done? In addition to quantitative metrics, what qualitative metrics will you commit to report?

The main metrics related to ZecHub’s success are social media metrics (followers, video views, newsletter subscribers, etc) and the number of contributors building ZecHub related items. Detailed metrics will be provided on a monthly basis.

Contributor Metrics:

Design SubDAO: 4 members

Dework members: 121

zechub-wiki github contributors: 13

zechub github contributors:44

Social Media Following:

Twitter - 1500 followers
YouTube - 465 subscribers
Newsletter - 265 subscribers

Hardware/Software total budget:

$0.00 USD

Please provide justification for the total hardware/software budget:

n/a

Services total budget (cloud, hosting, etc.):

$0.00 USD

Please provide justification for the total services budget:

n/a

Compensation total budget:

$34,440 USD

Please provide justification for the total compensation budget:

Total ZecHub team member compensation for 2024 - $34,440 ZecHub Core Team:

@dismad $82 * 7.5hrs * 28 weeks = $17,220
@squirrel $82 * 7.5hrs * 28 weeks = $17,220

Contributor Bounty Fund. This will be billed as a startup cost and will be disbursed to ZecHub open-source contributors as they complete bounties. This will be denominated in ZEC:

Newsletter - 0.5 ZEC per edition
ZecHub Wiki - 1 ZEC per new page published
Research Article - 1.7 ZEC per accepted article
Video content - 2 ZEC per video and/or audio posted on ZecHub socials
New Website Component: 4 ZEC for new feature
Trial for Global Ambassador Provisioning: 200 ZEC
My First Zcash v2: 100 ZEC

Total of costs for 2024 bounty pool - 500 ZEC. ($11,150 USD as of 11/06/24)

Admin fee: - 50 ZEC ($1,115 as of 11/06/24)

Do you require startup funding?

Yes

Start up funding - detailed explanation:

Application submission date:

06/11/2024