I want to put a mandate for accountability in this proposal. This would apply to both the company and the foundation. I agree with these accountability requirements put forward by the foundation:
- Monthly public developer calls, detailing current technical roadmap and updates
- Quarterly tech roadmap reports and updates
- Quarterly financial reports, detailing spending levels/burn rate and cash/ZEC on hand
- A yearly, audited financial report akin to the Form 990 for US-based nonprofits
- Yearly reviews of organization performance, along the lines of our “State of the Zcash Foundation” report
I’m not sure about the question of non-profit versus for profit status for the ECC, because I am not a legal expert.
I would like to hear from the ECC about a point made in the foundation’s statement that the ECC did not respond to directly in their respond to the foundation (links here:
Foundation statement: Zcash Foundation Guidance on Dev Fund Proposals - zcash foundation
ECC response: A Blank Slate: The Community to Decide its Future - Electric Coin Company)
The foundation wrote:
“At its most fundamental level, a for-profit company is beholden to its shareholders. Protocol-based development funds are meant to solve tragedies of the commons, in order to provide public goods for everyone. If a business claims that its only business model is a compulsory protocol reward, its investors could demand cost-cutting to extract maximum profit with minimal effort — particularly when other ecosystem participants are contributing to protocol development.”
I’d like to know if the ECC agrees with this statement? Or is there a way to avoid the possibility of the ECC shareholders having conflicting interests with the zec holders?
At this point I am convinced that there needs to be some legally enforceable accountability to the zcash community, but its unclear what the best legal structure would be. I do not want to mandate the ECC become a non-profit without hearing a little more about this.
Could @zooko or someone able to speak on behalf of the ECC address this? This is something that everyone writing a proposal needs to read and consider carefully.
Edit: It would also be useful for the Zcash community to hear more details about any potential advantages of ECC remaining a for-profit.