Hey Zcash Zeal!
Sorry for the late posting of this update. We held back posting the minutes because we wanted to make sure Tor Foundation was notified through the proper channels before the public meeting minutes showed that Arti had been funded. And we wanted to release the news just before Zcon2 began.
It’s been an exciting couple weeks with ZOMG members coming to a big decision, doing quite a bit of prep for the Zcon2 panel and putting together information for the press.
I case you missed it, here is the ZOMG panel on Zcon2:
And later the Fireside chat with ML_sudo
Coindesk also ran an article about ZOMG and Tor:
Meeting minutes below:
ZOMG Meeting Minutes 5-25-2021
[[Minutes Taken By Shawn]]
Attendees:
Shawn
Hudson Jameson
ML_Sudo
Holmes Wilson
Chris Burnskie
Pre Meeting Agenda:
- Arti Tor Proposal
- Zcash Evangelist Proposal
- Zcash Public Awareness Campaign
- User Education Video TvsZ
- Viral Video
- ZecPages Usability
Meeting Minutes:
- Arti Tor on Rust
Shawn reminded everyone that Danika was not feeling well and will not be able to take notes this week. Volunteered to take minutes if nobody else wanted to.
Chris stated let’s start with the biggest proposal Arti and work through what we discussed over signal and last meeting. He is in favor of funding and we should figure out how ZOMG should pay the grantees such a large sum of money. The amount and time frame to payout introduces market risks
[Note: much Arti discussion took place asynchronous via Signal]
Holmes mentioned that he is really supportive of Tor and is a fan of the option of giving them an option of USD or ZEC for their award.
ML_Sudo stated that she was still not convinced about having such a large proportion of the ZOMG budget go towards a project that won’t directly benefit Zcash soon. While ZF and the wallet projects (ZECwallet and Nighthawk) have expressed interest and intention to integrate Arti, ECC has not provided any commitment in the spirit of caution. She asked if Chris had revised the numbers since the price of Zcash has fallen lately
Chris said that he believes the numbers sit at about 13% of our current ZOMG holdings with the recent price decrease
ML_Sudo stated that she would be more comfortable if it was closer to 7% as it was before the most recent price drop
Chris pointed out that this is why it is important for us to decide if the grantees gets paid in USD or ZEC. Over a longer term the market movements introduce risk to ZOMG of paying out more ZEC than was originally budgeted.
Shawn stated that he was not in favor of ZOMG making these kinds of specific USD vs ZEC funding decisions for the grantee. That once ZOMG decides if its a “Yes or No” for a proposal then it should be between Zcash Foundation and the grantee how they are paid.
Holmes stated he was not in favor of that approach because we do not want to allow an untrusted applicant to promise to choose ZEC but later abandon the project if the market rates turned unfavorable. Allowing ZF to make the structure takes the choice away from ZOMG.
Shawn said that he is also concerned about the optics of ZOMG giving the grantees the choice of USD because it may look like ZOMG is selling ZEC.
Hudson stated that he is not worried about the public perception of ZOMG selling ZEC because the grantee could have just as easily gotten ZEC and sold it themselves. This way ZOMG knows how much its commitment is to the grantee at the beginning and thinks the public would understand.
Chis said we should offer them two options, pure USD or Pure ZEC
Shawn asked, but it looks like we have three options that we could give them? 1. If they choose USD then the amount is set at the time of grant approval. 2. Paid in USD denomination, but in ZEC (current process) 3. Pure ZEC but amount is set at the beginning, milestones are also fixed.
Chris said yes, true but we should probably not do option 2 for this amount because it puts the greatest risk on ZOMG funds if the market moves significantly between milestones. Its also important to allow the grantee to hedge and protect themselves against market risk.
Huson said he agreed that pure ZEC or pure USD sound better.
Shawn asked, it sounds like we are a majority in favor of funding Arti is that correct?
ML_Sudo said that she is sorry but she just can’t get on board this time. She’s 100% behind the project in terms of objectives and quality of the team, but prefers to exercise discipline in the quantum of funds (as % of our total treasury) being allocated to a project that is not directly related to Zcash. 8% of the treasury, which was the cost of the project in early May before markets tanked, was as far as she felt comfortable; 15% is way off the mark. .
Shawn asked, so should we call for an official vote? All agreed
Result: 4 in favor, 1 opposed. Arti is funded.
Holmes reassured ML_sudo that the team at Tor is top notch and the funds will go to good use.
- (Agenda items 2,3,4,5) Public awareness campaign , Zcash evangelist, 2 short videos
Hudson stated it looks like we have quite a few marketing type proposals this round, does anyone see any of the 4 proposals that look promising? Does anyone want to champion one?
ML_Sudo stated that she was disappointed by the quality of the marketing proposals
The rest of ZOMG agreed and decided to decline all four marketing proposals.
[Meeting was near 1 hour time limit]
- ZecPages Usability
ZOMG agreed that timing didn’t allow for proper discussion and to postpone vote until next meeting.
—Action Items–
Shawn to draft Arti forum reply and press release
Holmes to decline Zcash Evangelist proposal
Chris to decline 2 video proposals
Husdon to decline public awareness campaign
To clarify, since we had that meeting, we reduced the milestones/grant size from about $1mn to $670,000. As a result the grant represents about 10% of the current treasury, instead of 15%.