The largest slice of the Zcash Dev Fund is earmarked for major grants “to fund independent teams entering the Zcash ecosystem, to perform major ongoing development work (or other word) for the public good of the Zcash ecosystem”. While the funds are administered by the Zcash Foundation (ZF), applications for major grants are subject to approval by a five-seat Major Grant Review Committee, which is selected by a poll of the Zcash Community Advisory Panel (ZCAP).
The first Committee was elected in September 2020, and adopted the moniker Zcash Open Major Grants (ZOMG). The second Committee was elected in December 2021, and has branded itself Zcash Community Grants (ZCG). To date, the committees have approved over $5.1m in grants, and has paid out nearly $2.8m (the remaining $2.3m represents future milestone payments). As of block height 1,682,399, ZF holds over 120,000 ZEC and $2.6m of funds earmarked for major grants, and the ZEC balance grows by 0.25 ZEC with every new block (an average daily increase of 288 ZEC).
The Upcoming Election
Having served as a member of the Committee since it was first constituted in late 2020, Hudson Jameson has decided to step down. As a result, we will be holding an election at the end of June to select Hudson’s replacement.
Anyone can stand for election to the ZCG Committee. Members are responsible for assessing and approving or rejecting grant applications. The Committee members currently meet for brainstorming sessions every week, with formal committee meetings held every two weeks. Members currently receive a stipend of $1,500 per calendar month (paid as shielded ZEC).
Prospective candidates should submit a forum post (ideally five paragraphs or less) in the governance zcg-elections category of the Zcash Community Forum, announcing their candidacy, and outlining their priorities and vision for Zcash. Community members will have an opportunity to ask candidates questions directly as replies to their respective posts.
The deadline for nominations is 09:00 UTC on 15th June 2022.
We cannot prevent anyone from talking about their candidacy in other media, but we encourage candidates to use the forum threads as their primary method of “campaigning.” Doing so will make it easier for Zcash community members to interact with and assess candidates.
The week commencing June 20th, ZF will host a community call. All the candidates will be invited to attend, and questions will be collected from community members in advance, via the forum. Candidates aren’t required to attend, but we strongly encourage them to do so, as it will give them an opportunity to connect and communicate with the Zcash community.
After the community call, ZF will open a Helios poll of the newly-expanded Zcash Community Advisory Panel, to select a single candidate to join the ZCG Committee. The poll will close at 09:00 UTC on 1st July 2022.
As with previous polls, the election will be decided by approval voting for one new committee member out of the pool of candidates. The candidate with the most votes will become the new ZCG Committee member. They will serve a one-year term, ending on 30th June 2023. Committee members may stand for re-election at the end of their term.
Conflict of Interest Policy
Prospective candidates should be aware that they are subject to a conflict of interest policy, which can be summarized as follows:
- Serving ZCG Committee members and entities in which a serving ZCG Committee member is an officer or director or otherwise has a financial interest are ineligible to submit a new grant application to ZCG.
- A person who has submitted a grant application (or who is an officer or director or otherwise has a financial interest in an entity that has submitted a grant application) on which the ZCG Committee has not yet rendered a decision is ineligible to serve as a ZCG Committee member (unless the grant application is withdrawn).
- A person who is a current grant recipient (or a person who is an officer or director or otherwise has a financial interest in an entity that is a current grant recipient) is eligible to serve on the ZCG Committee so long as the decision to accept their grant application was made before they began serving as a member of the ZCG Committee.
- Milestone payout decisions that relate to a serving ZCG Committee member’s grant (or a grant awarded to an entity in which a serving ZCG Committee member has a financial interest) will be taken by the executive director or other officer of ZF.
- Before taking their seat on ZCG Committee, the newly-elected Committee member will be required to undergo the ZF’s KYC process, complete a conflict of interest questionnaire, and sign an independent contractor agreement with ZF (to ensure that their status and relationship with ZF is clearly defined). Additionally, serving ZCG Committee members will be required to notify ZF of any new conflicts of interest that develop or emerge during their tenure.
If prospective candidates have any questions about the role, they should post them to this topic on the Zcash Community Forums.