The largest slice of the Zcash Dev Fund (40%) 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, applications for major grants are subject to approval by a five-seat Major Grant Review Committee. The first committee was elected last September, and adopted the name Zcash Open Major Grants or ZOMG.
Following the activation of Canopy last November, ZOMG began reviewing applications. To date, it has approved over $2.4m in grants, and has paid out $1,075,000 (the remaining $1.33m represents future milestone payments). As of block height 1,357,196, the Foundation holds 60,743 ZEC and $1,180,000 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).
Anyone can stand for election to the ZOMG Committee, for a one-year term, and existing members may stand for re-election.
Schedule
We plan to follow a similar process and schedule to the one used last year to select the inaugural committee.
- On September 1st, the Foundation will host an open community video call, to give community members an opportunity to ask questions about the background, structure and processes of the ZOMG Committee. Candidates aren’t required to attend, but we strongly encourage them to do so. You can sign up for this Q&A call here.
- Between now and 15th September 2021, prospective candidates should submit a forum post (ideally five paragraphs or less) in the governance zomg-elections category of the Zcash Community Forum, announcing their candidacy and outlining their priorities and vision for ZOMG. Community members will have an opportunity to ask candidates questions directly as replies to their respective posts.
- 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 compare candidates.
- On September 22nd the Foundation will host another open community video call, inviting all candidates to participate and giving community members an opportunity to ask questions directly. Candidates aren’t required to attend, but we encourage them to do so. You can sign up for the video call now.
- On September 27th the Foundation will open a Helios poll with the Zcash Community Advisory Panel to select five candidates to serve on the next ZOMG Committee.
- Polling will close on October 11th.
As with last year’s poll, the poll will be decided by approval voting for five members out of the pool of candidates. The five candidates with the most votes (with a maximum of one ECC and one ZF representative, if selected) will become the new ZOMG Committee members from the anniversary of the Canopy activation, on November 18th.