Zcash Foundation
Zcash Foundation

Zcash Foundation

Mission Statement

Our goal at ZF is to create tools that help sustain open networks, enabling anyone and everyone to protect their own privacy on their own terms. The essence of privacy itself is being able to choose what is or isn't shared with others. Privacy comprises both autonomy and consent; it is essential to human dignity and the healthy continuation of civil society.

People and Teams

The Zcash Foundation has nearly 15 employees that are distributed across the world. They work on various things such as protocol development, protocol security, protocol governance, business development and managing Zcash community events. The ZF team consists of a board of directors, the engineering team and an operations team, more info here.

Zcash Foundation Grants provides the ecosystem with a means to fund projects that contribute to the privacy ecosystem such as Zebra (an independant node implementation for Zcash) & FROST as well as various other projects through Zcash Open Major Grants , now Zcash Community Grants Committee.

The Foundation also holds Zcon, a yearly in-person conference centered on the Zcash ecosystem and supports grassroots, community initiatives such as Zcon Vozes regional specific conferences, the Zcash Foundation A/V Club and various other open community calls and AMA's.

The Zcash Foundation enforces the Zcash Trademark policy per the conditions of it's donation by the Electric Coin Co. which helps "Protect the reputation of Zcash, its associated entities, and the Zcash community" by "identify(ing) official sources of information, reducing the likelihood of fraudulent or incorrect information" and "Identify(ing) official apps and services,reducing the likelihood of fraudulent activities."

Organizational Structure

The Zcash Foundation is a 501(c)(3) not for profit organization. In addition to their team, they have a board of directors.

Funding

The Zcash Foundation receives 5% of the Zcash development fund. Their use of finances can be seen in their quarterly Transparency Reports.

Zcash Community Grants Program

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This program funds independent teams to perform major ongoing development (or other work) that benefits the Zcash ecosystem. Grants are chosen by a five-person committee elected by the Zcash community. Teams and organizations that are interested in advancing the usability, security, privacy and adoption of Zcash are strongly encouraged to apply for a Zcash Community Grant.

Zcash Minor Grants Program

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On February 22, 2023, a new experimental credit program from the Zcash Foundation (ZF) was announced, which we call “Minor Grants”. It is intended to complement the Major Grants program (also known as Zcash Community Grants) by providing a source of funding for smaller grants. Hopefully, this will reduce the number of minor grant grants that are submitted to the ZCG, allowing them to focus their attention on larger, more controlled grants that are more in line with what the Major Grants program financially intends. Additionally, I would like to create a channel for subordinating titles that are not directly related to Zcash, but that explore broader applications of zero-knowledge proofs or other approaches to financial privacy, in line with our charitable purpose.

The Application Process

Applications should be submitted through the ZF concessions platform and applicants should agree to sign the ZF concession agreement and go through the ZF KYC process if the application is successful.

The deadline for submitting a grant application is 22 February 2023, 9:00 am UTC on Monday 20 March 2023.

The Voting Process

On April 17, we published the list of grant applications that will be submitted to ZCAP for approval.

List of Grant Applications

Aprendamos de Criptos y Blockchain (trans. Let’s learn about Crypto and Blockchain)

The ZCAP poll opened on April 3 and closed at 09:00 UTC on April 17, 2023.

The voting process was done by Zcap members,and 102 people voted , at the end of the poll, 4 projects were chosen to receive Minor Grants

List of selected projects

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For more information about Minor Grants, you can consult the Zcash Forum, or the Minor Grants Page.

Highlighted Zcash Foundation Videos

Zebrad for Linux Tutorials

How to Zcash

Zcon Vozes: Brasil 2023

Zcash Foundation Board of Directors Members: Marta Belcher & J.W. Verret

Zcash Foundation Board of Directors Members: Marta Belcher & J.W. Verret

A community call with new Zcash Foundation Board of Directors Marta Belcher and J.W. Verret, hosted by Jack Gavigan (aka Dodger), discussing the legal climate of privacy-preserving crypto, the battle for financial privacy, outsider perceptions of Zcash, building bridges between communities, and the future role of the Zcash Foundation in the Zcash ecosystem. They also talk about Zcash/Filecoin interoperability, proof-of-stake, and the Great Privacy Awakening. 00:00 Community call introduction by Jack Gavigan 00:35 Marta Belcher, Zcash Foundation Board of Directors 02:36 J.W. Verret, Zcash Foundation Board of Directors 05:00 Question: What's the legal climate of privacy-preserving crypto in 2023/24? 06:08 J.W. Verret: View on Crypto Regulation and Advice for the Crypto Community 09:29 Marta Belcher: The Battle for Financial Privacy in Cryptocurrency 16:29 Regulators discouraging the use of privacy-preserving cryptocurrency 17:53 Taking the fight to the Supreme Court of the United States 18:40 The regulatory challenges facing cryptocurrencies 22:00 Question: Outsider perceptions of Zcash and how have they changed? 23:20 Marta Belcher: The Importance of Zcash and Its Growing Ecosystem 28:08 J.W. Verret: Zcash, Monero, and Building Bridges Between Communities 33:05 The relationship between Zcash and Monero communities 35:46 Zcash/Filecoin interoperability and other use cases 42:33 Proof-of-Stake and the regulatory environment 47:08 Alignment within the Zcash community 54:36 The future role of the Zcash Foundation in the Zcash ecosystem 01:02:44 The most important thing that Zcash should be doing better 01:09:52 How Zcash Foundation can be more proactive 01:15:52 The Great Privacy Awakening 01:17:42 The Zcash Wishlist 01:19:38 Outro

Zcash Foundation Board of Directors Members: Marta Belcher & J.W. Verret

Arti: ZF + ZCG Call w/ the Tor Project

Community Calls for ZCAP Votes

AMA with ZF Executive Director Jack Gavigan

Resources