The Dev Fund Fight: A Week of Competing Proposals
ZEC's price rise has made Zcash Community Grants far larger than it was designed to be. Sean Bowe puts its funding at over $125M. Within a week, that set off the biggest governance debate in years. In order:
- Oct 26: End ZCG's stream. Maxime Desalle proposed ending ZCG at NU8, redirecting its 8% to the Network Sustainability Mechanism (NSM) and sending its leftover treasury there too. His argument is that coinholders fund ZCG but don't choose it. His thread drew 365 likes and 141 posts. Sean Bowe filed a matching draft ZIP the same day.
- Oct 27: End the whole Dev Fund. Josh Swihart replied that ending only ZCG is a half-measure, since the 12% coinholder stream has the same problem. He later proposed ending the entire Dev Fund before its November 2028 expiry.
- Oct 27: Soft landing. ZecHub's dismad drafted a schedule that halves both streams at each halving and reaches zero after the fifth one (~2036).
- Oct 29: ZCG's own taper. ZCG floated cutting its intake to about 47,000 ZEC by 2028, down from about 109,000, and returning the rest to the NSM. It has since withdrawn the idea, saying the decision belongs to the community's governance process. A separate wind-down ZIP was also filed.
- Oct 30: Future Dev and Legal Defense Fund. Sean Bowe (Tachyon), Zooko and Jason McGee (Shielded Labs) proposed ending ZCG's stream and sending the same 8% to a new lockbox for future development and legal defense until the third halving. ZCG would also donate 50,000 ZEC to the NSM by sending it to an unspendable address that is credited to the NSM at activation. Zooko asked other proposers to withdraw theirs and back it. Bowe's October 26 draft was closed the same day.
- Oct 31: Zcash Adoption Pool (ZAP). Daira-Emma Hopwood and others wrote a ZIP at Zcon7 defending grants for broad ZEC adoption, as ZIP 1015 intended. It drew 557 likes and 283 posts, the most-engaged thread of the week.
No proposal is final. Any change needs a network upgrade after NU7.