Zcash developer Sean Bowe proposes ending automatic funding to Zcash Community Grants
In brief
- Sean Bowe shared a draft proposal to end ZCG's automatic share of new ZEC.
- ZCG has over $125 million in funding, Bowe said on X.
- The Network Sustainability Mechanism would receive the 8% subsidy share until 2028.
- ZCG's existing funds would stay untouched under the draft, which hasn't been adopted.
- Dragonfly's Haseeb Qureshi proposed ending the Zcash developer fund in September.
What Bowe is proposing
Bowe shared a draft GitHub proposal that would redirect ZCG's 8% cut of the ZEC block subsidy to the Network Sustainability Mechanism. It's only a draft. Nothing has been adopted, and ZCG's funding hasn't stopped.
The allocation would flow to that mechanism until the current funding period ends in 2028. The Network Sustainability Mechanism is designed to hold ZEC out of circulation and gradually reissue it through future block rewards.
ZCG's existing funds wouldn't be touched.
Bowe's case comes down to scale. In his post on X on Tuesday, he said ZCG had over $125 million in funding and would receive millions more before the payments stopped.
“The program was never designed to handle this amount of funding.”
He isn't arguing that ZCG should stop funding projects. Bowe said the treasury was large enough to keep doing that without any more automatic payments.
What the dashboards show
The public numbers come in a little under Bowe's figure. ZCG's own dashboard listed 91,453 ZEC and $8.8 million in cash as of Wednesday, with $2.4 million in outstanding grant commitments, per Cointelegraph. The outlet put the ZEC holdings alone at about $111 million at press time. That's an approximate number, since it moves with the ZEC price.
The development lockbox is a separate pot. It held 72,351 ZEC, worth roughly $89 million, according to ZecStats data cited by Cointelegraph.
Not the first push
Bowe isn't the first to question how much money is flowing into Zcash development funding. In September, Dragonfly managing partner Haseeb Qureshi proposed ending the Zcash developer fund when its current funding period expires, Cointelegraph reported. He said the fund risked being politicized as it approached $100 million in value.
Frequently asked questions
What would happen to ZCG's existing funds under Bowe's proposal?
Nothing. The draft would leave ZCG's existing funds untouched. It only redirects ZCG's 8% share of the ZEC block subsidy to the Network Sustainability Mechanism until the current funding period ends in 2028.
What is the Zcash Network Sustainability Mechanism?
It's a reserve designed to hold ZEC out of circulation and gradually reissue it through future block rewards. Under Bowe's draft, ZCG's 8% subsidy share would go there until the current funding period ends in 2028.
How much does Zcash Community Grants currently hold?
ZCG's dashboard listed 91,453 ZEC and $8.8 million in cash as of Wednesday, with $2.4 million in outstanding grant commitments, according to Cointelegraph. The ZEC holdings alone were worth about $111 million at press time. Bowe put ZCG's funding at over $125 million.
