The results of the Zcash community polling are in, and Electric Coin Co. is happy to accept the role as offered to us by the Zcash community!

Background

Zcash was launched in 2016 with a “Founder’s Reward” to be allocated over four years. Of all Zcash mining rewards, 80 percent was allocated to miners, about 15 percent was allocated to a group of people that included investors and founders, and about 5 percent was available to ECC to fund core support functions.

The Founder’s Reward expires in November 2020. While there has been unambiguous agreement that no further funding should be allocated to investors and founders, there was an outstanding question on how future Zcash support and development should be adequately funded and more inclusive of new third parties.

For months, the Zcash community has engaged in both formal and informal channels — on the Zcash Forum, Telegram, Twitter, the Zcash Community Chat, anonymous petitioning on the Zcash blockchain, and in person at Zcon1 — to wrestle with issues and assert its position. The Zcash Foundation took the lead to poll the community on community-submitted proposals, and a clear consensus has been established.

The community’s decision

In Zcash Foundation polling, the community voted to create a new development fund with 20 percent of the mining rewards, while the miners receive 80 percent as of block 1046400. Assuming we have agreement with the Zcash Foundation, this will be implemented in November 2020, to coincide with the first scheduled Zcash halvening when the total block rewards will be reduced to half as much ZEC per block.



The development fund will be distributed to ECC (7 percent of mining rewards), the Zcash Foundation (5 percent of mining reward) and an additional fund to be used for grants to support third-party Zcash efforts (8 percent of mining rewards). Grant participants will receive the largest portion of development funds which will further decentralize Zcash-related efforts. Stipulations were also introduced for formal accountability and reporting requirements of each participant.

Next steps

The Zcash trademark is stewarded by the Zcash Foundation and ECC. The agreement stipulates that neither party has independent authority to declare that a specific chain of Zcash can actually be called Zcash. There must be agreement from both parties, and neither party can unilaterally override the will of the community. Upon agreement by both parties, the next steps include:

ECC and the Zcash Foundation agree on a final ZIP (Zcash Improvement Proposal) that reflects the community’s will.

The ZIP will be codified in Network Upgrade 4 (to be named) scheduled for activation in November 2020.

The final ratification of community sentiment will happen at the time of activation, when the community opts into the network upgrade in November.

We would like to thank the Zcash community for its trust, encouragement, thoughtful engagement and for making its voice heard. We’re grateful for the opportunity to continue to focus our efforts on this important project and its potential to bring economic freedom and opportunity for all of humanity.