Zcash Co-founder Proposes Halting Automatic Funding to Community Grants Amid Treasury Surplus
Sean Bowe, the co-founder of Zcash, suggested stopping the automatic funding of Zcash Community Grants (ZCG), arguing that the fund’s treasury currently holds enough assets to support projects without continuing automatic disbursements.
Proposal to Pause Zcash Community Grants Automatic Payments
Bowe highlighted on X this Tuesday that ZCG has secured over $125 million, with additional millions expected before the funding halt takes effect. He noted that the initiative was never intended to handle funding at this magnitude.
Bowe released a draft proposal on GitHub recommending rerouting the 8% portion of the Zcash (ZEC) block subsidy allocated to ZCG to the network’s sustainability reserve, while leaving existing grant funds intact.
This reallocation would continue flowing to the Network Sustainability Mechanism until the current funding cycle ends in 2028. This mechanism aims to lock ZEC tokens out of circulation and gradually reintroduce them through upcoming block rewards.
In a related suggestion last September, Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at crypto venture firm Dragonfly, advised ending the Zcash developer fund after the current period, expressing concerns that a nearly $100 million fund might become politicized.
As of Wednesday, ZCG’s dashboard showed holdings of 91,453 ZEC and $8.8 million in cash, with pending grant obligations totaling $2.4 million. The ZEC alone was valued roughly at $111 million at that time.
A separate development reserve held 72,351 ZEC – approximately $89 million in value – according to ZecStats data.
Why it matters
This move is significant because it addresses the sustainability and governance of Zcash’s funding mechanisms, aiming to prevent excessive accumulation and potential politicization of grant funds.
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