The fight over Zcash Community Grants’ roughly $125 million treasury intensified after Tachyon Group and Shielded Labs proposed ending ZCG's future block-subsidy funding and requiring a 50,000 ZEC donation, while keeping the grant program alive.
The Oct. 30 proposal, announced by Zcash co-founder Zooko Wilcox and authored by Sean Bowe, Wilcox, and Shielded Labs' Jason McGee, would redirect ZCG’s 8% share of block rewards into a new Future Dev and Legal Defense Fund Lockbox. Those funds would accumulate at the protocol level with no custodian or spending key until a future ZIP defines disbursements.
Under the draft, ZCG would retain its remaining treasury and continue funding community projects, but it would have to send 50,000 ZEC to a published unspendable address within 30 days of community acceptance. Based on an assumed price of $1,300 per ZEC, authors estimate the donation would be worth about $65 million, leaving roughly 41,452.98 ZEC plus dollar holdings for an estimated remaining treasury of $60.3 million. Redirecting the funding stream and incorporating donated ZEC into the Network Sustainability Mechanism would require a network upgrade after NU7.
The plan follows a heated debate over ZCG’s large treasury. ZCG had earlier proposed moving 36,200 ZEC, around $46 million, from its approximately 91,500-ZEC treasury into the Network Sustainability Mechanism. Critics including Helius co-founder Mert Mumtaz and Gemini co-founder Tyler Winklevoss argued the committee’s refund plan was insufficient and that spending should answer to ZEC holders. Others such as Dragonfly’s Haseeb Qureshi and Paradigm’s Matt Huang warned against direct token-weighted coinholder votes, favoring elected oversight instead.
Bowe said he would withdraw his earlier proposal and asked ZCG to withdraw its recent proposal, describing the new draft as a compromise after conversations with ZCG and stakeholders.
