Zcash co-founder proposes ending ZCG grants funding: 5 numbers

Zcash co-founder Sean Bowe has published a draft proposal to switch off automatic funding for Zcash Community Grants (ZCG), arguing the programme already holds enough money for years of spending, CoinDesk reported. "It's time to turn off the ZCG funding stream," Bowe wrote on X. Here are the figures behind the plan.

8% of every new block

After the NU6 and NU6.1 upgrades, Zcash block rewards are split three ways: 80% to miners, 8% to ZCG and 12% to a Coinholder-Controlled Fund, whose grants holders vote on each quarter. Bowe's draft ZIP, titled "Ending the ZCG Funding Stream in Favor of the NSM", would redirect only the 8% slice. It would go to the Network Sustainability Mechanism (NSM), a protocol reserve meant to support mining rewards as block subsidies shrink, rather than to grant recipients. Miners' share and the 12% fund stay untouched.

About $125 million already in the treasury

ZCG's dashboard showed roughly 91,453 ZEC plus $8.8 million, with $2.4 million committed to grantees. Net of those commitments, Bowe values the treasury at about $125.3 million at an illustrative $1,300 per ZEC. ZCG would keep all of it and could carry on awarding grants from that pot.

144 ZEC a day still flowing in

At the network's target pace, the 8% stream sends about 144 ZEC a day to ZCG, worth about $68 million a year at the same price, regardless of how much it already holds.

Roughly $6 million a year in spending

The Financial Privacy Foundation, which administers ZCG's funds, reported just over $1.5 million of programme expenses in the first quarter, about $6 million annualised and less than a tenth of the yearly inflow. Even at $500 per ZEC, Bowe estimates the existing treasury would cover about five years at an assumed $10 million a year. The draft itself notes the dashboard figures have not been independently reconciled.

No activation date yet

The proposal is a draft, needs a change to Zcash's consensus rules and has no activation height, so the 144 ZEC a day keeps flowing for now. It arrives as a ZCG-funded outreach grant at an adult-industry convention draws criticism, though Bowe's draft doesn't cite it. Zcash's next scheduled upgrade is covered in our NU7 explainer; for why miners' rewards matter, see proof of work vs proof of stake and what a mining pool is.