Zcash co-founder Sean Bowe has called for an end to the automatic funding of the Zcash Community Grants (ZCG) program, arguing that its treasury is sufficiently large to sustain operations without further allocations. In a post on X, Bowe stated that ZCG currently holds over $125 million in funding and will receive additional millions before the current funding stream is halted. He emphasized that the program was not designed to manage such a substantial amount of capital.
Bowe proposed a draft GitHub plan to redirect ZCG’s 8% share of the Zcash (ZEC) block subsidy to the network’s sustainability reserve, while preserving its existing funds. This reallocation would continue until the current funding period concludes in 2028. The Network Sustainability Mechanism is intended to hold ZEC out of circulation and gradually reintroduce it through future block rewards.
In September, Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly, suggested ending the Zcash developer fund when its current funding period expires, citing concerns that it could become politicized as its value approaches $100 million. ZCG’s dashboard reported 91,453 ZEC and $8.8 million in cash as of Wednesday, with $2.4 million in outstanding grant commitments. The ZEC holdings alone were valued at approximately $111 million at press time.
The network’s separate development lockbox contained 72,351 ZEC, worth roughly $89 million, according to ZecStats.