Zcash Holders Vote on 50,000 ZEC From Grants Treasury
The Zcash community is voting on moving 50,000 ZEC out of the grants treasury. The proposal also affects funding for wallets, development, and legal support within the network.
Key Takeaways
- Zcash holders will vote from November 16 through November 30 on removing 50,000 ZEC from the grants treasury.
- If approved, the value will flow back to the Network Sustainability Mechanism through future mining rewards.
- The proposal partly replaces ZCG funding with a new Future Dev and Legal Defense Fund until the next halving.
Zcash holders will vote next week on a plan to remove 50,000 ZEC from the network’s grants treasury and send the value back through future mining rewards. The proposal comes at a time when debate over funding for development, wallets, and legal support within Zcash is heating up again.
Voting Round Starts on November 16
The draft Zcash Improvement Proposal was submitted by co-founders Sean Bowe and Zooko Wilcox, along with Jason McGee. Polls open for coin holders and community panels on November 16, and they run through November 30.
The proposed removal of 50,000 ZEC is about 55% of the 91,453 ZEC in an October treasury snapshot, according to the draft. Zcash Community Grants, or ZCG, uses that reserve to fund developers, wallet builders, and community projects. The organization was originally set up to support independent teams in the Zcash ecosystem with 8% of the block rewards.
What Happens to the Rewards
If the plan is approved and later activated in a network upgrade, ZCG must take the coins out of circulation within 30 days. Their value would then be credited to the Network Sustainability Mechanism, a reserve that was activated under the recent NU7 upgrade and gradually returns ZEC through future block rewards.
In addition, ZCG would no longer receive the current 8% of newly created ZEC. That share would instead go to a new Future Dev and Legal Defense Fund until Zcash’s next halving. In the first phase, no one can withdraw money from that fund; a separate proposal would still be needed for that later. ZCG would keep its remaining treasury and continue handing out grants, while the separate Coinholder-Controlled Fund of 12% would remain unchanged.
Why This Matters
The debate shows how hard it is to keep a development fund in step with a sharply changing price. According to the draft, with the October snapshot, an approved ZEC price of $1,300 (€1,170), and spending from the first half of 2026, ZCG could still cover about 13 years of costs. Without the 50,000 ZEC, that would be about six years under the same assumptions.
The background makes the vote even more important. Earlier, ZCG had already proposed gradually reducing funding and directing about 98,000 ZEC from existing assets and future income toward mining rewards, but that plan was withdrawn on November 3 after criticism. The new version now has to show whether there is enough support for a revised approach within the network’s governance.