Zcash coinholders will vote from Nov. 16‑30 on a draft ZIP that would stop the 8% block‑reward flow to the Community Grants program and move funds to a new lockbox.
Zcash’s governance process entered a critical phase on Nov. 16, when coinholders are slated to vote on a draft Zcash Improvement Proposal (ZIP) that would terminate the 8 percent portion of each block reward currently funneled to the Zcash Community Grants (ZCG) program. The proposal, merged into the project’s GitHub on Nov. 11 by ZIP editor Jack “str4d” Grigg, remains a draft and will only take effect after a network upgrade if a majority of voters endorse it.
According to Unchained, the draft ZIP would cease the direct funding of ZCG and instead route the daily 144 ZEC (the current 8 percent stream) into a newly created Future Dev and Legal Defense Fund Lockbox. The draft does not yet define how the lockbox will be spent, indicating a subsequent ZIP will be required for disbursement rules. Additionally, the proposal obliges the ZCG Committee to withdraw 50,000 ZEC from circulation within 30 days of activation and transfer it to the Network Sustainability Mechanism (NSM), which will gradually re‑inject the coins via future block rewards. The authors estimate the withdrawal represents roughly 55 percent of the existing ZCG treasury.
The move follows concerns that the rapid rise in ZEC’s price has inflated the monetary value of the ZCG treasury to unprecedented levels—about 91,453 ZEC, or roughly $8.8 million, according to the program’s dashboard on Oct. 26, while the program still owes about $2.4 million in committed grants. ZCG had previously proposed a tapering of its share and a partial transfer to the NSM on Nov. 2, but the community’s debate over governance mechanisms prompted the current ZIP draft. The five groups that manage Zcash’s coinholder voting—Project Tachyon, Shielded Labs, Valar Group, the Zcash Foundation, and ZODL—set an expedited voting window, citing heightened tensions.
If the poll results show rough consensus, the five voting bodies have pledged to back Network Upgrade 7.1, which would implement the chosen proposal. Engineering teams and miners are expected to coordinate on a target date for the upgrade. A competing draft, the Zcash Adoption Pool (ZAP) proposal, also remains open and would retain the grant’s share under a new name, potentially splitting community support. Observers will be monitoring the vote outcome, the subsequent upgrade timeline, and any further ZIP submissions that define the lockbox’s disbursement rules.
Coinholders can cast votes from 00:00 UTC on Nov. 16 until 23:59 UTC on Nov. 30, 2026.
The 8 percent block‑reward stream would be redirected to a Future Dev and Legal Defense Fund Lockbox, and 50,000 ZEC would be moved to the Network Sustainability Mechanism pending Network Upgrade 7.1.
Yes, a separate Zcash Adoption Pool (ZAP) draft remains open, which would keep the grant’s share under a different structure.
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