From CoinDesk · By Shaurya Malwa
Zcash co-founder Sean Bowe proposed ending the automatic allocation of 8% of newly created ZEC to Zcash Community Grants and redirecting it to a reserve for future mining rewards.
Bowe estimates that the grants program has about $125 million available after existing commitments, enough to fund years of spending even if ZEC’s price falls substantially.
The proposal, which would require a change to Zcash’s network rules, comes amid scrutiny of a grant for outreach at an adult-industry convention but is based on the program’s large reserves and continuing inflows.
Zcash co-founder Sean Bowe has proposed ending automatic funding for the privacy network’s community grants program, saying its treasury is now big enough to cover years of spending without any new money coming in.
His draft proposal, published late Monday, would halt auto allocation and redirect its remaining 8% share of the newly created ZEC into a reserve for future mining rewards.
The committee would keep its existing assets and continue awarding grants from them. Bowe’s calculation puts those assets, after outstanding grant commitments, at about $125 million, using an illustrative ZEC price of $1,300.
It's time to turn off the ZCG funding stream.
ZCG has over $125M in funding, and will receive millions more before the spigot is turned off. The program was never designed to handle this amount of funding.
Draft ZIP:https://t.co/GAkRBeplwO
— Sean Bowe (@ebfull) October 27, 2026
ZCG’s five-member committee, elected by a community advisory panel, selects grants without a separate coinholder vote.
A second funding program receives 12% of newly created ZEC. Holders vote quarterly on its grants, subject to participation and approval requirements.
Bowe wants to preserve that larger allocation. His proposal argues that continuing to pile funds into ZCG’s separate custody and governance arrangements adds risk when the program already has substantial reserves.
The redirected allocation would enter the Network Sustainability Mechanism, which is designed to support future mining rewards, and would remain there for the rest of the grants stream’s existing term.
The committee’s dashboard showed about 91,453 ZEC and $8.8 million, with $2.4 million committed to grantees. Bowe values the remaining balance at $125.3 million using a ZEC price of $1,300.
The automatic allocation continues regardless of how much the committee already holds. At the network’s target pace, it receives about 144 ZEC a day, worth about $68 million a year.
For comparison, the Financial Privacy Foundation, which administers ZCG’s funds, reported just over $1.5 million in program expenses for the first quarter. Annualized, that’s about $6 million, less than a tenth of the yearly inflow.