Zcash's Co-Founder Wants to Cut Off Its Own Grants Program

A $125 Million Question

Zcash has a funding fight brewing. Co-founder Sean Bowe proposed cutting the 8% block reward subsidy that automatically feeds the project's Community Grants program, arguing the treasury has grown way bigger than it needs to be.

The numbers back up his point, at least on the surface: the grants pool reportedly holds more than $125 million, while actual quarterly spending sits around just $1.53 million. That's a massive gap between what's coming in and what's going out.

Where Would the Money Go Instead?

Under Bowe's proposal, that 8% block subsidy wouldn't disappear — it would get redirected to the Network Sustainability Mechanism instead of piling up in a grants treasury that's already sitting on years of runway.

As you'd expect, not everyone in the Zcash community agrees. Grant recipients and supporters of the current system argue predictable funding matters more than treasury size. Expect this debate over ZEC's token issuance to run for a while yet.