Zcash (ZEC) Holders to Vote Nov. 16 on Removing 50,000 ZEC From Grants Treasury

Zcash Holders Vote From Nov. 16

Zcash (ZEC) holders and community panels will vote from Nov. 16 through Nov. 30 on a draft proposal that would remove 50,000 ZEC from the network's grants treasury. The removal equals about 55% of the 91,453 ZEC recorded in an October treasury snapshot cited by the text, and polls for coinholders and panels run for two full weeks. Co-founders Sean Bowe and Zooko Wilcox, working with Jason McGee, wrote the draft Zcash Improvement Proposal, which was merged into the specifications repository on Wednesday. Zcash Community Grants (ZCG) draws on that treasury to pay independent developers, wallet builders and community projects across the layer-1 network.

If the plan clears a network upgrade, ZCG would have 30 days to take the coins out of circulation. Their value would be credited to the Network Sustainability Mechanism, a reserve activated under the recent NU7 upgrade that returns ZEC gradually through future block rewards, so the removal differs from a permanent burn. The same draft stops ZCG's 8% share of newly created ZEC and accumulates that allocation in a new Future Dev and Legal Defense Fund until the next halving, while the separate 12% Coinholder-Controlled Fund stays untouched. Nobody can spend from the new fund at first, and a separate proposal must set how withdrawals work. The vote lands after a 147% year-to-date rally in the Zcash price left the committee's holdings worth far more than at accumulation.

Draft ZIP Still Carries No Number

The arithmetic behind the vote rests on that rally. Using the October snapshot, an assumed ZEC price of $1,300 and spending from the first half of 2026, the draft estimates ZCG can cover about 13 years of expenses with its current holdings. Removing 50,000 ZEC would cut that runway to roughly six years under the same assumptions. Market data shows the rally drew elevated trading volume, and new funding kept arriving while existing coins appreciated, prompting calls across the wider Zcash ecosystem to stop adding to a treasury already sized for years of grants.

The document is not the committee's first attempt. ZCG earlier proposed gradually reducing its funding and redirecting about 98,000 ZEC from existing assets and future income toward mining rewards, a plan it withdrew on Nov. 3 after criticism. That outline covered roughly 36,200 ZEC from current holdings and about 62,000 ZEC from future receipts. The replacement narrows the scope to 50,000 ZEC from existing coins plus the redirection of future issuance, a compromise supporters frame as keeping the grants program alive while building a separate development and legal-defense reserve. Opposition wants more time. Some forum participants have called for a three-month deliberation period, argued the 50,000 ZEC figure lacks sufficient justification, and questioned whether ending ZCG's 8% allocation while preserving the 12% coinholder fund strikes a fair balance. The draft still carries no ZIP number, no reference implementation and no activation height, and merging it into the repository means neither a vote nor a network change. It is also the second significant draft ZIP before the community this month, following a separate proposal to cut block times to 20 seconds. The forum's schedule post puts the close at 23:59 UTC on Nov. 30, with poll questions and answer options required to clear open discussion before voting starts.

Consensus Call Follows the Polls

This is a governance ballot with the record still open: the merge only tables the text, and the binding event arrives after polls close on Nov. 30, when organizers publish results and judge whether “rough consensus” exists. The structure splits the treasury question in two. ZCG would keep about 41,000 ZEC and continue awarding grants for an estimated six years, while mining rewards absorb the removed value and the redirected 8% accrues in a fund nobody can touch yet. Deferring withdrawal rules to a follow-up ZIP means approval alone creates a reserve without a spending process, and among altcoin governance ballots this quarter this one carries unusually long lead times. The last gate remains a network upgrade that engineering teams and miners must adopt, with no activation height set; until that software lands across the network, the treasury stands exactly as filed.