Mining

Zcash Co-Founders Clash Over Proposal to Redirect $125M Community Grants Funding Stream

On October 27, 2026, Zcash co-founder Sean Bowe published a draft ZIP proposing to disable the 8% block subsidy stream to the Zcash Community Grants program and redirect it to the Network Sustainability Mechanism, while Josh Swihart publicly rejected the partial approach. The dispute is driven by ZCG's accumulated treasury of roughly 91,453 ZEC and $8.8M in cash, which Bowe argues exceeds the program's operational needs for over a decade ahead of the network's next halving. The proposal remains a draft with no activation timeline, and the outcome will likely shape whether Zcash moves toward full retirement of its development funding streams or retains a restructured grants mechanism.