Zcash co-founder Sean Bowe proposed on October 27, 2026, ending automatic payments to the ecosystem grant program through a public statement on X.
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
Bowe noted that the current balance contains over $125M in funding, stating the program was never structured to administer capital reserves of that magnitude.
The technical pathway was formally introduced via a draft proposal on GitHub that redirects the network’s 8% block subsidy into the sustainability reserve.
The assets would remain locked within the Network Sustainability Mechanism through 2028, returning to circulation gradually through prospective block generation rewards.
Treasury balances and development reserves
Financial metrics tracked by Zcash Community Grants listed 91,453 ZEC alongside $8.8 million in unallocated cash reserves.
The liquid ZEC balance alone represented roughly $111 million in market value at the time the submission occurred.Active commitments for approved ecosystem recipients totaled $2.4 million in grants, whereas the independent development lockbox held 72,351 ZEC according to metrics verified by ZecStats.
Governance over network treasury allocations follows earlier protocol deliberations, including when technical teams reviewed an evaluated shielded pool design for zero-knowledge transaction sets.
The proposal awaits formal review from Zcash protocol contributors and community token holders prior to any deployment into a confirmed network upgrade.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.
