Announcing Zcash Labs

Today we announce Zcash Labs, an independent organization focused on solving technical integration challenges for businesses and institutions interested in Zcash. We also help new projects get started through initial funding and support.

Our initial focus is Zcash blockchain integration and support for businesses and institutions, operating independent infrastructure services, and supporting new projects that expand practical Zcash use.

Technical integration for businesses and institutions

We help businesses and institutions integrate Zcash into their offerings and day-to-day operations.

Our process starts by understanding how you want to use Zcash, then identifying the best available technical solution. Where needed, we build custom solutions to solve the integration challenges in front of you.

Operating Zcash infrastructure

We operate a Shielded Vote Validator and are building privacy-preserving Zcash infrastructure, including lightwalletd and full-node instances. We also plan to make new RPC services available as that work matures.

These services are intended to give users and integrators additional, independent options for accessing the network.

Supporting adoption-focused projects

We support promising projects that expand Zcash use with initial grants, technical support, and consulting.

We welcome projects that broaden Zcash use and may offer grants, technical support, or consulting where they are a good fit.

Projects we have already supported

We have already been helping independent Zcash-focused teams move from ideation to launched products, including initial grants to help get their work off the ground.

And we are proud to announce that one of the teams is already ready, launched, and available.

zcashtocash

zcashtocash makes it easier to convert Zcash to fiat currency. It uses Peer to facilitate peer-to-peer conversions, with enclaves releasing ZEC only after the fiat payment has been verified.

The service connects Zcash with six fiat-payment apps: Venmo, Revolut, Cash App, Chime, Monzo, and Zelle. The team estimates that this makes the service available in more than 100 geographies, and it is actively working to add further apps and locations.

We are pleased to have supported the team’s launch and look forward to supporting its continued growth.

Pioneering a coinholder retroactive-grants model

Zcash Labs is not a conventional consulting firm. We are pioneering a market-driven funding model built around the coinholder retroactive-grants process. We cover the upfront costs of integrations, new projects, and infrastructure ourselves. We pay supported teams directly and fund the work before seeking to be repaid through the coinholder grants process.

During each retroactive-grants period, we plan to seek reimbursement from coinholders, plus a 20% markup to cover the financial risk we take and our operating costs. Whether to fund a request remains the coinholders’ decision.

This creates a market-driven approach to project funding: we use our judgment about what coinholders will value when deciding which costs to cover, and we take the risk that they may decide not to reimburse those costs. If we exercise poor judgment, we bear the financial consequences.

By covering costs upfront, this model reduces funding uncertainty for projects that might otherwise wait for a grant decision before beginning work. We also aim to pave the way for others to replicate the model and earn incentives in a way that is closely aligned with ZEC holders.

Our first requests in this round are relatively small. We will view their approval as a signal that coinholders support the model and encourage us to take larger bets in the future.

What is next?

We have already been operating for some time and supporting teams such as zcashtocash. We also have more projects and integrations to announce. Stay tuned on Twitter and follow our blog, where we will share these announcements in the coming weeks.

If you are a business or institution looking to explore Zcash blockchain integration, or you are a new project expanding Zcash use, reach out to us at hello@zcashlabs.org.