Winklevoss Twins Urge Zcash to Scrap $125M Grants Committee

Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the Gemini founders, have called for Zcash to dissolve its community grants committee and hand spending decisions directly to ZEC holders, Blockonomi reported. The demand landed as Zcash cofounder Sean Bowe pegged the committee’s treasury at more than $125 million. crypto.news likewise reported that the dispute has grown over the size of that treasury.

Key facts

• In an October 30 post on X, Cameron Winklevoss argued that coinholder voting is simply the on-chain version of stakeholder voting long used in capital markets, and called for Zcash Community Grants (ZCG) to be discontinued.
• Tyler Winklevoss described the committee as a “slush fund with no accountability” and said its members bear no financial risk when funded projects fail.
• Under current rules, 20% of block rewards fund ecosystem development: 8% to ZCG and 12% to the Coinholder-Directed Retroactive Grants Program.
• In September, ZEC holders approved $8.39 million in retroactive funding for 17 of 37 proposals, with about 2.18 million ZEC voting, or 10.4% of the 21 million maximum supply.
• On October 27, Bowe proposed moving ZCG’s 8% share to the Network Sustainability Mechanism, honoring existing commitments first; no funding change has been approved and the shift would need a future network upgrade.

Accountability argument meets a defence of the grants model

Cameron Winklevoss wrote that Zcash should not build a new governance system from scratch. He said experimenting with governance was not part of the network’s mission, which he described as privacy, according to his October 30 post on X. Tyler, posting the same day, contrasted miners who commit capital and computing power with committee members who approve spending without comparable exposure.

Developer Vini Barbosa pushed back, arguing that community grants are a fair way to pay for work that benefits the network, much as mining rewards pay for securing it. Tyler rejected the comparison, saying block rewards come from measurable competition while grants rest on committee decisions. crypto.news reported that Tyler’s reply to Barbosa described comparing ZCG to mining as either intellectually dishonest or intellectually illiterate.

The argument follows criticism of a $550,000 outreach proposal ZCG approved in August. The ZECsy initiative covered appearances at adult industry conventions, crypto conferences and workshops for people facing banking restrictions; the committee approved roughly $461,500 for the first nine monthly milestones. Supporters said it could reach people who need financial privacy, while critics questioned whether it would produce lasting adoption.

Voting already exists alongside the committee

Zcash already runs a coinholder program for grants on completed work. crypto.news reported that it requires at least 420,000 ZEC to take part in a vote and a simple majority in favor for approval, details Blockonomi did not include. Its next round takes proposals from October 30 through November 13, with voting set for December 17 to December 29.

An October 27 report cited Grayscale research crediting Zcash’s developer funding model with supporting privacy and security upgrades over the past decade. Grayscale research head Zach Pandl identified quantum computing, transaction capacity and cybersecurity as areas needing more investment.

Tyler also argued that governance debate should not stay mainly on Zcash’s own forums, saying X is a more open venue and that people should not be blocked for questioning current arrangements.

Why it matters

The dispute tests who controls one of the larger development pools in privacy-focused crypto. Redirecting ZCG’s 8% would shift recurring block-reward income toward a protocol-level reserve, leaving the coinholder program as the main grant channel. The September retroactive vote showed holders will turn out when the mechanism asks them to, which gives the Winklevoss argument a working precedent to point at.

What to watch

The coinholder program’s proposal window closes November 13, with voting from December 17 to December 29. Any shift in ZCG’s allocation still depends on Bowe’s proposal advancing into a future network upgrade, and none has been approved.

This article is not financial advice; cryptocurrency markets are volatile and prices can fall as well as rise.

Disclaimer: This article is for information only and is not investment, financial or trading advice. Cryptocurrency prices are highly volatile. Always do your own research.

Sources: Blockonomi, crypto.news