About the Zcash Foundation

The Zcash Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit focused on financial privacy, funded by our generous donors. We build and support privacy infrastructure for the public good, primarily serving users of the Zcash protocol and blockchain.

Mission

The Zcash Foundation is a public charity that builds and supports privacy infrastructure for the public good. We work on strengthening financial privacy with technology, focused on the Zcash protocol and blockchain.

Our goal at ZF is to create tools that help sustain open networks, enabling anyone and everyone to protect their own privacy on their own terms. The essence of privacy itself is being able to choose what is or isn’t shared with others. Privacy comprises both autonomy and consent; it is essential to human dignity and the healthy continuation of civil society.

Programs

ZF programs fall into two categories, comprising both in-house efforts and external collaboration: (1) research and development, (2) community and governance.

Research and Development

Community and Governance

Values and Goals

Values

  • Transparency. We are committed to accountability. Our policies, significant decisions and their rationale, and software shall all be publicly visible. We will strive to accurately and accessibly communicate the security properties of Zcash and of proposed changes.

  • Inclusivity. The Zcash ecosystem consists of many subcommunities, such as end-users, developers, miners, exchanges, traders and researchers, in many countries and cultures. They should all be given a voice within the Zcash community and the Foundation’s deliberations.

  • Humility. Mutual kindness, integrity, and respect are necessary for productive collaboration. We debate ideas productively assuming good faith, we are open to appropriate feedback, and we maintain intellectual honesty without hostility.

Goals

  • Privacy. The essence of privacy is being able to choose what is or isn’t shared with others. To help protect that freedom of choice, the Foundation will not seek or hold privileged information beyond what is observable by anyone from public blockchains or equivalent outside disclosures. We will never knowingly facilitate or assist in surveillance, through a cryptographic “backdoor” or any other method.

  • Decentralization. We will strive to encourage decentralization of the protocols and networks that we support, avoiding the placement of trust or granting of capabilities to any single party (assigned or emergent). The Foundation will not seek to place itself in a position of control over the Zcash community. Whenever current technology does not achieve perfect decentralization, we will seek to minimize, monitor, and mitigate centralization.

  • Innovation. The Foundation shall support research and development to improve Zcash and other financial privacy infrastructure. It will strive to incorporate such progress into the Zcash protocol and software, while mindful of stability and security.

  • Cooperation with other cryptocurrencies. No “coin” is an island unto itself, and the success and acceptance of cryptocurrencies are intertwined. We will strive to collaborate with other cryptocurrencies’ communities in areas of mutual interest.

The Zcash Foundation is a nonprofit organization registered in the state of Delaware.

Incorporation Documents

Financial Documents

Contracts

Miscellaneous

Zcash Foundation Team

Board of Directors

  • Andrew Miller (chair and treasurer)
    • Assistant professor in the electrical and computer engineering department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and an associate director of the Initiative for Cryptocurrencies and Contracts.
  • Peter Van Valkenburgh
    • Director of research at Coin Center, a nonprofit organization focused on research, education, and advocacy on the intersection of policy and cryptocurrencies.
  • Matthew Green
    • Associate professor of Computer Science at Johns Hopkins University, and one of the authors of the original Zerocash research paper.
  • Amber Baldet
    • CEO of Clovyr, former J.P. Morgan blockchain program lead, and co-creator of a zero-knowledge settlement layer for enterprise Ethereum.
  • Ian Miers
    • Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of Maryland and one of the co-creators of Zcash.
  • Jack Gavigan
    • Executive Director of Zcash Foundation.

Alumni

Employees

Alumni

Contact

If you have any questions about Zcash or the Foundation’s work, please email contact@zfnd.org. We’re happy to offer feedback and guidance on grant project ideas!

We’re also happy to advise companies that want to support Zcash shielded addresses. However, the Zcash Foundation does not engage in unsolicited commercial partnerships or co-promotion.