Zcash's $95M dev fund has two VCs fighting over who gets to hold the bag

Dragonfly Capital managing partner Haseeb Qureshi is calling for Zcash's developer fund to wind down when its current mandate expires in 2028, arguing the war chest is already large enough to finish the protocol's remaining work before the balance becomes a magnet for governance fights. "I'm of the opinion that this should be the final Dev Fund," Qureshi wrote in a Friday X post, adding that the fund "risks being 'politicized'" as it approaches $100 million in value.

The Zcash development fund held 63,962 ZEC tokens at press time, worth roughly $95 million, according to ZecStats. Under the NU6 upgrade, the fund accrues 0.1875 ZEC per block, equal to 12% of the block subsidy, with balances parked outside circulation until governance disburses them.

Not everyone agrees it should sunset. Paradigm founder Matt Huang said in a Wednesday X post that the fund is particularly important "in this age of AI cyber capabilities" and amid rapid quantum progress, and he backed a hybrid governance model that blends temporary token-holder-elected councils with other forms of oversight. Qureshi likewise said control should not migrate to "pure token holder voting," citing the "unpredictability that could limit long-term trust as a monetary asset."

Winklevoss Capital investment analyst Maxime Desalle went further in a Thursday X post, urging the Zcash community to "completely get rid" of the development fund and resolve the dispute by abolishing it. He previously argued on Sept. 9 that the fund may weaken Zcash's security while recreating the dependencies and bureaucracies associated with large welfare states. Zcash founder Zooko Wilcox, responding in a Sept. 1 X post, credited the Zcash Community Grants Committee as one of the main reasons Zcash "has survived and grown to where it is today," clarifying on Sept. 14 that the committee accounts for just 40% of the development fund.

The dispute lands as Zcash holders weigh other protocol changes, including a recent vote in favor of 25-second blocks and a decision to keep ZEC's halving schedule intact.