Dragonfly Partner: Zcash Still Needs a Development Fund, But It Should Be Terminated After the Protocol Is Finalized

BlockBeats news, September 18: Dragonfly managing partner Haseeb Qureshi, regarding the Zcash development fund controversy, stated that the Zcash community has positioned itself as the "Bitcoin of crypto" and refuses to continue adding more features to the protocol. To become a reliable store of value asset, Zcash ultimately needs to achieve protocol ossification, but currently it still needs to advance Tachyon, quantum resistance, and comprehensive formal verification required to counter AI network attacks, so it is not yet suitable for ossification within the next one to two years.

The development fund played a necessary role during the period when private funding support for Zcash development was lacking, and under the current rules it will expire in 2028. However, as the ZEC price has risen sharply, the fund's size has expanded by an order of magnitude; once the funding scale exceeds $100 million, the fund will inevitably move toward institutionalization and face the risk of its grant-making mechanism becoming politicized.

He advocates continuing to retain the development fund for now to complete the remaining technical work before protocol ossification, but this round should be the final round of the development fund. Once Zcash meets the conditions for ossification, the fund should gradually wind down rather than continue looking for new funding projects; thereafter, development needs can, like Bitcoin, be funded spontaneously by coin holders and ecosystem supporters.

On governance, Haseeb does not support having token holders vote entirely, arguing that a store of value asset requires policy predictability, and pure token governance is too volatile. He supports limited participation by coin holders and believes that committee governance, although flawed, may be a more feasible option. Haseeb also disclosed that Dragonfly holds ZEC, and that he himself is a ZODL investor, but ZODL will not directly benefit from the development fund.