Dragonfly's Qureshi calls for stopping Zcash development funds after 2028

Dragonfly partners call for termination of Zcash development funds after 2028

Dragonfly managing partner Haseeb Qureshi urged the Zcash community to phase out development funds for the agreement after current rules expire in 2028. He argued that given that the fund is large enough to cover remaining work and is increasingly at risk of being "politicized" as its value approaches the $100 million mark.

The proposal comes amid a broader debate within Zcash over how (and whether) to control development funds. As the price of ZEC tokens rose, the value of the fund climbed, making the issue even more intense. As of press time, ZecStats data shows that the fund holds 63,962 Zcash (ZEC) tokens worth approximately US$95 million.

Core Points

Haseeb Qureshi's view: He believes that the Zcash Development Fund should be regarded as the ultimate "development fund" and will cease operations after it expires in 2028.

Status of funds: According to ZecStats data, the fund has a balance of approximately US$95 million, and these assets will not participate in market circulation until the governance body approves the release.

Supporters 'Position: Supporters believe that the fund is crucial to maintaining continued technological development in the face of rapidly evolving threats, including artificial intelligence and quantum computing risks.

Governance differences: The community is not only divided on whether the fund should continue to exist, but also divided on the issue of ownership of control: one side advocates a shift to a token-holder voting mechanism, the other has reservations.

Opponents 'view: Critics, including Maxime Desalle, believe that terminating the fund would eliminate governance disputes and circumvent potential security or dependence risks.

Why Qureshi advocates ending development funds in 2028

Qureshi set out his position in an article published on Platform X on Friday, focusing on timing, scale and governance risks. He said the current development fund should be the last because under existing rules, it has enough funds to support the remaining Zcash development work before it expires in 2028.

However, in his view, the larger the fund, the easier it is to be involved in political dynamics rather than purely technical decisions. This concern is particularly significant as the fund's value approaches the $100 million threshold. According to the latest balances reported by ZecStats, this trend is intensifying.

The core question for investors and developers is whether a large, semi-autonomous treasury mechanism can improve development continuity or cause governance frictions that delay priorities or erode long-term consensus.

Operation Mechanism of Zcash Development Fund

The ZEC Development Fund is designed as a protocol development allocation mechanism, and each block generated will accumulate 0.1875 ZECs. In the NU6 upgrade, this amount accounts for 12% of the block subsidy. The fund's positions remain outside of normal token circulation and can only be used after authorization from the governance process.

由于该基金内置于协议的区块补贴经济学中，其规模并非单纯依靠社区募资——只要区块持续生产，基金规模便会自然扩大，直到规则过期。这一结构性特征也是当前辩论加剧的原因：ZEC价格上涨增加了锁定资产的美元价值，而未改变持有的代币数量。

治理之争：代币投票与混合委员会

除了终止时机外，Qureshi还挑战了基金的治理方式。他认为控制权不应完全移交给“纯代币持有者投票”，但他支持一种部分方案，即由代币持有者选举临时委员会。

Paradigm创始人Matt Huang在周三发布的X平台帖子中支持避免纯代币持有者驱动的控制权。他指出，纯粹的代币治理可能会引入“不可预测性”，并削弱市场对Zcash作为货币资产的长期信任。Huang提出的替代方案是一种混合治理模式，结合多种监督形式，而不是完全依赖基于代币权重的投票。

这些论点反映了协议国库中常见的张力：基于代币权重的系统可以将治理与市场激励对齐，但也容易受到投票行为波动的影响。相比之下，混合系统旨在稳定决策过程，同时保留社区影响力的途径。

彻底取消基金的呼声

并非所有人都同意保留该基金——即使是暂时性的。Winklevoss Capital的投资分析师Maxime Desalle在周四发布的X平台帖子中建议，Zcash社区应“彻底废除”开发基金。他将消除这一机制视为解决治理争端的直接方式。

Desalle此前曾指出，该基金可能会损害Zcash的安全性，并重现许多福利国家体系所面临的依赖关系和官僚主义。尽管他的批评侧重于治理结构，但这暗示了一个更根本的担忧：不断累积价值到锁定国库中，可能会产生俘获决策制定过程的激励，而非提高协议的韧性。

另一方面，Zcash创始人Zooko Wilcox强调了开发治理的历史作用。他在9月1日的一篇早期帖子中指出，Zcash社区赠款委员会是Zcash“得以生存并发展到今天”的主要原因。随后在9月14日，Wilcox澄清称，该委员会仅占开发基金的40%。对于试图厘清多少国库资金实际上与赠款挂钩而非其他协议相关分配的读者来说，这是一个重要细节。

Zcash持有者接下来应关注什么

目前的即时不确定性在于，Qureshi提出的“最终开发基金”框架是否会获得共鸣，以及社区最终倾向于何种治理模型来管理2028年之前的任何剩余拨款。鉴于该基金的美元价值接近1亿美元（基于ZecStats数据），治理决策可能会变得更加充满争议。因此，接下来的提案和投票结果对于任何关注Zcash长期发展路径的人来说都至关重要。