Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly, proposes ending the Zcash development fund by its scheduled expiration in November 2028. He argues that the protocol should reach a state of solidification, functioning primarily as a store of value similar to Bitcoin, rather than an evolving platform.
The current funding model allocates 8% of revenue to Zcash Community Grants and 12% to a lockbox. With the fund's value exceeding $95 million, Qureshi warns that reaching $100 million could lead to the politicization of technical decisions. He advocates for committee oversight over direct coinholder voting to ensure stability.
Qureshi identified three technical priorities for completion before the fund closes: the Tachyon performance upgrade, quantum resistance, and formal verification methods to counter AI-driven threats. He estimates these tasks require one to two years of focused development.
Dragonfly holds ZEC and Qureshi is an investor in the Zcash Open Development Lab (ZODL). ZODL, which is privately funded and independent of the Zcash development fund, raised $25 million in a seed round in March 2026 from investors including Paradigm, a16z crypto, and Coinbase Ventures.
The future of the funding model is expected to be a central topic at the Zcon7 conference in October 2026. Qureshi suggests that establishing 2028 as a firm deadline will prevent the entrenchment of actors within the funding apparatus and provide clarity on the network's long-term trajectory.
