Coinholder retro grant rounds
The Coinholder-Directed Retroactive Grants Program (ZIP 1016) pays for work that is already done. It runs in quarterly rounds administered by the Financial Privacy Foundation, and ZEC holders decide by shielded vote. Dates below come from FPF's forum announcements.
Current round
Before you submit
- Completed, verifiable work only
Planned or partially completed work is not eligible. Intended users (or their representatives) confirm the outputs before the proposal goes on the ballot. Planned work belongs in a ZCG application.
- Two places: GitHub + forum
Fill the FPF GitHub template, then paste it into a new thread in the Community Grants › Retroactive Grants forum category so people can review it.
- Show evidence and usage
Link repos, releases, deployments, and real usage numbers. Coinholders vote on demonstrated impact, and rejections usually come without written reasons.
- KYC above $50,000
Requests above the threshold require KYC with FPF before payout.
- Valued in USD, paid in shielded ZEC
The ZEC amount is set by the ZEC/USD rate at the time of payment.
- Open-source hygiene
New open-source software needs a CONTRIBUTING.md modeled on librustzcash; contributions to existing Zcash code follow that project's merge, branch, PR and commit rules. Disclose conflicts of interest.
- Be present during review
Answer questions in your forum thread during the mandatory 30-day review period.
- Your ballot text is frozen
Voters see the application as submitted, and it can't be edited once voting opens. Put final, current numbers in it before the review period ends.
- How a vote passes
At least 420,000 ZEC must be voted on the proposal (any answer), and a simple majority of that must be Approve. Each proposal is voted on independently.
Organizer announcements
Loading forum posts… or browse the forum category.
Past rounds
| Round | On ballot | Funded | Rejected | Requested | Funded (USD) | Funded by value |
|---|
Counts come from FPF's GitHub labels. USD amounts are parsed from each application, so they can differ slightly from FPF's published totals. Q2 2026 was postponed and its submissions were voted on in Q3.
How to vote (ZEC holders)
- Hold shielded ZEC in a wallet that supports voting before the eligibility snapshot. Recent polls have run in Zodl (including Keystone through Zodl), Zkool and Vizor. Each round's announcement gives the snapshot and which funds count.
- Vote during the voting window from your wallet's voting section. Each proposal is a separate question; either "Reject" option counts as a no.
- Every answer counts toward quorum. A proposal needs 420,000 ZEC voted on it (any answer) before a simple majority of Approve can pass it, so abstaining still helps a vote count.
- Your vote stays private. Votes are encrypted; the published tallies can be checked independently.
Learn from past votes
Coinholder rejections don't come with written reasons. The shape of the vote is the best signal: a low Accept share with little "lower amount" support usually means the project wasn't backed at all, while a large "lower amount" share points to pricing.