Filecoin Foundation and Electric Coin Co. (ECC) are working together to empower the Filecoin, Zcash, and greater Web3 ecosystems through a new agreement that creates a joint grants pool for Filecoin and Zcash projects.

This grants pool follows an announcement from September, when Filecoin Foundation and ECC, along with Protocol Labs and the Ethereum Foundation, revealed a multi-faceted collaboration focused on Halo 2, the first trustless and recursive zero-knowledge-proof cryptography, discovered by ECC’s Sean Bowe.

The grant program includes over 300,000 FIL, provided by Filecoin Foundation, and may ultimately include additional funds provided by ECC and Filecoin Foundation. Funds will be jointly administered by Filecoin Foundation and ECC.

Any proposal that leads to additional utility for both FIL and ZEC chains and their respective ecosystems would be considered, and innovation is encouraged. A few of the specific opportunities that have been discussed to date are below. Teams are welcome to build proposals based on these ideas or on other collaborations that will add utility to both the FIL and ZEC chains.

Filecoin storage payments in ZEC It would be highly beneficial to both the Filecoin and Zcash ecosystems if Filecoin storage payments could be made in ZEC, affording the same level of privacy for storage purchases that exists in Zcash shielded transfers.

Media and file support in Zcash encrypted memos and NFTs This support would add the ability to encrypt files in Filecoin storage and add support to mobile clients so that they could “attach” media or files to a Zcash encrypted memo.

Zero-knowledge virtual machine The Filecoin Virtual Machine project will be released in milestones across 2022, and ECC is interested in a general programming capability as well. Projects exploring zero-knowledge technology to improve privacy and security of virtual machine execution are of particular interest.

Teams should provide a clear outline of the scope of the work, milestones, timeframe, and funding requested. These can be in the form of a research project and associated reporting, or a project roadmap with associated outcomes and specifications.

Example of Milestones & Funding: Total Funding Amount: List the total proposed funding amount in USD. We may consider requests for funding in FIL if desired by grantee.

Milestones: Please specify 2-3 milestones for your project, with associated funding amounts.

We will prioritize teams and individuals with in-depth knowledge on blockchain infrastructure and high technical skill that want to contribute to growing the utility and incentives of the Filecoin and Zcash ecosystems.

Proposals for this RFP will be overseen by a committee consisting initially of 2 technical sponsors.

To submit a proposal, create an issue in this repository using the RFP issue template. Draft proposals for discussion are welcome and encouraged.

Proposals will be evaluated on a rolling basis through December 31, 2023. Submissions will receive a final determination within 1 month.

Note that all work funded through this RFP must be open sourced via MIT and Apache2 licenses.

For more information about the program, email ff-ecc-grants@fil.org or ff-ecc-grants@electriccoin.co.