I have read this whole thread and I now understand that I have been poorly treated by the ZCash team.
I naively thought that the Founder’s Reward would be used to fund development and marketing. This is not really what happened. The majority of the $250m raised has gone straight into the pockets of Zooko and 44 other individuals.
The excessive cash extraction by the founders has resulted in a death spiral. With so little money for development and marketing Zcash has progressed too slowly to compete with other coins. It is rational to assume that as insiders who are fully aware of this situation that the founders have been selling Zcash into the market which has been driving the price down. The person who gains most from this arrangement is Zooko who, to add insult to injury is now working on other project.
The Founder’s Reward is now coming to an end so the team has said that unless we find away to to continue to fund their under-performance they will go and work on other projects.
What should be done?
The fact that something is legal and transparent does not make it right. I am convinced that the original intentions of the Founder’s Reward were honourable. Unfortunately events conspired to make it a mechanism for transferring vast amounts of wealth from the many to the few.
It is for the 44 individuals who have benefited from the Founder’s Reward to commit to funding ZCash through to stability. It is likely that some - will take the money and run. The project will be better off without them. Those that stay will deserve our long-term support and respect.
Edited for tone 21/07/2019 after being flagged. Please see my next post for the facts that I used to support this analysis