I had other questions come up when I was researching for my Independence post*, which concluded:
One question was: what other Zcash ecosystem organizations might be involved?
Because the answers are less certain, it’s important to acknowledge up front that they should be considered with a different weight: some things here are curious, or what I think are worthy of examination, not definitive evidence.
While the above quoted post established and documented the direct pipeline of capital from the same cryptocurrency billionaires who are USA MAGA (Trump) political megadonors and their circle to leading Zcash development organizations, an expanded examination showed a another tier of organizations operating more peripherally, that cannot currently be completely ruled out as being part of the same pattern.
These organizations fall into two categories.
First, Project Tachyon and Valar Group posted last month (June 2026) that they are funded through private donations, and recently reiterated while announcing the 1.0.0 release of full node Zakura. While Tachyon previously simply said they were not accepting donations, these new comments underline that there is a funding stream.
I recognize that private payments are a feature, and not a bug with Zcash. I personally don’t want to de-anonymize people. I also wonder if anonymous donors is a good pattern when important organizations accept significant money, effectively making invisible any influence that might exist beyond that of the organization or the developers’ own motivations.
Tachyon and Valar are led by @ebfull and @ValarDragon respectively.
Because these projects actively accept private capital from anonymous donors, there is no evidence to contradict (or support) the hypothesis the funding sources are the same as ZODL and Shielded Labs (SL), but it is plausible that the private donations sustaining Tachyon and Valar originate from the same circle.
For myself, I strongly doubt there are a large number of small donors.
In a second category, ZingoLabs (ZL). If I understand, ZL gets nearly all of its funding from Zcash Community Grants (ZCG).† Zaino, part of the ‘Z3’ stack, which I worked on, was supported by these funds. However, it has also worked closely with SL in recent months, see crosslink-mobile-client and a ZCG proposal**. In the past it has also been, at minimum, very receptive to feedback and guidance from ECC/ZODL.
Of course working together for Z3, some close coordination is expected. I do not wish to question every priority within this organization. I’ve seen it work from the inside - I believe they (as generally as can be said) want to see Zcash succeed and do not hold perspectives aligning with authoritarian values.
Nevertheless, by collaborating with the explicitly Winklevoss-funded Shielded Labs, ZL could be seen as a force multiplier for the their vision and goals, even if its own balance sheet (including funds from ZCG) remains private.
Without (wrongly) naming a leader, Zingo Labs involves @zancas @oscar-pepper @idky137 @Juanky @dorianvp @AloeareV, among others. Until a few months ago, also myself, @aaal.
I do not know the specifics of how funding, labor, and effort on various projects was managed beyond my own. I do not believe there is a public record besides what has been discussed here on the forums with various ZCG and coinholder grants threads.
The gathered facts above show now nearly all the leading organizations in Zcash are either explicitly funded by ultra-wealthy MAGA megadonors, directly support the efforts of those organizations, or are funded from unknown contributors.
I think this is notable. Until fairly recently, there was a different pattern in place.
Importantly, with the launching of Zakura‡ , there will be a complete pipeline for Zcash (from full node, through ‘indexer’ middleware, to light wallets) that can bypass input from organizations that do not fit into the pattern outlined above.
Let me repeat: the Zcash chain appears that it can now run entirely without input from independent organizations. That is to say, I believe the Zcash Foundation is in a position, now, to be cut out of a decisive role in guiding the future of Zcash.††
Please, correct me if I’m wrong.
I would like to see more transparency over funding, especially due to the influence on the direction and priorities of the foremost forces now sheparding the chain: I think it would be healthy for the project overall.
This ties into the second wave cypherpunk ideal of privacy for the weak, and transparency for the strong. But more on that later.
Who will shape the future?
*No one has contradicted or questioned a single fact in this post.
†Yes, even given the family relationship between prominent ZL members and SL employees.
**ZCG is facing active erosion as well, as a ZODL employee now holds a voting role. ZCG of course decides what independent efforts are funded and which are denied funding. The ZL proposal referred to is from over a year ago, mentioning Crosslink integration.
‡To stand with the Zcash Foundation’s reference implementation full node Zebra.
††ZF is the last large independent organization, who nobly say the “Zcash protocol belongs to its community, and it evolves through the open ZIP process — not through any one implementation, organization, or entity.”