# Threads - Part II **URL:** \ **Category:** General\ **Created:** [September 25, 2026, 3:50am UTC](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/threads-part-ii/57800 "2026-09-25T03:50:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 8
**Author:** ![aaal](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/zcash/user_avatar/forum.zcashcommunity.com/aaal/32/36133_2.png) [@aaal](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/u/aaal)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2026, 1:12pm UTC](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/threads-part-ii/57800/8 "2026-10-10T13:12:26Z")
In a few words, my criticism of ZODL is that they took money as investment from VCs that have aligned themselves with authoritarian interests in the public (US political funding), private (financial), and technological spheres. The impact of these interests is _extremely_ wide ranging and harmful. Though Shielded Labs was the first to publicly accept _donations_, ZODL definitively tied these forces into the fabric of Zcash. They have still not publicly commented on the association and re-packaging of the project under these terms, more or less decided _exclusively_ by them. ZODL’s only indirect comment so far was essentially “you should have seen how bad it was under Biden,” as if that is sufficient justification. These interests are now much enriched by ZODL’s actions, using Zcash as the vehicle. I think it is ‘a terribly bad look’ for ZODL, and for Zcash as a whole, as their embrace of these forces has been unopposed and even unremarked upon (except by me, it seems). It’s also a strategic error which is only beginning to show itself more clearly. There’s also the whole capture question: who is really guiding this chain now? Zcash is now associated with a political, ideological group that not only condemns other groups, but works to reduce their very freedom, safety, _and_ privacy. To see Zcash riding such a dystopian wave of corruption (and the concurrent systemic violence and loss of liberties) is upsetting - and extremely disappointing. If you want more details, see some of my findings that were not in ZODL’s press releases: > [@Independence](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/independence/56545/): > > Some fun historical facts: [Crypto firms have supplied over $190 Million](https://www.axios.com/2026/01/28/crypto-coinbase-fairshake-pac) (more than one third of all corporate money) so far in the United States of America’s 2026 ‘midterm’ elections. [Leading in funding is Fairshake, a super PAC which alone has over $80 Million](https://www.reuters.com/world/crypto-firms-have-spent-189-million-so-far-2026-us-election-report-says-2026-06-30/).\* Donors include [Coinbase, Andreesson and Horowitz, and the Winklevoss twins](https://littlesis.org/org/456454-Fairshake). [Fairshake seeks to institutionalize the crypto industry](https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/15/crypto-super-pacs-war-chest-key-house-votes-00452356) as a permanent political force in the United States federal government, overtly using political spend… > [@Threads - part I](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/threads-part-i/56728): > > I had other questions come up when I was researching for my [Independence post](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/independence/56545)\*, 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… > [@Hazards - Part I](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/hazards-part-i/56815): > > A quick recap of a few weeks of posting. All this is backed by facts no one has disputed. Identifying a troubling pattern of funding in [Independence](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/independence/56545): Both Shielded Labs and ZODL, arguably the primary architects of Zcash’s future, are fueled by capital from billionaire venture capitalists who back an authoritarian regime, and hold massive direct stakes in ZEC. Finding more in [Threads - Part I](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/threads-part-i/56728): nearly all the leading organizations in Zcash are either explicitly funded by ultra-wealthy MAGA… --- _[View the full topic](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/threads-part-ii/57800)._