Newest article. Providing a link to bypass the pay wall. Learned a lot.
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I was disappointed with the article and thought it unnecessarily portrayed Zcash in a negative light. The author misrepresented several of my statements or took them out of context to fit his own narrative.
I want to clarify that I never said anything to suggest that I believe the “Zcash Foundation has squandered its self-funding.” The quote about the transparency reports was my response to a question about how I first became an active member of the Zcash community. At no point did I speak negatively about the Zcash Foundation in any of my interviews with Steven.
We gave Forbes the exclusive on Zooko joining Shielded Labs, and I had high hopes that the article would reflect positively on Zcash. I wanted it to demonstrate to everyone, both within and outside the Zcash community, that despite the disappointing price performance, Zcash remains a highly relevant project, supported by a vibrant community and a strong developer ecosystem—not a “Zombie Blockchain.”
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I discounted all that negative stuff but, I hear you. One can always count of the press to go negative. From my perspective, it was nice to see Zcash back in the news and the news of Zooko joining you a Shielded Labs is simply great news.
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(Not speaking on behalf of ZF. As always)
The article manages to get even the title wrong. Amazing.
There is a lot of “errors” to unpack but my first question, for @joshs , is:
Is “I was unhappy with the ZF’s inability to deliver anything. After the first six years of receiving millions of dollars in funding, they mostly delivered Zcon events” an accurate quote from you?
I’m happy to confirm that you don’t agree with that, @aquietinvestor . It would be nice to reach out to them so they can make a correction, as unlikely it seems they would do it.
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journalists always get stuff wrong. many times on purpose 
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I don’t recall my exact words.
When asked about ZF, my sentiment was that I am disappointed with how much has been delivered with the millions of dollars ZF has received since inception. I stand by that.
But iirc, I was clear that that zebrad and Frost are important contributions.
And immediately after reading the article messaged the author with:
“Yikes. The article is an ugly and slanted piece with a lot of wrong or misinformation. I had expected a reasonable and balanced take coming from you.”
It’s a hit piece. The author has an agenda.
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A mainstream media hit piece is always the perfect contrarian indicator.
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The market appears to have seen through the authors biased take on the subject…
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What a poor interpretation of Zcash!
This is a typical example of people judging a crypto project by its price and not its value.
And it is important that from the global Zcash community we continue to push and communicate the power and value of Zcash. Whether or not the price goes up will be a consequence of adoption.
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Honestly we get so hammered by the Monero community and everyone else, I was generally pleased to see Zcash in Forbes Magazine which is why I posted the article - even though there were many inaccuracies. Folks, let’s toughen up because what we’re doing is hard and I can assure you there will be many more poor interpretations ahead. Shielded Labs is a Great Leap forward and delighted to know Zooko is back in the game. Onward we go…
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I hope no one taking this article seriously. The 'journalist’ did not do basic research and wrote the piece in a decidedly negative tone. Shambolic writing. Trash.
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Putting Zcash in a major piece is still a win, and yes I agree with your points!
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“I was unhappy with the ZF’s inability to deliver anything,” says Swihart, “After the first six years of receiving millions of dollars in funding, they mostly delivered Zcon events [conferences].”
@joshs, That is incredibly disrespectful to the ZF team members, past and present, who have worked - and continue to work - on Zebra, FROST, ZCG support, and community and ecosystem support.
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Oh dear.
First things first. I didn’t call out members of your team. There is no personal attack in that quote. If a group has not delivered, accountability sits with the leader. If ECC doesn’t deliver value for the money, it’s on me. I was hired to do a job and am accountable. Same with you. Same with our respective BoDs. Real life.
I’ve repeatedly praised the ZF team for its Zcon work, and there is no doubt Zebra and FROST, when done, will provide value.
The quote was in response to questions about why I decided to leave Zcash about a year ago. It was only one of the things that I called out, which included ECC leadership (though this is all that was quoted), and its why I’ve pushed so hard for a change in the funding model. During that time, I also recommended that you step down from ZF, so nothing new as to the reasons for my departure.
On the facts, perhaps you can correct me. How many tens of millions of dollars has ZF received since its inception in 2017? In those 7 years and with the money that we ZEC holders paid, what has been delivered and what is the ROI? My take is that I don’t see the value for money, but show me the math. You are paid by ZEC holders, not out of the goodness of our hearts, but because you were hired to do a job. If I don’t see the value, I’ll speak my mind.
Admittedly, I find this note from you a little ironic, you know, glass houses and all. For example, this same article mentions your stage-rage and treatment of Zooko at ZconIV. Was that respectful of Zooko? As the leader of ZF, how have you led community engagement well?
In the end, all of us who are paid by ZEC holders are accountable to them for outcomes. Criticism and accountability comes with the job. Blunt, yes, but this is important and expensive work.
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Folks, this Forbes article is a hit piece. They have taken the words out of the interviewees to fit their agenda. The moment there is a conflict within the community, that’s when Forbes win.
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Others do.
When asked to rate Dev Fund recipients’ performance, Zcash ecosystem engineers ranked ZF top.
Those who are best qualified to judge understand the value of ZF’s work.
Zebra is the future of Zcash, and it’s already in production use. The vast majority (if not all) of Zcash light wallet users (including Zashi users) use Zebra, albeit indirectly.
FROST is equally important, removing a key obstacle to the adoption of shielded ZEC. If the community opts to implement a non-direct funding model, there’s a good chance we’ll be using FROST.
In terms of money, we’ve spent less than half what ECC has.
From the start of 2019 to the end of 2023, ECC spent over $36.6m.
ZF spent a little over $17.1m.
With that money, we’ve delivered Zebra, FROST, successfully executed four in-person and two virtual Zcons, and provided extensive support for ZCG and the broader community. ZF grants have funded important research into topics like programmability, as well as projects like ZecWallet.
However, we didn’t do it alone. ECC’s engineers possess unique knowledge and skills, and they provided essential support and guidance to ZF’s engineers in building Zebra (which itself relies on core libraries built and maintained by ECC). Both teams continue to work together (along with members of the broader ecosystem) towards zcashd deprecation, which will allow us to finally deploy ZSAs!
We’re stronger when we work together. We can achieve much more by collaborating and helping each other, than we can by working alone. Collaboration is built on trust, honesty, and mutual respect. We all have a duty to set aside our differences and work together to enable Zcash to achieve its full potential.
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What’s the point of rehashing old drama? Does one mistake justify another? I think it was regrettable, but still orders of magnitude less serious than saying ZF did mostly nothing for six years.
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Folks - can you please be a little less sensitive?
FWIW @joshs did not say ZF did nothing for six years. He said he does not believe ZF delivered adequately for the amount of the dev fund ZF received. So what? @Dodger disagrees and responded accordingly.
Agree to disagree and move on.
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As an outsider who has been a part of this ecosystem for 7 years now, all the public infighting between ECC and ZF is probably the single greatest reason why I am in favor of completely ending any semblance of a Dev Fund.
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To add a little historical tidbit, Forbes is also the publication that broke embargo on the Edward Snowden/Zcash story in 2022 as a group of us were coordinating the release of that story.
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