Image credit: Shutterstock
- Zcash holders approved about $8.39 million in retroactive grants for completed ecosystem work in the third-quarter voting round.
- Taylor Hornby received $1.5 million across two grants for discovering a critical counterfeiting vulnerability in Zcash’s Orchard shielded pool.
- Approved grant recipients must still complete administrative and compliance requirements before funds are distributed.
Zcash holders have approved about $8.39 million in retroactive grants for completed ecosystem work, including security research, protocol development and the discovery of a critical Orchard vulnerability.
Seventeen of 37 proposals received funding in the third-quarter Coinholder-Directed Retroactive Grants round, with some of the largest awards going to vulnerability research and core protocol work.
Orchard Vulnerability Researcher Receives $1.5M
Two approved $750,000 grants went to Taylor Hornby for discovering a counterfeiting vulnerability in Zcash’s Orchard shielded pool. One covered the original bug bounty, while the second added a bonus grant, bringing the total award to $1.5 million.
Hornby discovered the flaw on May 29 while reviewing Orchard using traditional security methods and an AI model. The vulnerability could have allowed counterfeit ZEC to be created inside the shielded pool.
Developers coordinated an emergency response, and later analysis found no evidence that unauthorized coins had been created.
ZODL and Ironwood Work Receive More Than $3M
Coinholders approved $1.95 million for Zcash Open Development Lab’s core protocol work and about $1.2 million for ValarGroup’s work on Ironwood. Another $738,942 was approved for formal verification of the Ironwood zk-SNARK circuit, while $599,000 covered an external audit.
Additional grants went to research and fixes involving Zebra consensus vulnerabilities and other security issues across the Zcash ecosystem. The retroactive program rewards work after it has already been completed. Approved recipients must still complete administrative and compliance requirements before funds are distributed.
2.18M ZEC Participates in Largest Grant Vote
The largest proposal vote involved about 2.18 million ZEC, equal to roughly 10.4% of Zcash’s fixed 21 million coin supply.
Under the program rules, a proposal needs at least 420,000 ZEC in participation and a simple majority of non-abstaining votes to qualify for funding.
The next retroactive grant round opens for proposals on Oct. 30, with coinholder voting scheduled for December.
