Zcash Founder Denies Circulating Supply Manipulation Claims

Zcash founder Zooko Wilcox has publicly denied allegations that the circulating supply of ZEC, the native token of the privacy-focused blockchain, had been secretly manipulated.

Wilcox addressed growing community concerns in a post on X (formerly Twitter), asserting that the token supply had not been covertly increased and that any user can independently verify the current figures.

The allegations suggested that ZEC's supply may have been tampered with, potentially undermining the token's scarcity and value. Critics claimed that verifying the true supply could take months or even years due to the complexity of the blockchain's privacy features.

However, Wilcox countered this directly, stating that anyone with a computer can verify the supply immediately. He pointed to the current ZEC supply figure of 16,848,458 as publicly verifiable data.

This incident highlights the ongoing tension between privacy features and the need for public verifiability in cryptocurrency systems.