Zcash Holders Approve $8.39M in Retroactive Grants

Zcash holders have approved $8.39 million in retroactive grants for completed work, including a significant portion tied to the researcher who uncovered the critical Orchard vulnerability during an AI-assisted security audit.

The largest single grant of $1.5 million was awarded to Taylor Hornby for his discovery of the bug, which could have allowed an attacker to create counterfeit ZEC inside the shielded pool without leaving a clear onchain trace.

Hornby immediately disclosed the issue to Zcash Open Development Lab engineers, who coordinated an emergency response with developers, miners, exchanges, and infrastructure providers.