Gray Chief Legal Officer Craig Salm announces: Zcash vulnerability is unlikely to be exploited before it is fixed.

June 5, Grayscale Chief Legal Officer Craig Salm posted on X, stating that the Zcash Orchard pool vulnerability is unlikely to be exploited before it is fixed. He emphasized that as long as someone studies the codebase more deeply than ECC, ZODL, and the Zcash core development team—and as long as they can resist the temptation of a historic bull market that is clearing out the market more than 20 times—it’s not hard to see that Zcash’s development and security community is definitely among the industry’s top tier.
(Background recap: Grayscale report: Zcash is “seriously undervalued” by the market! AI monitoring boosts privacy demand)
(Background add-on: Arthur Hayes sells out ZEC: the Holy Trinity is wiped out completely—Orchard vulnerability punctures the Zcash privacy narrative)

June 5, Grayscale Investment’s Chief Legal Officer Craig Salm posted on X, offering his views on the Zcash vulnerability incident that has recently drawn market attention. He noted that to believe the Zcash Orchard pool vulnerability would be exploited before it was fixed, two conditions must be met.

Table of Contents

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• Two premises: Someone knows Zcash better than the development team
• The industry standing of Zcash’s development community
• The potential of network upgrades

Two premises: Someone knows Zcash better than the development team

Craig Salm lists two seemingly simple yet highly persuasive premises:

First, someone has studied the Zcash codebase more deeply than Zcash’s core development team (including Electric Coin Company, Zcash Open Development Lab, Shielded Labs, Zcash Foundation, etc.).

Second, someone resisted the temptation to clear the Orchard pool and liquidate all fake ZEC during a historic bull market that was more than 20 times larger.

In my view, that’s unlikely.

The industry standing of Zcash’s development community

Craig Salm further emphasized that Zcash’s development and security community is absolutely top-tier in the industry. When it comes to addressing artificial intelligence risks, Zcash is far ahead of all other protocols.

He reminded that, considering the current pace at which models are evolving, artificial intelligence risks will eventually affect all protocols. Zcash’s developers have already planned and laid groundwork at the front end, while other protocols are still playing catch-up from behind.

The potential of network upgrades

Craig Salm also mentioned that if, in a future network upgrade, anyone can verify the completeness of Zcash’s supply and prove that there is no fake Zcash in the Orchard pool, then that would be even better.

These remarks indirectly affirm the professionalism of Zcash’s development team and help cool down the market panic that was recently sparked by Arthur Hayes liquidating his holdings.