🥛 Zcash devs rage quit → $1.5B wiped 🖕

GM. This is Milk Road, the daily newsletter that turns Crypto Twitter whisperings into tangible insights (so you can get smarter about crypto).

Here’s what we’ve got for you today:

✍️ Zcash’s dev team just rage quit.
🎙️ The Milk Road Show: Why Most Ethereum Layer 2s Are About to Disappear w/ Eliezer Ndinga.
🍪 BofA is bullish on Base!

Arc is a new Layer-1 blockchain designed to support real-world economic activity and it’s now live in testnet. Dive into Arc and start experimenting.

Prices as of 2:00 p.m. ET. Trade today with Milk Road Swap.

ZCASH CORE DEVS RAGE QUIT → $1.5B OF VALUE WIPED FROM ZEC 📉

Do you have a person in your life who gets a kick out of showing a polite refusal to conform to things that others consider important?

For me, that person is my buddy Danny:

When you ask for his socials, he gives you his (still active) MySpace.
If the invite says ‘dress code formal’, he’s showing up in shorts, a t-shirt, and flip flops.
When his dad forced him to interview at a construction job, he showed up in a full tuxedo.

Point is: when everyone wants him to zig, Danny is gonna zag.

And in the crypto space, Zcash (ZEC) is ‘the Danny’.

E.g. While the total crypto market cap was busy shedding a 3rd of its value between Oct 10th and Nov 21 last year… Zcash was absolutely ripping (+145%)!

Source: TradingView

The crypto market has been relatively flat this week (there’s been no zigging for Zcash to zag against)…

So why is it that ZEC (one of the most resilient tokens in recent memory) just lost ~25% of its market cap in a 48hr period?

Source: TradingView

Simple: Zcash’s core dev team just rage quit.

Here’s how it went down and what it means for the future of Zcash…

ARC IS NOW LIVE ON TESTNET

Circle is already one of the biggest names in crypto…

But most people still haven’t heard much about Arc, the Layer-1 blockchain built by Circle.

Arc is a new Layer-1 blockchain that’s now officially live on testnet.

It’s built to bring real-world economic activity onchain. And with full Circle platform integration at its core (e.g., USDC, EURC, USYC), it’s positioned to do exactly that.

Here’s what stands out:

Low and predictable gas fees paid in stablecoins.
Instant settlement & deterministic finality.
Native FX & Privacy infrastructure.

Developers and institutions have already started testing on Arc. Now it’s your turn.

Dive into Arc and start experimenting.

ZCASH CORE DEVS RAGE QUIT → $1.5B OF VALUE WIPED FROM ZEC (P2) 📉

Indulge me for a second…

Imagine you buy a restaurant on main street with two friends (you’re the chef, they’re the operators).

The business has a shared savings account that can be spent however you guys want, as long as you all agree on the financial outlay unanimously.

Problem is: you know the kitchen’s going to need a BIG upgrade, but the other two disagree – so they refuse to sign off on the spend.

Hell, it gets so contentious that they decide they want to get rid of you.

But they know they can’t straight up oust you, so they get sneaky with it…

They restrict your shared savings fund even further – enough that you can’t buy quality ingredients, hire a kitchen crew, or even buy cleaning supplies.

And they do so in perpetuity, until you rage quit and start your own restaurant across the street.

Source: Giphy

Now, long term, this will likely be a net-good for main street shoppers (they’re about to have two new restaurants).

But in the interim (while your ex-business partners close shop and find a new chef) there’s going to be zero restaurants open.

That’s kinda like what happened with Zcash this week.

See, Zcash has a ‘Lockbox’ fund that fuels development – but it requires 3 separate entities to agree on how it’s going to be spent.

Source: @DefiIgnas

And in recent months, the core dev team’s proposed plans haven’t been agreed on unanimously, which (according to the devs) has led to them being ‘constructively discharged’ by the powers that be.

(Basically, being forced out by making the job unbearable.)

So now the core dev team is setting up their own independent shop, while the powers that be build out a new core team.

Long term, it looks like Zcash’s total dev numbers are about to grow (old core dev team, now operating independently + new core dev team).

But in the interim, while the new team is assembled and the old one goes independent – things sit in a bit of a gray area.

And that short-term uncertainty is what did the recent damage.

Either way, Zcash (mainstreet) continues to function just fine.