Apology to members of the Zcash community for some recent posts
I would like to apologize to our team at ECC, to the members of the boards of the Bootstrap Project and the Zcash Foundation, and to Shawn/mineZcash, and to the folks at the Zcash Foundation, and also to the larger Zcash community, for the way in which I publicly escalated a series of concerns I had, starting two months ago.
The things I posted during this period were all sincerely held and well-intentioned, but I was upset and acting in haste, I let my ego get involved, and I seriously erred by taking my concerns public and naming names — bypassing not only our own team, but our allies in the Bootstrap Board of Directors, and the Zcash Foundation. Since I went off on my own initiative and didn’t give these many excellent people a chance to weigh in, I missed a chance to make the conversation a lot more constructive for everyone involved, especially the Zcash stakeholders.
The way I did it instead made it personal and escalatory, causing the arguments to spiral into adjacent topics. Some of the things I posted were widely misunderstood, potentially causing harm. I unnecessarily hurt people’s feelings, including those beyond the direct conversation. Overall, the way I did this had many negative results. One of which — especially painful to me — is that it caused a number of people that I respect to lose trust in me.
I regret these actions and wish I could have a do-over. It was not my finest hour and I want to say to you all that I’m still learning. Going forward, I’ve committed to the Board of the Bootstrap Project and to the Board of the Zcash Foundation that I’ll work with them directly on addressing any concerns that are personal, while still honoring the right of the larger Zcash community to have visibility into and power within Zcash governance processes.
Finally, the fate of Zcash rests with a lot more people than just me. One positive consequence of this episode is that the Zcash Foundation and Bootstrap board members are communicating more and in new ways. I think this will be very positive long-term for our shared mission of freedom for all humans and for future generations, and I will do my part to support the relationship moving forward in a healthy and positive direction.