Grabbed by the Zhort and Curlies
It’s finally happened. The developers are revolting. No, not that kind of revolting — namely the 30-something, fedora-toting neck beard many people think of when the words ‘computer whizz’ are bandied around — more the French and Russian consideration of the word.
A programmer decided to, for want of a better word, racketeer when all seemed rosy in the world of Z-Cash’s anticipated Overwinter hard fork. Mere days before completion, the sole maintainer of Z-Cash’s window wallet, D. Jane Mercer decided he was fed up of working for free. So, he threatened to launch a rebranded competitor. His beef came from the fact the donations and payments for his work had dried up in recent months.
This sent the Z-cash community into meltdown. The Overwinter upgrade was a pre-cursor to another hard fork, Sapling, in October. Had Mercer taken the threatened leave of absence from the Z-cash project, this would have left all Windows wallets no longer viable after Sapling. It should be noted that the Windows variant is the most popular wallet variant for Z-cash.
Fortunately, the community rallied, and was subsequently joined by the Z-cash foundation, and Mercer was paid in excess of $15k in a matter of days. This appears to have placated him.
For now.
A Timely Reminder
It should be noted by all projects in the crypto-market that they are only as strong as their weakest link. There is a lot of money washing around the industry at the moment. Anyone working on a currency or token should be able to expect reasonable payment for their efforts on a successful project. In the case of Z-cash, with a centralised foundation, the fact that one of their own was struggling and yet soldiering on should be a massive blow to their pride. That it took a potential revolt to highlight it should make them hang their heads in shame.
Hopefully, this will act as a timely reminder for other projects in the space that a team’s efforts should come with remuneration and a definite consideration of their wellbeing if a central foundation exists to police such matters.
