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<p>Zcash is coming under fresh scrutiny after Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin urged the project to avoid adopting token-based governance, a model he believes would weaken Zcash’s core mission of protecting privacy.</p>
<p>His comments arrive at a time when ZEC is already struggling on the charts, falling steadily throughout the last week.</p>
<h2 id="zec-price-weakens-ahead-of-governance-debate">ZEC Price Weakens Ahead of Governance Debate</h2>
<p>Zcash has been trending lower, with the latest TradingView chart showing a sustained decline from above $520 to around $447, reflecting cooling market sentiment. Volumes remain modest, suggesting a lack of strong buyer conviction as uncertainty builds around the project’s long-term direction.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" src="https://www.ethnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/ZECUSD_2025-11-30_17-10-27.png" alt="" width="2500" height="1594"></p>
<h2 id="vitalik-token-voting-is-worse-than-zcash-s-status-quo">Vitalik: “Token Voting Is Worse Than Zcash’s Status Quo”</h2>
<p>In a direct message on X, Vitalik warned the Zcash community that token-holder voting could severely erode the project’s most important principle, privacy.</p>
<p>He argued that governance decisions made by the “median token holder” risk drifting away from Zcash’s founding values. According to Vitalik, token voting:</p>
<ul>
 <li>Does not protect minority interests,</li>
 <li>Is easily influenced by whales, and</li>
 <li>Creates incentives that are misaligned with privacy-focused ecosystems.</li>
</ul>
<p>He stated bluntly that token voting is “the dark hand” that could weaken Zcash permanently, calling it worse than the project’s current governance setup.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
 <p>I hope Zcash resists the dark hand of token voting.</p>
 <p>Token voting is bad in all kinds of ways (see <a href="https://t.co/Cvl7CFVgtc" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">https://t.co/Cvl7CFVgtc</a> ); I think it's worse than Zcash's status quo.</p>
 <p>Privacy is exactly the sort of thing that will erode over time if left to the median token holder. <a href="https://t.co/NbRqGLOrpj" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">https://t.co/NbRqGLOrpj</a></p>
 <p>— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) <a href="https://twitter.com/VitalikButerin/status/1995063062165135675?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">November 30, 2025</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p></p>
<h2 id="privacy-at-the-core-of-the-debate">Privacy at the Core of the Debate</h2>
<p>Vitalik emphasized that privacy, unlike parameters such as chain fees or treasury allocations, is particularly vulnerable under token-based governance. If protocol choices depend on whichever token holders show up to vote, he believes Zcash risks slow erosion through majority-rule decisions that do not prioritize long-term privacy integrity.</p>
<p>This places Zcash in a complicated position: balancing community involvement with the need to safeguard a mission that requires stronger constraints than typical DAO structures.</p>
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<h2 id="what-comes-next-for-zcash">What Comes Next for Zcash?</h2>
<p>The ZEC price downtrend shows that the market is already cautious. Governance uncertainty, combined with Zcash’s ongoing struggle with user adoption and exchange liquidity, creates pressure at a time when other privacy-related narratives are heating up.</p>
<p>Vitalik’s comments may influence the community’s upcoming discussions, and possibly slow or halt any shift toward token-based voting. For now, Zcash finds itself facing both ideological and market challenges, with its next governance steps likely to shape sentiment for weeks to come.</p>
<p>The post <a href="https://www.ethnews.com/vitalik-buterin-warns-zcash-against-token-based-governance-as-zec-price-slides/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Vitalik Buterin Warns Zcash Against Token-Based Governance as ZEC Price Slides</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.ethnews.com" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">ETHNews</a>.</p>

Vitalik Buterin Warns Zcash Against Token-Based Governance as ZEC Price Slides

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