According to CoinMeta, as reported by U.Today, Zcash co-founder Bryce Wilcox -O' Hearn ( Zooko ) revealed that Zcash recently distributed over 8 million US dollars in retroactive subsidies to reward those who contributed to protecting users during the AI Bug crisis. Among them, researcher Taylor Hornby who discovered and disclosed Orchard Bug received 1.5 million US dollars in self-funded rewards. Hornby collaborated with the AI model of Anthropic to find a vulnerability; if exploited, attackers could create an unlimited number of forged ZEC tokens. This incident prompted Zcash developers to prioritize user protection and network security, leading to the activation of Ironwood upgrade ( nu6.3 ) on July 28, 2026, which patched the vulnerability in Orchard Shielded Pool. Zooko pointed out that Zcash's positive progress after the crisis demonstrates its sustainability and self-governance capabilities.