Shielded Labs CEO Jason McGee said Zcash uses a rough consensus governance model based on multiple stakeholders. Holder votes and community committee votes are used to gauge sentiment and inform decisions, but they are not binding.
According to Odaily, protocol changes usually require broad support from the community committee and token holders, while the final decision rests with stakeholders that operate and use the network, including node operators, miners, exchanges, wallets, and users.
McGee said no single group can push through protocol changes on its own. He added that the model can coordinate network upgrades when needed while preventing any one group from unilaterally driving changes.