If you look at erics linkedin profile he has the chops to handle what they are doing. My bet is they are growing too fast and attempting to do too much at once. It also doesn't help that people are buying tons of hashlets and probably leaving them as singles which adds to the db and increases the time needed to process payouts.
Sounds contradictory. How did they get into this mess if he has the "chops" ? Overnight account-system changes aren't SOP for "chops" either.
Also, if he had the "chops", he would've known how to build a scaling system from the start, or at least catch it before it got this bad.
My only answer to that is what honeycutt said, eric likely didn't see zen growing the way it did or in the direction it did when he had the idea and launched it. If they are legit and are run by semi competent individuals, we will see some positive changes down the road, hopefully they are still on a hiring spree looking for developers and coders who can work in that environment. I have no idea what zen is coded in, nor what their infrastructure looks like/is composed of. When you realize you are short staffed, it can take time to hire the right people in the right quantity to get things moving.
If there are any DB specialists here, instead of screaming scam and how shitty they are, why not offer your services. You could then get an inside look at whats going on and you could let us know one way or the other.