The development team behind Zcash has walked away from Electric Coin Company (ECC) after a bitter governance dispute with Bootstrap, the nonprofit that oversees the project’s direction. The exit has shaken the Zcash community, pressured the ZEC price, and sparked a broader conversation about how crypto projects balance corporate teams with nonprofit boards.
ECC CEO Josh Swihart confirmed that the company’s entire Zcash team resigned and said he now plans to launch a new venture focused on building what he calls “unstoppable private money.” The move follows weeks of rising tension between ECC leadership and the Bootstrap board, the 501(c)(3) organization responsible for guiding Zcash’s strategy.
According to Swihart, the dispute wasn’t simply philosophical — it became operational. He said recent board-driven changes to the team’s employment terms made it impossible for people to do their jobs. He characterized this as “constructive discharge,” a term used when working conditions change so dramatically that resignation becomes the only realistic option. Swihart also claimed that most board members had moved away from Zcash’s original mission, pointing to Zaki Manian, Christina Garman, Alan Fairless, and Michelle Lai as key members of that majority.
Despite the departure, Swihart stressed that Zcash itself is not broken. The network continues to run, its code remains open-source, and no single company controls it. Zcash’s technology — built around privacy-preserving transactions — is still live and permissionless.
However, not everyone shares Swihart’s view of events. Zcash founder and former ECC CEO Zooko Wilcox publicly defended the Bootstrap board. He reiterated that Zcash is still secure and safe to use, signaling that the disagreement is less about technical stability and more about governance and direction.
Markets reacted quickly to the drama. ZEC fell sharply after the announcement, giving back most of its gains from December. The price drop served as a reminder of how sensitive crypto assets can be to leadership shake-ups, even when the underlying protocol continues to function normally.
The departing ECC team now plans to continue building privacy-focused technology outside of Bootstrap’s structure. Supporters of the move say independence could accelerate innovation, while critics warn it could fracture the ecosystem and weaken institutional memory around Zcash.
Beyond the immediate fallout, the episode highlights a recurring dilemma in the crypto world: how to govern projects designed to be decentralized yet still reliant on nonprofits, foundations, and corporate contributors. Zcash has long branded itself as “private money,” appealing to users who value confidentiality and censorship resistance. The current split shows how hard it can be to maintain that mission when multiple organizations share control.
For now, Zcash keeps running, the former ECC team heads toward a new venture, and the community is left watching closely to see which vision for private digital money ultimately wins out.
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