Zcash

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The full development team at Electric Coin Company (ECC), the organization behind the privacy-focused cryptocurrency Zcash, has resigned, citing irreconcilable disagreements. The departures stem from a conflict with the board of Bootstrap, a nonprofit entity involved in overseeing Zcash-related governance.
Despite the mass exit, the Zcash protocol itself remains operational and unaffected, continuing to function as normal. ECC CEO Josh Swihart addressed the situation in a public <a href="https://x.com/jswihart/status/2008987228429799621?s=20" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">statement</a> on X, describing the circumstances surrounding the team’s departure:
<blockquote>
 “Yesterday, the entire ECC team left after being constructively discharged by ZCAM. In short, the terms of our employment were changed in ways that made it impossible for us to perform our duties effectively and with integrity.”
</blockquote>
Swihart explained that the team is in the process of forming a new company, stressing that the group remains intact and committed to the same long-term vision. According to him, their mission continues to center on building censorship-resistant and privacy-preserving digital money.
He also emphasized that the decision to leave was not driven by technical concerns, but by governance-related actions that undermined ECC’s ability to operate in line with its founding principles.
<blockquote>
 “Importantly, the Zcash protocol is unaffected. This decision is simply about protecting our team’s work from malicious governance actions that have made it impossible to honor ECC’s original mission.”
</blockquote>
In additional remarks, Swihart said that tensions had been building over recent weeks, as a majority of Bootstrap board members moved away from what he described as the core mission of Zcash. He specifically named Zaki Manian, Christina Garman, Alan Fairless, and Michelle Lai, collectively referred to as ZCAM, as being out of alignment with the project’s original goals.
The governance turmoil had an immediate market impact. Following the news, Zcash’s price fell nearly 20%, dropping to around $392 as traders reacted to the uncertainty surrounding the project’s development structure.
Zcash had drawn renewed interest from crypto users in recent months amid a trend in privacy-focused cryptocurrencies. As momentum returned to the privacy coin sector, Zcash emerged as one of the leading assets driving the trend.

Zcash drops nearly 20% after core development team steps down

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