Privacy-Focused Development Team Behind Zcash Departs Over Leadership Conflicts

The crypto community is witnessing a significant shake-up in Zcash’s ecosystem. Josh Swihart, CEO of the Electric Coin Company—the core development team driving Zcash (ZEC) forward—revealed that a rift has emerged between the Bootstrap board and the ECC’s operational philosophy. Several Bootstrap board members, including Zaki Manian, Christina Garman, Alan Fairless, and Michelle Lai, have allegedly moved away from Zcash’s core mission.

What Led to This Split?

The tension appears to stem from governance disagreements. According to Swihart, the Bootstrap board unilaterally modified employment terms for ECC staff, fundamentally compromising their ability to work with full integrity and effectiveness. Rather than continue under these constraints, the entire ECC team collectively decided to step away. The development team emphasized that this departure was necessary to protect their work from what they characterize as destructive governance practices that have increasingly sidelined Zcash’s original vision.

The New Chapter

The team is now establishing an independent organization with the same foundational objective: creating a truly unstoppable privacy-focused digital currency. This transition marks a continuation of their mission outside the Bootstrap structure, which had been the organization’s home since 2020 when major shareholders voted to convert ECC into a nonprofit entity.

What About Zcash Itself?

Here’s the critical point: the Zcash protocol itself remains entirely unaffected by this organizational upheaval. The underlying technology and network continue to operate without disruption. The shift is purely an organizational one involving the development team’s governance structure, not the asset or its technical foundation.

This development underscores ongoing tensions in how crypto projects balance decentralized governance with operational continuity—a challenge many privacy-focused projects grapple with as they mature.