{"id":65894,"date":"2026-01-08T09:31:23","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T09:31:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/the-dev-company-behind-zcash-plans-to-start-a-new-company-after-split\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T09:31:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T09:31:23","slug":"the-dev-company-behind-zcash-plans-to-start-a-new-company-after-split","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/the-dev-company-behind-zcash-plans-to-start-a-new-company-after-split\/","title":{"rendered":"The dev company behind Zcash plans to start a new company after split"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>(Originally posted on : CoinJournal: Latest Crypto News, Altcoin News and Cryptocurrency Comparison )<\/b><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-site=\"CoinJournal\">\n<div class=\"-mt-16  mb-8  lg:-mt-20  rounded-md  shadow-md\">\n<div class=\"relative  z-10  post-article-image  rounded  overflow-hidden\" data-site=\"CoinJournal\">\n<picture><source srcset=\"https:\/\/coinjournal.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/imagecache\/2026\/01\/Zcash-dev-to-start-a-new-company-smartcrop-750x375.webp\" type=\"image\/webp\" media=\"(min-width: 750px)\"\/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/coinjournal.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/imagecache\/2026\/01\/Zcash-dev-to-start-a-new-company-smartcrop-363x181.webp\" type=\"image\/webp\"\/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/coinjournal.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/imagecache\/2026\/01\/Zcash-dev-to-start-a-new-company-smartcrop-750x375.jpg\" type=\"image\/jpeg\" media=\"(min-width: 750px)\"\/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/coinjournal.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/imagecache\/2026\/01\/Zcash-dev-to-start-a-new-company-smartcrop-363x181.jpg\" type=\"image\/jpeg\"\/>\n<\/picture>                            <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>The entire Electric Coin Company team behind Zcash development exited after governance changes.<\/li>\n<li>A new company will be formed to continue the same privacy-focused mission.<\/li>\n<li>The Zcash protocol remains unaffected despite leadership and governance turmoil.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Electric Coin Company, the long-standing development organisation behind Zcash, is preparing to start a new company following a sudden and highly public split tied to governance disputes.<\/p>\n<p>According to public statements and reporting, the entire Electric Coin Company team has departed from its previous organisational arrangement with Bootstrap, the nonprofit created to support Zcash.<\/p>\n<p>Notably, the exit was not framed as a routine resignation or gradual transition.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, the company\u2019s leadership described the situation as a breakdown in alignment that made continued work impossible.<\/p>\n<p>The move marks a major turning point for one of the cryptocurrency industry\u2019s most prominent privacy-focused projects.<\/p>\n<p>Zcash has long positioned itself as \u201cprivate money,\u201d and the organisational fracture highlights growing tensions between mission-driven development teams and nonprofit governance structures.<\/p>\n<h2>Governance conflict at the centre of the split<\/h2>\n<p>At the core of the dispute is Bootstrap, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit created to support Zcash by governing the Electric Coin Company.<\/p>\n<p>Josh Swihart, CEO of Electric Coin Company, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/jswihart\/status\/2008987228429799621?s=20\">publicly stated<\/a> that a majority of Bootstrap board members had moved into clear misalignment with the mission of Zcash.<\/p>\n<p>He specifically named Zaki Manian, Christina Garman, Alan Fairless, and Michelle Lai as central figures in that majority.<\/p>\n<p>Swihart said that over recent weeks, changes imposed by the board altered the terms of employment for the Electric Coin Company team.<\/p>\n<p>Those changes, according to his account, made it impossible for the team to perform their duties effectively and with integrity.<\/p>\n<p>As a result, the entire team left after what Swihart characterised as constructive discharge.<\/p>\n<p>Constructive discharge refers to situations in which working conditions are changed so significantly that employees are effectively forced to resign.<\/p>\n<p>The framing suggests the split was driven by governance actions rather than disagreements over technology or code.<\/p>\n<p>The dispute also exposed confusion around roles and titles, with Swihart acknowledging that public listings showing him as executive director of Bootstrap were outdated.<\/p>\n<h2>A new company, but the same mission<\/h2>\n<p>Despite the split, Swihart emphasised that the departing team is not abandoning its core vision.<\/p>\n<p>He confirmed that the former Electric Coin Company team plans to found a new company.<\/p>\n<p>The goal of that new entity, he said, remains building \u201cunstoppable private money.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This language mirrors Zcash\u2019s long-standing emphasis on privacy, censorship resistance, and user sovereignty.<\/p>\n<p>Importantly, Swihart and other figures stressed that the Zcash protocol itself is unaffected by the organisational changes.<\/p>\n<p>Zcash\u2019s codebase is open-source, and no single company owns or controls the network.<\/p>\n<p>That distinction is critical for users and developers concerned about continuity and security.<\/p>\n<p>Former Electric Coin Company CEO and Zcash founder Zooko Wilcox defended the Bootstrap board and stated that Zcash remains permissionless, secure, and safe to use.<\/p>\n<p>His response highlighted the reality that leadership perspectives differ sharply on the causes and implications of the split.<\/p>\n<h2>Market reaction, Zcash price drops<\/h2>\n<p>ZEC, the native token of the Zcash network, saw a notable price drop in the aftermath of the announcement.<\/p>\n<p>At press time, Zcash was trading at around $443.38, down 10.3% in a day, eroding the majority of its December gains.<\/p>\n<p>The price decline reflects uncertainty around governance, leadership stability, and future development direction.<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, supporters of the departing team argued that separating from what they view as hostile governance may ultimately strengthen development.<\/p>\n<p>They see the creation of a new company as a way to protect mission-driven work from nonprofit board dynamics.<\/p>\n<p>Critics, however, worry about fragmentation and the loss of institutional continuity.<\/p>\n<p>The episode underscores broader challenges facing decentralised projects that rely on hybrid structures combining nonprofits, companies, and open-source communities.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-meta\">\n<hr class=\"mb-6\"\/>\n<h6 class=\"text-3xl  mb-4  text-green-300\">Share this article<\/h6>\n<hr class=\"mb-6\"\/>\n<h6 class=\"text-3xl  mb-4  text-green-300\">Categories<\/h6>\n<hr class=\"mb-6\"\/>\n<h6 class=\"text-3xl  mb-4  text-green-300\">Tags<\/h6>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/coinjournal.net\/news\/the-dev-company-behind-zcash-plans-to-start-a-new-company-after-split\/\">Source link <\/a><br \/>\n<br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Originally posted on : CoinJournal: Latest Crypto News, Altcoin News and Cryptocurrency Comparison ) The entire Electric Coin Company team behind Zcash development exited after governance changes. A new company will be formed to continue the same privacy-focused mission. The Zcash protocol remains unaffected despite leadership and governance turmoil. Electric Coin Company, the long-standing development [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":65895,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65894"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}