Zcash Development Team Mass Resignation Controversy: ECC and Bootstrap Board of Directors in Serious Conflict

【Crypto World】The Zcash development team is in trouble again. Electric Coin Company (ECC) CEO Josh Swihart recently stated that in the past few weeks, the majority of Bootstrap board members have clearly deviated from the original mission of Zcash — these include Zaki Manian, Christina Garman, Alan Fairless, and Michelle Lai (ZCAM).

The situation had become irreversible by yesterday. Because ZCAM allegedly unilaterally dismissed staff, the entire ECC team chose to resign collectively. Swihart bluntly said: “Our employment terms were forcibly modified, which prevented us from working normally and fulfilling our duties with integrity.”

Although the team has resigned, they have not given up. They are in the process of establishing a new company, still composed of the original team, and still committed to the same mission — building unstoppable privacy coins. The key point is that the Zcash protocol itself has not been affected in any way. This resignation was purely to protect their work and prevent being harmed by unreasonable governance decisions.

Speaking of which, this is not the first internal conflict within Zcash. As early as 2020, after most shareholders donated their shares, ECC initiated a transition to a non-profit structure called Bootstrap. It now appears that this transition has somewhat hidden governance risks.