2026-01-08 05:25:03

The Zcash ecosystem undergoes a major change. On January 8th, the core development team of the privacy coin project Zcash, Electric Coin Company (ECC) founder and CEO Josh Swihart, announced that the entire team has resigned. Behind this sudden personnel change lies a profound disagreement over the project's governance direction.

The root of the issue lies with the Bootstrap Board—this non-profit organization that supports Zcash. Board members Zaki Manian, Christina Garman, Alan Fairless, and Michelle Lai changed the employment terms for staff, making it impossible for the ECC team to operate normally. Swihart pointed out that these changes significantly diverged from Zcash's core mission.

However, there is good news: the ECC team has not disbanded. They plan to establish a new company to continue operations, with the same mission—to create a truly unstoppable privacy currency. More importantly, Swihart emphasized that the Zcash protocol itself will not be affected by this incident. He characterized this decision as a protection of the team's autonomy and an active adjustment to prevent malicious governance.

This incident reflects a common challenge in the crypto community: how to balance power and mission when development teams and management have conflicting goals. The future direction of Zcash is worth ongoing attention.

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SellLowExpert

· 01-08 05:54

Another governance drama is coming, the board of directors is playing with fire --- ECC's entire team leaving is a bold move, but the team continues to build the protocol independently, which is the kind of Web3 spirit we should have --- The privacy coin community is about to be torn apart again, it seems self-governance isn't that easy --- Josh's recent actions are truly forced; otherwise, who would deliberately cause a rift? --- What were those directors at Bootstrap thinking, changing employment terms to force the core team out? --- The statement that the Zcash protocol remains unaffected sounds like reassurance to token holders --- Let it be, after all, we've seen various privacy coin teams split before --- The key issue remains: after decentralization, who has the final say? No one can answer that --- If the ECC team can truly operate independently, maybe they can do it even more purely? --- The conflict between the board of directors and the development team, the ones hurt are the ecosystem

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zkNoob

· 01-08 05:44

Ha, it's the board causing trouble again. This script is so familiar. Another governance controversy, ECC directly resigns all members... their bottom line has been crossed. As long as the protocol remains intact, it's fine. Developer departures are the real impact. Is Zcash about to split? How far can the new company go? But Swihart's integrity is real; he would rather establish his own path than compromise. This move is actually quite bold. Let's see what their new company can come up with.

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CryptoSurvivor

· 01-08 05:43

Another governance drama, ECC all members resigning is really a bold move The governance team can really kill the project... What are those board members playing at? The team is cooking up their own plans and continuing to work, which actually makes it more decentralized ZEC just needs to keep the protocol unchanged this time, let the ecosystem evolve as it will

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SolidityJester

· 01-08 05:35

It's the board of directors causing trouble again. Are you tired of this move?

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ForkYouPayMe

· 01-08 05:25

It's the board of directors causing trouble again, now it's all good The entire ECC team has left, this governance is really outrageous Privacy coins should be decentralized, stop messing around The team is establishing their own independent operation, it looks promising As long as the protocol remains unchanged, everything else can be watched gradually This move almost backfired, everyone

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