Zcash development team ECC collectively leaves, accuses governance body of deviating from the project's mission

On January 8th, Zcash (ZEC) core developer Electric Coin Company (ECC) CEO Josh Swihart announced that the ECC team has recently completely separated from their original organizational structure and plans to establish a new company. The reason is that their higher governance body, Bootstrap (a 501©(3) nonprofit organization responsible for governing ECC and supporting Zcash), has experienced a “significant and ongoing deviation” from the governance direction aligned with Zcash’s core mission. Josh stated that over the past few weeks, the decision-making actions of the majority of Bootstrap’s board members—including Zaki Manian, Christina Garman, Alan Fairless, and Michelle Lai of ZCAM—have become seriously misaligned with the original intent of Zcash. According to his disclosure, all ECC members resigned yesterday because they were subjected to a so-called “constructive discharge” by ZCAM: that is, unilaterally changing employment terms and working conditions without directly firing employees, making it impossible for the team to continue fulfilling their duties while maintaining professionalism and technical integrity. Josh emphasized that the ECC team will establish a new company with the same personnel and mission, continuing to develop “unstoppable private money.” Notably, the Zcash protocol itself remains unaffected. This action is not a technical split or protocol-level conflict but aims to protect ECC’s work over the years from being eroded by “malicious governance behavior.”