{"id":92928,"date":"2026-01-08T11:28:44","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T08:28:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=92928"},"modified":"2026-01-08T11:30:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T08:30:23","slug":"zcash-developers-depart-ecc-amid-internal-conflict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/zcash-developers-depart-ecc-amid-internal-conflict\/","title":{"rendered":"Zcash Developers Depart ECC Amid Internal Conflict"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The entire team at Electric Coin Company (ECC), the primary developer of <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/what-is-zcash-zec\">Zcash<\/a>, has left the company due to an internal conflict, according to former CEO Josh Swihart.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Over the past few weeks, it&#8217;s become clear that the majority of Bootstrap board members (a 501(c)(3) nonprofit created to support Zcash by governing the Electric Coin Company), specifically Zaki Manian, Christina Garman, Alan Fairless, and Michelle Lai (ZCAM), have moved into\u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Josh Swihart \ud83d\udee1 (@jswihart) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jswihart\/status\/2008987228429799621?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 7, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>According to him, most board members of the Bootstrap nonprofit acted contrary to the mission of the <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/what-are-privacy-coins\">privacy-focused cryptocurrency<\/a>. The organization supported and developed the Zcash ecosystem. <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><em>\u201cIn short, the terms of our employment were altered in such a way that it became impossible for us to perform our duties effectively and in good faith,\u201d added Swihart. <\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The developers plan to establish a new company, maintaining their commitment to the primary goal of creating \u201cunstoppable private money.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Zcash protocol will not be affected by the team&#8217;s departure and will continue to operate as usual.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><em>\u201cThis decision was made solely to protect our team&#8217;s work from malicious actions by the management, which made it impossible to fulfill ECC&#8217;s original mission,\u201d Swihart explained. <\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Zcash Token Reaction <\/h2>\n<p>Following the news, the price of ZEC fell by more than 10% over the past day. At the time of writing, the coin is trading around $440, significantly below the November <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/analysts-warn-zcash-could-plunge-after-a-1500-surge\">peak of $720<\/a>.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"601\" src=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/img-626e93c804a287fb-3077151489853908-1024x601.png\" alt=\"image\" class=\"wp-image-273011\" srcset=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/img-626e93c804a287fb-3077151489853908-1024x601.png 1024w, https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/img-626e93c804a287fb-3077151489853908-300x176.png 300w, https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/img-626e93c804a287fb-3077151489853908-768x450.png 768w, https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/img-626e93c804a287fb-3077151489853908-1536x901.png 1536w, https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/img-626e93c804a287fb-3077151489853908.png 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Hourly chart of ZEC\/USDT on Binance. Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/ru.tradingview.com\/chart\/?symbol=BINANCE%3AZECUSDT\">TradingView<\/a>. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Helius Labs co-founder Mert Mumtaz described the event as a \u201cbullish signal.\u201d The expert still anticipates Zcash to rise to $10,000.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">extremely bullish<\/p>\n<p>zcash&#8217;s most competent (along with tachyon ofc), now unburdened by the crippling inefficiencies of foundation politics<\/p>\n<p>$10,000<\/p>\n<p>the money is actually gonna be encrypted <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/pyQYSk1nOu\">https:\/\/t.co\/pyQYSk1nOu<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 mert | helius (@mert) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/mert\/status\/2008989379038240944?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 7, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><em>\u201cZcash&#8217;s most competent people (along with Tachyon, of course), now free from the crippling inefficiencies of foundation politics,\u201d commented Mumtaz. <\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Earlier, a16z crypto experts <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/a16z-identifies-privacy-as-key-focus-for-crypto-market-in-2026\">considered<\/a> privacy the main direction of the crypto market in 2026. Entrepreneur <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/privacy-emerges-as-the-leading-trend-in-the-crypto-markets-future\">Balaji Srinivasan<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/coinbase-identifies-perp-rwa-and-prop-amm-as-promising-sectors\">Coinbase Ventures<\/a> share this view. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The entire team at Electric Coin Company (ECC), the primary developer of Zcash, has left the company due to an internal conflict.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":92929,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"ECC's Zcash developers leave amid internal conflict; ZEC price drops over 10%.","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1256,202],"class_list":["post-92928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-privacy-and-personal-data","tag-zcash"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"485","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"ECC's Zcash developers leave amid internal conflict; ZEC price drops over 10%.","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92928"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92930,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92928\/revisions\/92930"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}