Zcash, developers are big, belonging to the developers
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倾听视野
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A decade-old cryptocurrency, Zcash, has finally encountered its midlife crisis.
On January 7, the core development team of Zcash collectively resigned.
Not just individual departures, but the entire Electric Coin Company (ECC), around 25 people, including the CEO, walked away.
In one sentence:
Those who wrote the Zcash code are no longer involved.
Upon the announcement, the price of $ZEC dropped by 20% on the same day.
Zcash is not a young project.
It launched in 2016, pioneering 'private transactions' at the time, which was quite innovative.
But reality has been harsh:
Over 9 years, fewer than 1% of transactions actually used the privacy feature.
The coin's price has steadily declined, falling from over $3,000 initially to just $15 by 2024.
Then came a dramatic twist.
In 2025, the narrative around privacy coins suddenly revived, and $ZEC surged from $40 to $744, pushing its market cap back into the hundreds of billions and ranking it among the top twenty.
Just as everyone thought the 'second spring' for this old project was coming—
the development team left.
The real conflict centered on a wallet: Zashi.
Zashi is the privacy wallet launched by ECC, and the most important user gateway for Zcash.
ECC wanted to privatize it, bring in investment, and accelerate development like a startup.
But here's the problem:
ECC belongs to a non-profit organization (501c3), which cannot distribute dividends or privatize assets—everything must follow the board's approval.
The board said: No, the risk is too high.
Former ECC CEO Josh Swihart was blunt:
This was 'malicious governance,' a forced departure (constructive discharge).
25 people left together.
The irony? Timing.
When $ZEC was at $15, no one cared who controlled the wallet;
but once it hit $500, control became a matter of life and death.
Low funds mean idealism; high stakes mean realpolitik.
On the second day after the resignation, the former ECC team founded a new company, CashZ,
continuing wallet development based on the original code, without launching a new coin or changing the narrative,
just a new shell to keep going.
This isn't unique to Zcash.
The structural conflict between non-profit foundations and entrepreneurial teams has repeatedly played out in the crypto industry:
Cosmos, Ethereum, Solana—all have had similar debates.
Zcash simply chose the most direct path.
Splitting up.
The chain remains, the coin remains,
but the 'decade-long veterans' have largely departed.
What remains now is the real test.
On January 7, the core development team of Zcash collectively resigned.
Not just individual departures, but the entire Electric Coin Company (ECC), around 25 people, including the CEO, walked away.
In one sentence:
Those who wrote the Zcash code are no longer involved.
Upon the announcement, the price of $ZEC dropped by 20% on the same day.
Zcash is not a young project.
It launched in 2016, pioneering 'private transactions' at the time, which was quite innovative.
But reality has been harsh:
Over 9 years, fewer than 1% of transactions actually used the privacy feature.
The coin's price has steadily declined, falling from over $3,000 initially to just $15 by 2024.
Then came a dramatic twist.
In 2025, the narrative around privacy coins suddenly revived, and $ZEC surged from $40 to $744, pushing its market cap back into the hundreds of billions and ranking it among the top twenty.
Just as everyone thought the 'second spring' for this old project was coming—
the development team left.
The real conflict centered on a wallet: Zashi.
Zashi is the privacy wallet launched by ECC, and the most important user gateway for Zcash.
ECC wanted to privatize it, bring in investment, and accelerate development like a startup.
But here's the problem:
ECC belongs to a non-profit organization (501c3), which cannot distribute dividends or privatize assets—everything must follow the board's approval.
The board said: No, the risk is too high.
Former ECC CEO Josh Swihart was blunt:
This was 'malicious governance,' a forced departure (constructive discharge).
25 people left together.
The irony? Timing.
When $ZEC was at $15, no one cared who controlled the wallet;
but once it hit $500, control became a matter of life and death.
Low funds mean idealism; high stakes mean realpolitik.
On the second day after the resignation, the former ECC team founded a new company, CashZ,
continuing wallet development based on the original code, without launching a new coin or changing the narrative,
just a new shell to keep going.
This isn't unique to Zcash.
The structural conflict between non-profit foundations and entrepreneurial teams has repeatedly played out in the crypto industry:
Cosmos, Ethereum, Solana—all have had similar debates.
Zcash simply chose the most direct path.
Splitting up.
The chain remains, the coin remains,
but the 'decade-long veterans' have largely departed.
What remains now is the real test.
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