Ex-ECC Team Launches New Zcash Startup ‘cashZ’ After Governance Clash

The Zcash protocol remains fully operational despite recent tensions between the former Electric Coin Company (ECC) team and Bootstrap, the nonprofit overseeing Zcash development.

Josh Swihart, ex-lead of ECC, announced a new Zcash-focused startup and a wallet built on the Zashi codebase, tentatively named “cashZ.” In a post on X, Swihart described the initiative as a way to “scale Zcash to billions of users,” adding that “startups can scale, but nonprofits can’t.” The move positions the new company as a faster path to building consumer products outside nonprofit governance constraints.

The announcement follows Thursday’s dispute with Bootstrap over Zashi’s control and restructuring. ECC described its team as “constructively discharged,” while Bootstrap cited legal and fiduciary restrictions. Swihart emphasized that the Zcash protocol itself remains unaffected, and the same engineers will continue development under the new corporate structure.

Following the news, ZEC experienced sharp volatility, with broader privacy coins also affected. Observers are closely monitoring the new wallet initiative to see if it accelerates product delivery or adds further fragmentation to the Zcash ecosystem.