- The entire development team at Electric Coin Company resigned to launch a new privacy-focused crypto firm.
- Former CEO Josh Swihart said the team was “constructively discharged” by board members of nonprofit Bootstrap.
- The Bootstrap board says the dispute concerned restructuring, external investment, and plans to privatise the ZCash wallet Zashi.
- The team says the Zcash privacy protocol remains unaffected (the cryptographic rules that keep transactions private).
- Zcash has fallen about 20% in the past 24 hours.
On Wednesday, the full team at Electric Coin Company resigned and said they will form a new privacy cryptocurrency company, citing internal conflict that made it impossible to honour the firm’s founding mission. Former CEO Josh Swihart announced the departures on Twitter.
The departing group said they were “constructively discharged” by members of the Bootstrap board and that the changes to their employment prevented them from performing their duties with integrity. The team also said the Zcash privacy protocol is unaffected.
The Bootstrap board denied that the resignations were about mission misalignment and said the dispute related to how the organisation should restructure, accept outside investment, and handle plans to privatise the Zcash wallet Zashi. The board released a statement on behalf of Bootstrap in which it warned a proposed transaction could expose Zcash to politically motivated attacks, donor lawsuits, and the transaction reversing with Zashi returning to the Electric Coin Company (released).
Swihart said, “In short, the terms of our employment were changed in ways that made it impossible for us to perform our duties effectively and with integrity.” He added the exit was intended to protect the team’s work from what he called malicious governance actions, “about protecting our team’s work from malicious governance actions that have made it impossible to honor ECC’s original mission.”
The board said, “We do not doubt that those who proposed this transaction believed it was the right path forward for Zcash,” and added, “This is not a disagreement about Zcash’s mission, which remains unchanged. It is about compliance with the legal and fiduciary obligations of a 501(c)(3), and about the moral imperative of ensuring Bootstrap’s assets remain dedicated to the mission they were meant to serve.” A 501(c)(3) is a U.S. tax-exempt nonprofit designation.
Josh Swihart became CEO of Electric Coin Company in 2023 after founder Zooko Wilcox-O’Hearn stepped down; Wilcox-O’Hearn previously hinted at a disagreement when that change occurred. He has since distanced himself from the current dispute and described the accused board members as people of high integrity.
At the time of reporting, Zcash is showing a near 20% decline over the last 24 hours on market trackers (down).
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