Ex-Zcash developers debut cashZ wallet following project exit

Former Zcash developers announced the launch of a new wallet called cashZ on January 8, 2026, less than 24 hours after their mass resignation from Electric Coin Company (ECC).

Josh Swihart, former ECC CEO, stated that the team that launched Zcash and created the Zashi wallet is now building cashZ using the same codebase. The wallet will launch in a few weeks with easy migration for existing Zashi users. The entire development team resigned on January 7 following governance conflicts with the Bootstrap board.

Team announces cashZ wallet using Zashi codebase

The Zcash development team stated late on January 8 that cashZ will use the same Zashi codebase they built at Electric Coin Company. Swihart reassured users of the privacy coin that the entire team remains 100% focused on full-stack Zcash development. The developers are not launching any new coins, only scaling Zcash through a new company structure.

Users of the existing Zcash wallet Zashi will be able to migrate to cashZ easily when it launches. No other technical details about the new wallet were provided. The code name cashZ will serve as the working title until the official launch.

The announcement came hours after the team exited ECC. Swihart stated on the new company website that scaling Zcash to billions of users requires a startup structure. He noted that startups can scale but nonprofits cannot, explaining why the team created a new Zcash-focused company.

Mass resignation followed a governance dispute with the board

The entire Electric Coin Company development team resigned on January 7, 2026. The exodus resulted from a governance conflict between the ECC team and the Bootstrap board, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that oversees ECC. Swihart stated the team was “constructively discharged.” It is a legal term meaning employment conditions became so untenable that resignation was the only viable option.

Swihart publicly made a statement that the majority of Bootstrap board members moved into clear misalignment with the mission of Zcash. Board members included Zaki Manian, Christina Garman, Alan Fairless, and Michelle Lai, referred to as ZCAM. Core issues were employment terms changes and mission divergence between developers and the board.

The former CEO highlighted how conditions of employment were changed in a way that made the effective execution of duties with integrity impossible. The board’s decisions reportedly limited ECC’s autonomy, prevented roadmap execution, and created what was characterized by developers as malicious governance actions.

That was not an isolated event. Founder Zooko Wilcox stepped down as CEO in December 2023, succeeded by Swihart. Peter Van Valkenburgh resigned from the Zcash Foundation board in January 2025. ECC announced internal reorganizations in December 2025, weeks before the full team left.

Startup approach replaces nonprofit structure for scaling

Swihart gave three reasons for starting a new company on the website. First, Zcash is cypherpunk and requires an organization built around that understanding.

The second reason was alignment. Swihart argued that privacy in crypto is normal, just as it is with physical cash. Fighting for these rights requires an organization with courage and the ability to move quickly without bureaucratic constraints.

The former CEO noted that anyone in crypto for more than a few years knows the entanglement of nonprofit foundations and tech startups has caused endless drama. The structural conflict between nonprofit governance and startup agility has affected multiple cryptocurrency projects.

Third, Zcash has experienced a rebirth over the past two years and is no longer a small project. The network requires organizational structures capable of supporting growth at scale.

Santiment data shows Zcash development activity dropped to its lowest rate since November 2021. The decline occurred as the price retraced 40% over the past two months. The decade-old privacy coin multiplied its market cap by approximately 15 times between September 22 and November 16, 2025.

The price surge brought attention to Zcash in late 2025. ZEC traded around $443.82 following the rally but has since declined.

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