The entire Electric Coin Company (ECC) group behind the private coin Zcash left Bootstrap, a non-profit organization created to support the token, after which ECC CEO Josh Swihart described it as a breakdown in governance that made the group’s work unacceptable. Swihart said the team will form a new company and continue building on Zcash, while stressing that the protocol itself is not affected.
Zcash Civil War Continues?
In a statement sent to X, Swihart said that “over the past few weeks, it has become clear that the majority of Bootstrap’s board members … have fallen into a misunderstanding of Zcash’s mission,” naming Zaki Manian, Christina Garman, Alan Fairless, and Michelle Lai, whom he refers to as “ZCAM.”
Swihart pitched the plan as a response to employment changes imposed by the board majority. “Yesterday, the entire ECC team left after being constructively dismissed* by ZCAM,” he wrote. “In short, our employment policies were changed in a way that made it possible for us to do our job effectively and honestly.”
The exit represents a major escalation of tensions within one of the support structures surrounding Zcash, a network that has historically relied on a small number of professional organizations to support and coordinate development. Swihart did not provide specific details about the management’s actions or the terms of the employment in question, but he portrayed the separation as a precautionary measure to protect the Electric Coin Company’s ability to do what it mandated.
“We’re starting a new company, but we’re still the same team with the same mission: to create unstoppable private capital,” Swihart said. He emphasized that “the Zcash agreement is not affected,” adding that the decision “is about protecting the work of our team from the brutal administrative actions that made it difficult to respect the original intention of the ECC.”
Zooko Wilcox, the founder of Zcash said that the conflict does not involve him or Shielded Labs, and they want to separate the organizational dispute from the network’s operational situation. “Big drama from one (or two now?) of the many orgs supporting Zcash,” he wrote on X, before giving assurances to users.
“The Zcash network is open source, permissionless, secure, and private, and nothing that happens in this controversy can change that,” Zooko said. “You can safely continue using Zcash.”
On the second point, Zooko provided a reference to the character of the board members named by Swihart, highlighting how personal trust and long-term collaborative relationships can influence ecosystem management conflicts. “I have worked closely with Alan Fairless, Zaki Manian, and Christina Garman for over 10 years, in many difficult and difficult situations, and Michelle Lai for about 5 years,” he wrote. “Based on my experience, I believe they are all people of the highest integrity.”
Bootstrap Board Answers
[UPDATE:] Following Swihart’s position, Bootstrap’s board issued its own statement citing the conflict with governance and legal obstacles regarding the proposed transaction involving Zashi, describing the conflict as a disagreement over the structure rather than Zcash’s core purpose. “We are saddened by this outcome and we respect the contributions of those who chose to leave,” the board wrote, before adding that “it is important to clarify the nature of the disagreement.”
Bootstrap said it was formed as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit public benefit organization with “specific legal and fiduciary obligations” governing how property, intellectual property, and activities can be organized. According to the board, it was discussing “external investment and other entities to make Zashi private,” while working with legal counsel to ensure that any path forward complies with US nonprofit law and preserves Zcash’s long-term mission.
“There’s nothing wrong with a for-profit,” the statement said, adding that a well-executed effort could bring “huge amounts of foreign capital to making Zcash and privacy better and easier to use,” but stressing that “Bootstrap/ECC’s not-for-profit issues are real.”
The board warned that the latest version of the proposed deal could create legal and political risks for the broader ecosystem, saying it “presents a new risk of politically motivated attacks on Zcash.” It pointed out the possibility of donor lawsuits and a permanent situation where “Zashi will have to be returned to the ECC,” posing those risks as a threat not only to the organizations involved but “to the entire Zcash ecosystem.”
In that context, the statement put the disagreement as a matter of compliance: “This is not a disagreement about the operation of Zcash, which remains unchanged,” the board wrote. “It’s about complying with the legal and fiduciary obligations of a 501(c)(3), and the moral obligation to ensure that Bootstrap’s assets remain dedicated to the purpose they were meant to serve.”
At press time, the price of ZEC was heavily affected by the game, trading at $408.57.
The featured image was created with DALL.E, a chart from TradingView.com
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