{"id":116,"date":"2026-01-09T13:38:01","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T13:38:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/1stblock.info\/?p=116"},"modified":"2026-01-09T13:38:02","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T13:38:02","slug":"former-ecc-team-rebounds-with-cashz-wallet-launch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1stblock.info\/?p=116","title":{"rendered":"Former ECC Team Rebounds with \u2018cashZ\u2019 Wallet Launch"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Following a dramatic mass departure from the Electric Coin Company (ECC), the core development team behind Zcash has resurfaced to announce their next move: the launch of a new wallet designed to bypass corporate stagnation.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Less than 24 hours after their sudden exit, the developers revealed they are already building <strong>cashZ<\/strong>, a wallet that promises to return the project to its &#8220;cypherpunk&#8221; origins. Former ECC CEO Josh Swihart confirmed that the new application is built on the same Zashi codebase the team originally developed, ensuring a frictionless migration for current users.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The move marks a definitive split from the parent organization, following months of friction regarding governance and non-profit constraints. Swihart emphasized that while the company name has changed, the technical expertise remains intact, stating that the entire team is still &#8220;100% committed to full-stack Zcash development.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A Vision Beyond Bureaucracy<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>In a statement outlining the rationale for the new entity, Swihart identified three pillars for the future of Zcash:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Cypherpunk Identity:<\/strong> The new organization will be structured specifically around the philosophical belief that privacy is a fundamental right, not a corporate &#8220;feature.&#8221;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Operational Agility:<\/strong> By breaking away from the previous governance model, the team aims to act with &#8220;courage and speed,&#8221; advocating for privacy rights without being slowed down by institutional red tape.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Scaling for Competition:<\/strong> With the project outgrowing its &#8220;small-scale&#8221; status, the team argues that Zcash needs a lean, aggressive structure to compete with giants like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Market Response and ZEC Volatility<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The internal upheaval initially sent shockwaves through the markets, with the Zcash token (<strong>ZEC<\/strong>) plunging over 21% to slip below the $400 mark on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, the announcement of the &#8216;cashZ&#8217; project provided a much-needed stabilize. Early Friday trading saw a modest recovery as ZEC climbed back toward $430. Despite this bounce, the asset still faces a steep uphill battle; it remains 38% down from its 2025 peak of $700 and nearly 86% off its historic 2016 all-time high.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Following a dramatic mass departure from the Electric Coin Company (ECC), the core development team behind Zcash has<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":117,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-altcoins"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1stblock.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1stblock.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1stblock.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1stblock.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1stblock.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=116"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/1stblock.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":118,"href":"https:\/\/1stblock.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116\/revisions\/118"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1stblock.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1stblock.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1stblock.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1stblock.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}