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The primary developer behind the privacy-focused blockchain Zcash, Electric Coin Co., announced that its creator Zooko Wilcox will resign as CEO and will be succeeded by Josh Swihart.
Resignation of the Project’s Leader
According to a blog post shared by Electric Coin, Wilcox has been leading the project since the company, then known as “Zcash,” was founded in 2015. The post states that Swihart, who previously held the position of Senior Vice President responsible for growth at ECC, will return to the company to take over the CEO role responsible for all strategic and tactical decisions following the departure.
Electric Capital:
We trust Josh’s leadership – finding product-market fit, unlocking new partnerships and collaborations, improving Zcash usability, and increasing adoption. In addition to a vision for ECC and an optimistic passion for Zcash, Josh has a strong entrepreneurial, technical, and product background.
According to the post, Wilcox will continue without slowing down as a director on the board of Bootstrap Project, ECC’s parent company. Wilcox made several statements on the matter, which were as follows:
Zcash has taken over not just my life but my identity. It was hard for others to see Zcash as something separate from me. Sometimes it was hard for me to do so myself. However, in the long run, I do not think it is healthy for me to be personally conflated with Zcash, nor do I think it is healthy for Zcash.
Wilcox, who stated that he waited a few months to think about how he could best assist the company, mentioned that anything he dedicates himself to in the future must involve Zcash. He shared that the reason for this is that he sees the Zcash community as the best hope for freedom.
Zcash’s native cryptocurrency, ZEC, fell by 5.8% in the last 24 hours, in parallel with a broader decline among crypto assets on Monday. It was also noted that the announcement of the CEO change did not have much of an impact on the price.
Started as a Bitcoin Fork
Officially launched as a Bitcoin blockchain fork in 2016, the Zcash network is known for its “shielded addresses,” or “z-addresses,” which allow encryption on one or both sides of a blockchain transaction.
According to technical documents published about Zcash, it relies on a type of mathematical proof called zk-SNARK, which is derived from zero-knowledge cryptography, one of the hottest trends in blockchain architecture in 2023.
The documents state:
The owner of a z-address can share transaction details with trusted third parties through a viewing key – a key that provides read access but no spending authority over the address. This allows for “selective disclosure,” where transactions are auditable but disclosure is under the participant’s control. This permits compliance with audits, tax regulations, or anti-money laundering rules for payments.
In a post published by Electric Capital on Monday, Wilcox was congratulated for leading the delivery of “the first real-world application of zero-knowledge proofs” in Zcash.