Zooko Wilcox has announced his departure as CEO of Electric Coin Company (ECC), the organization behind the privacy-centric cryptocurrency Zcash (ZEC).
On December 18, ECC revealed a shift in its executive leadership, appointing Josh Swihart as Wilcox’s successor. Swihart, who has been with ECC since October 2018, served as one of the company’s vice presidents of growth until August 2023. He also spent four months as a part-time investor at Denver Angels in Colorado, as per his LinkedIn profile. “We are confident in Josh’s ability to lead, especially in areas like achieving product-market fit, forging new partnerships, enhancing Zcash’s usability, and boosting its adoption,” ECC stated in a December 18 announcement.
The company praised Swihart’s blend of entrepreneurial, technical, and product expertise, along with his vision for ECC and his enthusiastic passion for Zcash. Swihart plans to focus on enhancing Zcash’s utility through user-centric products in the coming months and aims to improve ECC’s financial positioning.
Reflecting on his tenure in a December 18 Medium post, Wilcox, who identifies as a “human freedom maximalist,” expressed gratitude for the opportunity to develop Zcash, likening it to living out a science fiction dream. However, he acknowledged that separating from the company was in the best interest of both himself and Zcash. “The association of Zcash too closely with my personal identity is not beneficial for me, and I believe it’s not beneficial for Zcash either,” he remarked.
Wilcox emphasized that Zcash’s significance in human history transcends any individual, including himself. Despite occasional differences with Swihart on the best strategies for advancing Zcash, Wilcox noted that their fundamental motivations were aligned.
Wilcox will continue to serve as a director on the board of the Bootstrap Project, ECC’s parent company, alongside Alan Fairless, Christina Garman, Michelle Lai, and Zaki Manian.
Launched on October 29, 2016, Zcash is a privacy-oriented blockchain and cryptocurrency. It was developed by ECC, which was established in 2014. Zcash shares its underlying codebase with Bitcoin and, like Bitcoin, has a capped supply of 21 million coins.
This leadership change at ECC appears to have had no significant effect on the market value of ZEC, which is currently trading at around $28.8, according to CoinGecko data.
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