Key Takeaways
- Samson Mow called the mass resignation of Zcash’s core developers a warning for investors.
- Electric Coin Company’s entire team resigned on Jan. 7 following what CEO Josh Swihart described as “malicious governance.”
- The former ECC team announced plans to continue Zcash development under a new structure.
Bitcoin advocate and outspoken critic of Zcash, Samson Mow, has weighed in on the sudden mass resignation of the project’s core development team, calling the departure a cautionary tale for investors.
Zcash Resignation
Zcash, a privacy-focused crypto project, has faced turbulence after its primary development organization, Electric Coin Company, announced that the entire team had stepped down on Jan. 7.
Josh Swihart, ECC’s CEO, said the team’s departure followed “constructive discharge,” a legal situation in which changes to employment conditions leave employees little choice but to resign.
Swihart described the board’s recent actions as “malicious governance,” which he said made it impossible for the developers to continue building Zcash’s privacy technology independently.
The full team left simultaneously, severing their formal ties with ECC.
Despite the upheaval, Swihart said the developers plan to continue advancing Zcash’s technology under a new organizational structure, while the Zcash network itself remains operational and decentralized.
Mow Slams Project
On Friday, Mow took to X to claim that Bitcoin acts as “insurance against shitcoin dev teams quitting all at once.”
The harsh words are not new from Mow, who previously claimed that projects like Zcash are not necessary.
In a November X post, he instead advised retail investors interested in encrypted Bitcoin to instead to buy it on an exchange and transfer it over to wallets instead.
“Dear retail: If you want to invest in ‘encrypted Bitcoin,’ buy Bitcoin on your favorite exchange, then go to withdrawals, select ‘Lightning Network’ as the method, and receive it in a wallet,” he wrote.
Mow noted wallets such as Aqua, Bull Bitcoin and Wallet of Satoshi.
Zcash Developers Start New Project After Resignation
Following the departure, the exited developers from ECC have announced they’re already working on a new wallet for Zcash.
“The team from the Electric Coin Company that launched Zcash, and created the Zashi wallet, is now launching a new wallet for Zcash, using the same Zashi codebase we built,” said Swihart late on Thursday.
https://twitter.com/jswihart/status/2009323099154747639
Following responses to their departure, Swihart said “the entire team that worked at Electric Coin Company and built Zashi is still 100% focused on full-stack Zcash development.”
“We aren’t launching any new coins, we’re just scaling Zcash. To do that, it required that we leave and start a new Zcash-focused company.”
Bullish on Bitcoin
Mow has been a long-time Bitcoin bull, joining a chorus of industry figureheads believing that its price could reach $1 million.
“Since getting into Bitcoin, what I’ve consistently found is that everything always happens faster than I expect,” Mow wrote in a March post on X.
“That’s why my prediction is for a fast run to $1 million,” he added.
Mow said this price could be reached by 2031, according to his models, but he also suggested the milestone could arrive sooner.
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Kurt Robson is a London-based reporter at CCN, specialising in the fast-moving worlds of crypto and emerging technology. He began his career covering local news in Cornwall after graduating from Falmouth University with First Class Honours in Journalism. There, he cut his teeth on everything from council meetings to missing swans.
He quickly rose through the ranks to become a frontline journalist at several of the UK’s leading national newspapers. Over the years, he has interviewed musicians and celebrities, reported from courtrooms and crime scenes, and secured multiple front-page exclusives.
Following the upheaval of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kurt shifted his focus to technology journalism—just ahead of the AI boom. With a natural curiosity and a trained eye for emerging trends, he has found a new rhythm in reporting on innovation.
At CCN, Kurt's work focuses on the cutting edge of crypto, blockchain, AI, and the evolving digital world. Drawing on his background in people-first reporting and his deep interest in disruptive tech, Kurt delivers stories that are insightful, entertaining, and human-centric.
