Electric
Coin
Co.,
the
primary
developer
behind
the
privacy-oriented
blockchain
network
Zcash,
said
Zooko
Wilcox,
the
project’s
creator,
will
step
down
as
CEO
and
be
replaced
by
Josh
Swihart.
According
to
a
blog
post
from
Electric
Coin,
Wilcox
has
served
as
the
project’s
leader
since
2015,
when
the
company,
then
known
as
“Zcash,”
was
created.
Swihart,
formerly
senior
vice
president
of
growth
at
ECC,
will
return
to
the
company
to
take
on
the
CEO
role,
responsible
for
all
strategic
and
tactical
decisions,
according
to
the
post.
“We
feel
confident
in
Josh’s
leadership
—
in
finding
product-market
fit,
unlocking
new
partnerships
and
collaboration,
improving
Zcash
usability
and
increasing
adoption,”
Electric
Capital
said.
“In
addition
to
a
vision
for
ECC
and
an
optimistic
passion
for
Zcash,
Josh
has
a
strong
entrepreneurial,
technical
and
product
background.”
Wilcox
will
remain
in
his
role
as
a
director
on
the
board
of
the
Bootstrap
Project,
the
parent
company
of
ECC,
according
to
the
post.
In
a
separate
blog
post,
Wilcox
wrote
that
“Zcash
took
over
not
only
my
life
but
also
my
identity.”
“It
was
hard
for
others
to
see
Zcash
as
something
separate
from
me.
sometimes
it
was
hard
for
me
to
do
that
myself,”
Wilcox
wrote.
“However,
in
the
long
run,
I
don’t
think
this
conflation
of
Zcash
with
me
personally
is
healthy
for
me,
and
I
don’t
think
it’s
healthy
for
Zcash.”
He
wrote
that
he
was
looking
forward
to
a
“couple
of
months
to
think
about
how
I
can
best
help,”
but
that
“anything
that
I
would
commit
myself
to
in
the
future
would
need
to
include
Zcash,
because
the
Zcash
community
is
freedom’s
best
hope.”
ZEC,
the
native
cryptocurrency
of
Zcash,
was
down
5.8%
over
the
past
24
hours,
in
line
with
a
broader
slide
in
digital-asset
markets
on
Monday.
The
price
didn’t
appear
to
move
much
on
the
announcement
of
the
CEO
change.
Bitcoin
fork
The
Zcash
network,
officially
launched
in
2016
as
“fork”
or
copy
of
the
Bitcoin
blockchain,
is
known
for
its
“shielded
addresses,”
in
this
case
“z-addresses,”
which
allow
for
encryption
on
one
or
both
sides
of
a
blockchain
transaction.
According
to
Zcash’s
technical
documentation,
Zcash
relies
on
a
type
of
mathematical
proof
called
a
zk-SNARK,
derived
from
so-called
zero-knowledge
cryptography,
which
has
become
one
of
2023’s
hottest
trends
in
blockchain
architecture.
“The
owner
of
a
z-address
can
share
its
transaction
details
with
trusted
third
parties
via
a
view
key
–
a
key
that
grants
read
access
but
not
spend
authority
over
the
address,”
the
documentation
reads.
“This
allows
for
“selective
disclosure”,
where
transactions
are
auditable
but
disclosure
is
under
the
participant’s
control.
This
allows
compliance
with
payment
for
auditing,
tax
regulations,
or
anti-money
laundering
rules.”
Electric
Capital,
in
its
blog
post
on
Monday,
credited
Wilcox
for
leading
Electric
Capital
in
its
delivery,
in
Zcash,
“the
first
real-world
application
of
zero-knowledge
proofs.”
