Zcash Open Development Lab Raises $25 Million Seed After Entire ECC Team Resigns

Zcash Open Development Lab (ZODL) launched by Josh Swihart and the former core engineering and product team of the Electric Coin Company (ECC) has secured over $25 million in a seed funding round.

“Josh Swihart's Zcash Open Development Lab raises $25 million in seed funding The capital will be used to expand development of the Zcash (ZEC) protocol and its privacy-focused self-custodial mobile wallet, Zodl”

@coindesk

The launch marks the creation of an independent entity that continues development of Zcash technology outside ECC’s nonprofit overseer.

@coindesk

Multiple reports describe ZODL as formed by the departing ECC team after internal governance disagreements and present the new company as taking on ongoing development work for Zcash.

The seed round drew a wide mix of prominent crypto investors and firms.

Reporting lists backers that include major venture and crypto investors such as Paradigm, a16z crypto, Winklevoss Capital and Coinbase Ventures.

CoinDesk

The round also included Cypherpunk Technologies, Chapter One and named angels, with additional participants noted in some accounts.

Coverage frames ZODL’s formation as the result of a governance dispute with Bootstrap, ECC’s nonprofit overseer.

“Zcash surges as core development team closes $25 million funding round Zcash leverages fresh funding to bolster privacy-focused features and expand its engineering capabilities”

Crypto Briefing

The new company is led by individuals previously at ECC, including Josh Swihart.

Sources describe the team as "former" or "ex-ECC," indicating they left ECC to continue work independently.

The articles do not use identical language about whether every ECC staffer resigned, so reporting on the exact scope of departures is described differently across accounts.

ZODL inherits responsibility for Zcash’s flagship mobile wallet, which was rebranded from Zashi to Zodl.

ZODL reports roughly $600 million in ZEC swaps and transactions routed to the wallet as a sign of strong usage and privacy-usage metrics.

CryptoNewsZ

The team also reports substantial growth in shielded-pool activity and the Orchard pool, figures it points to as evidence of adoption of shielded ZEC features.

Sources say the fresh funding will be used to hire engineers.

“Josh Swihart's Zcash Open Development Lab raises $25 million in seed funding The capital will be used to expand development of the Zcash (ZEC) protocol and its privacy-focused self-custodial mobile wallet, Zodl”

@coindesk

Sources say the funds will accelerate protocol development and expand adoption of shielded ZEC features outside existing funding channels.

@coindesk

Some reporting noted a short-term price uptick for ZEC as a market reaction.

The articles emphasize that while ZODL will push development independently, ECC as an entity remains under Bootstrap governance per the cited coverage.