Zcash’s original developers split from ECC in a scene that echoes the dispute between OpenAI and Anthropic

The original creators of Zcash officially announced their separation from Electric Coin Corporation (ECC) and launched a new independent development entity, marking the clearest structural split in the history of this privacy coin.

The team announced today that the Zashi wallet will be rebranded as Zoodle, confirming that the main Zashi wallet and its original engineers are now operating outside of ECC’s control.

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Hi. It’s a new day for Zcash!

The entire former ECC team is now Zcash Open Development Lab (ZODL), and we are rebranding the Zashi wallet to Zodl.

You don’t need to do anything, the app will be rebranded with the next update.

This is just a beginning. Great things to come. https://t.co/ljmMzPX4bL

– Josh Swihart 🛡 (@jswihart) February 16, 2026

The original developers continue to develop Zcash outside of ECC

Confirm the announcement The official separation began in Januarywhen all ECC employees resigned following a governance dispute with Bootstrap, the non-profit that owns ECC.

The dispute centers on control, autonomy and the future direction of Zikash’s development.

The new entity “Zoodle” now includes the same product engineers and manufacturers that developed it Zicash’s core privacy technology They have developed their main portfolio.

The organization stated that it will continue to build tools to expand the protected ZEC certification, independently of ECC and the ZEC Development Fund.

Crucially, this means that the original creators of Zikash have not left the Zikash ecosystem.

Rather, they came together under a new entity and maintained operational continuity through the portfolio infrastructure. The Zoodle wallet is still fully compatible with the Zcash blockchain.

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At the same time, ECC still exists as a legal entity under the ownership of Bootstrap. However, it no longer employs the original team that designed and maintains much of Zikash’s modern infrastructure.

As a result, Zikas now has two separate regulatory centers related to its future development.

Mirror Splitting: The structural break between OpenAI and Anthropic

This split is very similar to the split between OpenAI and Anthropic, where some leaders have left OpenAI To establish a new independent artificial intelligence company after disagreements over governance and strategic direction. In both cases, the founding engineers and technical leaders left the original organization and launched parallel development efforts consistent with their original mission.

It is important to say that Zcash blockchain It didn’t branch out. The blocks continue to process normally, and the zec origin remains unchanged.

But development leadership and technical directions are now outside the original institutional structure.

This distinction highlighted a growing pattern in decentralized systems, where developer continuity may be more important than institutional ownership.

In fact, the engineers who build and maintain the protocol’s infrastructure shape its long-term course.