ECC restructuring to better serve Zcash

Right this moment, in an effort to higher serve the Zcash mission, we’re saying a restructuring of ECC, together with layoffs of valued staff members. Going ahead, ECC will focus our time and experience on particular elements of the Zcash mission, and assist transition different elements to different organizations within the Zcash neighborhood.

We at ECC have been making an attempt to do an excessive amount of with too few assets, particularly within the final 12 months and a half because the bear market started to impression our funds. It has develop into clear this was limiting our capacity to execute on the issues we’re greatest at.

Zcash has grown and adjusted, and right this moment there are numerous organizations outdoors of ECC who’re additionally dedicated to the Zcash mission, a lot of them funded by the Zcash Dev Fund, together with the Zcash Group Grants committee, Zingo Labs, Nighthawk Apps, the Zcash Basis, Zcash Media, the Zcash World Ambassadors program, and lots of different people and organizations. There are additionally the promised contributions to Zcash by QEdit and Shielded Labs and by the Filecoin and Anoma tasks. We’re grateful to those individuals for his or her contributions to the Zcash motion, and by committing ECC to doing fewer issues and doing them nicely, we hope to additional empower them, making Zcash as a broad motion much more resilient and sustainable.

Restructuring ECC was a difficult choice. It required that we lay off 13 workers — about half of our staff. Lots of the individuals we let go right this moment have been instrumental in bringing to market groundbreaking applied sciences and concepts that no different staff on this planet has been capable of ship. We’re unhappy to half methods with them and can at all times be thankful for the chance we needed to work with these unbelievable people.

Within the coming weeks, ECC will launch a revised roadmap centered on empowering ZEC holders and giving them a voice. This consists of:

Creating a superb consumer expertise for proof-of-stake ZEC

A pockets, constructed by and for Zcashers, that’s straightforward to make use of and accessible for anybody

A mobile-wallet SDK that’s helpful to different Zcash builders

US-based coverage work to make sure ZEC, self-custody, and staking stay viable within the USA

We’ll assist transition possession to the broader neighborhood of some features ECC has undertaken prior to now.

Assist for zcashd outdoors of ECC’s Roadmap

Protocol evaluate for Zcash core protocols outdoors of ECC’s roadmap

Alliances and change assist

World regulatory relations

Administration of digital properties, together with z.money and the Zcash-specific social accounts

Product advertising

Zcash associated PR and media engagement

Importantly, our immediate-term work on fixing third-party pockets efficiency points continues to be our highest precedence for the time being, and we’re dedicated to releasing zcashd 5.6.0, an up to date lightwalletd, and new cellular SDKs for iOS and Android quickly.

As with every transition, this restructuring of staff and priorities will take a while to totally settle, and there are another tasks and initiatives which can be nearing completion — such because the relaunch of z.money and a proposal to foster neighborhood possession of this and different Zcash digital properties — that we’ll be delivering to the neighborhood within the close to time period. We’re nonetheless partaking on essential initiatives such because the Filecoin Basis grants and different actions that can profit the Zcash consumer.

That is exhausting. I requested all the ECC staff to hitch me in my work to serve human freedom. It grew to become our collective mission, and one thing we’ve all fought for day-in and day-out. Whereas we received’t all have the ability to proceed on this explicit path collectively, I’m assured that within the scope of historical past, every certainly one of us will look again proudly on what we did collectively for human freedom. I’m grateful for all of the staff members to whom we mentioned goodbye as workers right this moment, and for those that can proceed at ECC. We stay absolutely dedicated to our mission and consider ECC is now in a a lot stronger place to serve the Zcash mission, each right this moment and into the long run.

I’ll be becoming a member of an ECC-hosted Twitter Areas on Friday, Might twenty sixth, to reply questions from the neighborhood. Please regulate @electriccoinco for particulars.