The development team behind the privacy-focused Zcash protocol has secured over $25 million in a new funding round. The capital injection comes from prominent venture firms including a16z Crypto and Coinbase Ventures. This funding will support the continued development of the Zodl wallet, a self-custodial privacy solution.
The team, which previously split from Electric Coin Company (ECC) in January, is led by former ECC CEO Josh Swihart. Disputes with Bootstrap, the nonprofit overseeing ECC, over the Zcash privacy protocol's functionality reportedly led to the separation.
Investors also include Paradigm, Winklevoss Capital, and former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan. The broad support signifies strong conviction in privacy as a core principle and the ongoing expansion of the Zcash ecosystem. Funds will be allocated to growing the engineering team.
Zcash (ZEC) has seen increased activity, with its shielded pool growing significantly and facilitating substantial ZEC swaps. The protocol's shielded pool is designed to obscure transaction details, ensuring sender, receiver, and amount remain untraceable.