Because the begin of 2024, ECC’s prime precedence has been delivering the very best expertise for ZEC customers. Which means constructing an intuitive interface for Zcash and letting the UX necessities inform protocol improvement, at all times in service of actual customers.
Due to our small crew’s laborious work, we’ve made main progress in driving Zcash adoption, most notably by means of the launch of the Zashi cellular pockets.
Zashi is rising quickly, and the momentum round shielded ZEC has by no means been greater. To maintain constructing on this progress, we’re making a number of vital organizational adjustments to take away inner friction and place ECC for continued success in 2026 and past.
Engineering
First, we’ve introduced our core protocol and cellular engineering groups collectively underneath @andrea_kob’s management. The cellular engineering crew behind Zashi has shipped extremely nicely underneath her route, and we’re excited to convey that very same focus and velocity to all of our engineering efforts. Her distinctive organizational abilities, structured method, and confirmed expertise working with each groups to ship outcomes each time, make Andrea the perfect particular person to guide this transition.
This key transfer permits for tighter planning, sooner iteration, and extra constant execution throughout the board. Primarily, it reinforces the pure suggestions loop between Zashi and the protocol, the place person insights can immediately inform protocol priorities.
Key goals embody:
- Aligning Zashi’s person expertise with protocol improvement, so person insights form each layer of our work.
- Unifying planning and processes throughout groups for better readability and effectivity.
- Coordinating round shared targets to maximise affect.
Advertising
Subsequent, we’ve consolidated all advertising and marketing and communications underneath Peacemonger’s management. As Zashi turns into the first gateway to Zcash for brand spanking new and returning customers, we’d like a unified voice and a centered technique to succeed in, educate, and help the rising viewers.
Peacemonger has been balancing a variety of obligations throughout product and advertising and marketing at ECC. She has been instrumental in serving to Zcash discover product-market match, grounding our technique in deep person analysis, and shaping and refining Zashi’s UX. She’s been the drumbeat of the folks we’re constructing for and has introduced the science to life. Now, she is going to lead the subsequent section of ECC’s work with that very same imaginative and prescient and execution to drive Zcash and Zashi adoption at scale.
Key goals embody:
- Constructing out a lean world-class advertising and marketing crew
- Strengthening Zashi, Zcash, and ECC model identities
- Driving messaging and campaigns that develop utilization and consciousness of shielded ZEC
Product
Since Josh Swihart took the helm at ECC two years in the past, Zashi has developed from a barebones prototype into essentially the most trusted and sturdy interface for Zcash, reigniting the adoption of shielded ZEC and directing protocol improvement. This transformation displays a product imaginative and prescient rooted in real-world use instances, intuitive UX, and an unwavering dedication to privateness. As ECC continues to scale, his imaginative and prescient and centered management will stay central to our product technique.
With adjustments throughout Engineering and Advertising, the Product perform can be getting into a transition to help continued progress. For now, Josh, who has been hands-on with product improvement from the beginning, will proceed to information Zashi in shut coordination with cross-functional groups.
Key goals embody:
- Delivering a world-class person expertise for ZEC that drives progress
- Delivery an unstoppable cross-platform UX with wealthy capabilities for storing and utilizing shielded ZEC
- Deepening alignment between product, engineering, advertising and marketing, and person perception
Finance, Partnerships, & Assist
We’re additionally increasing Tony Margarit’s position to guide ECC’s operational progress. Since becoming a member of us, Tony has been instrumental in constructing out our monetary infrastructure, overseeing treasury administration, accounting, and the monetary modeling & forecasting that information our technique. He’s labored intently with exterior counsel to assist us navigate advanced regulatory and authorized issues, whereas additionally overseeing core HR features which have strengthened our inner basis.
Now, Tony will apply that very same operational excellence to ECC’s outward-facing work. As Zashi adoption grows, we should scale our help infrastructure and construct the correct partnerships to serve a rising person base. Tony’s expertise and management will guarantee we do each with care, readability, and a deal with long-term success.
Key goals embody:
- Aligning partnerships with our adoption targets
- Constructing the operational infrastructure wanted to help a rising Zashi person base
- Eliminating cross-functional bottlenecks to speed up our execution
Protocol Analysis & Safety
Lastly, we’re formalizing a devoted deal with long-term protocol analysis and safety underneath the management of Daira‑Emma Hopwood. Because the principal writer of the Zcash Protocol Specification, which is extensively considered one of the rigorous and complete specs in crypto, Daira‑Emma has formed the very basis of Zcash with extraordinary precision, foresight, and cryptographic brilliance. The spec’s readability, completeness, and depth mirror a stage of mastery few within the trade can match.
With a uncommon capacity to intuit and purpose by means of cryptographic techniques at each layer, Daira‑Emma stays unmatched in grasp of the protocol and the maths that powers it. This subsequent chapter will leverage that experience to make sure Zcash continues to guide not solely in privateness, however in safe, adaptable, and user-aligned protocol design. This focus ensures continuity within the areas the place Zcash wants it most: analysis, specification, and safety of vital techniques.
Key goals embody:
- Deep analysis into protocol design, specs, and formalization
- Cross-functional collaboration with the Zcash Basis, Mission Tachyon, Shielded Labs, and others
- Guiding protocol evolution with a user-first mindset, making certain it aligns with real-world wants
- Main ECC’s safety initiatives as each Zashi and Zcash scale
Why Now?
Shielded ZEC utilization is rising. Zashi is gaining traction. Assets are pouring into the ecosystem. We’re seeing actual momentum, actual customers, and actual alternative.
Zcash’s explosive progress over the previous couple of months indicators one thing vital: the crypto panorama is altering, and the work we’ve performed during the last two years has positioned ECC to guide. To satisfy this second, we should proceed to evolve. We’re seeing the proof that our technique is working. Now we’re doubling down.
Thanks for all you’ve performed to get us right here, and for what we’re about to perform collectively.
Onward.
