Zcash is a cryptocurrency built on the original Bitcoin code base. Zcash was previously called “Zerocoin” and then after additional improvements, its name was changed to “Zerocash (Zcash)”. Zcash runs on the Zerocash Protocol. Zcash (ZEC) or ZEC coin is the digital asset token of the Zcash Network.

The Electric Coin Company (ECC) is an organization that develops, manages and supports the Zcash Protocol. The Electric Coin Company (ECC) was previously called “The Zcash Company” and the Zcash Company was later rebranded to “The Electric Coin Company (ECC)” in 2019. The Electric Coin Company (ECC) was founded by its CEO, Zooko Wilcox-O’Hearn. The ECC Company is now a wholly owned property of a non-profit 501(c) 3 organization called “Bootstrap”.

The following members are the “Board of Directors” of the Bootstrap organization:

Zooko Wilcox - He is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Electric Coin Company (ECC); he is one of the original Cypherpunks; he is the Founder of the Least Authority; he serves as an Advisor to Bolt Labs, Tezos and Brave; and he serves on the Board of Directors for Agoric and Least Authority.

Alan Fairless - He is the Co-Founder of SpiderOak; he has discovered serious vulnerabilities in code authored at Red Hat and Google; and he was an Angel Investor in the Electric Coin Company (ECC).

Andrew McLaughlin - He is the President / Chief Operating Officer at Assembly OSM; he is the co-founder / Partner at Higher Ground Labs; and he is the Chairman of the Board of Access Now. Previously, he was Deputy Chief Technology Officer of the US under President Obama; Head of Global Public Policy at Google; a Partner at betaworks; Chief Executive Officer at Digg and Instapaper; a Vice President at Tumblr and Medium; and Chief Policy Officer of ICANN