Gate News: On March 9, Zcash Open Development Lab (ZODL), founded by former Electric Coin Company (ECC) CEO Josh Swihart, completed over $25 million in funding. The round was led by Paradigm, a16z crypto, Winklevoss Capital, an investment firm under a CEX, Cypherpunk Technologies, Maelstrom, Chapter One, and other investors. Individual investors such as Balaji Srinivasan, David Friedberg, Haseeb Qureshi, and James Nicholas also participated.
ECC launched its flagship Zcash wallet, Zodl, in 2024, setting a new standard for Zcash usability. Earlier this year, the entire ECC team, including the wallet product team, joined ZODL to continue building the Zcash main user interface, aiming to make Zodl an open, self-custodied privacy financial platform and expand ecosystem interoperability through collaborations.
Protocol development remains the core focus of ZODL. Engineers who previously designed, built, and maintained key Zcash systems at ECC have joined ZODL to continue advancing the protocol, ensuring technological progress supports practical needs.