Ethereum (ETH) co-founder Vitalik Buterin donated an undisclosed amount to Shielded Labs to support Crosslink, a finality upgrade for Zcash (ZEC) that adds proof-of-stake validation alongside the privacy coin's existing proof-of-work consensus.
The donation comes one month after Electric Coin Company's entire development team quit following a governance dispute with its nonprofit board.
Shielded Labs announced the contribution February 6, describing it as Buterin's second donation following an initial 2023 contribution that funded Crosslink team formation.
The Swiss-based organization operates independently of Zcash's block reward development fund, relying on donations from ZEC holders. Zooko Wilcox, Zcash's founder, serves as Shielded Labs' head of product after departing Electric Coin Company in 2023.
Governance Context
The donation follows a January 8 mass resignation at Electric Coin Company, where CEO Josh Swihart alleged the Bootstrap nonprofit board created impossible working conditions. The entire ECC team left to form a new company, dropping ZEC's price 20% initially before partial recovery.
Shielded Labs now represents one of the remaining independent Zcash development organizations following the ECC exodus.
Buterin stated Zcash was "one of the most honorable crypto projects with a steadfast focus on privacy" and Crosslink would allow "more secure" operation "on a lower security budget."
The Winklevoss twins separately donated $1.2 million to Shielded Labs in January 2026.
Technical Upgrade Details
Crosslink operates as a parallel finality layer atop Zcash's proof-of-work chain, where validators stake ZEC to finalize blocks and prevent reorganization attacks.
The design maintains block production and economic activity on the PoW chain while adding settlement guarantees through validator attestations. Implementation requires security audits, wallet coordination, and community approval before potential mainnet activation.
The donation funds an incentivized testnet where participants earn ZEC for running validators. Shielded Labs cited shorter exchange confirmation times and improved cross-chain bridge reliability as practical benefits, though mainnet timeline remains unspecified pending technical readiness reviews.
