Zcash's New DC Wing Wants Lawmakers to Finally Get the Whole "Crypto" Thing 🛡️

A privacy-coin advocacy group backed by Zcash has formally registered to lobby in Washington, adding a new voice to the ongoing debate over how the United States should regulate digital assets. Pretty Good Policy for Zcash (PGPZ) filed a lobbying registration effective Oct. 1, listing executive director Divij Pandya as its sole lobbyist. The filing identifies the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act and two digital asset tax proposals among its current and anticipated lobbying targets.

PGPZ launched in June, growing out of Pretty Good Policy for Crypto, an initiative created in 2022 by Electric Coin Co. The earlier group hosted Washington policy roundtables and organized a 2023 congressional briefing on encryption technologies. PGPZ founder and ZODL chief policy and regulatory officer Paul Brigner said the new organization is designed to "make sure Zcash has serious, organized, and credible policy engagement in Washington."

Brigner added that "policymakers are making decisions that will affect whether privacy-preserving digital cash can exist, be used lawfully, and serve the public interest," and framed PGPZ as a vehicle to ensure "Zcash is understood, represented, and defended in those conversations." The Zcash Community Grants approved a $750,000 grant in August to fund the group's first year of work.

The lobbying push comes as Zcash developers prepare the NU7 mainnet upgrade, which is targeted for November and is designed to cut block times to 25 seconds. The registration places PGPZ among a growing field of digital asset groups seeking direct influence over federal policy on cryptocurrency, taxation, and privacy-enhancing technology.