Pretty Good Policy for Zcash (PGPZ), a 501(c)(4) advocacy group for the privacy-focused cryptocurrency, has registered its first lobbyist in Washington. Divij Pandya, the group's executive director, was named in a filing submitted during the week of October 4, 2026, according to the registration record.

The registration gives Zcash a dedicated, formally registered voice in US policy discussions for the first time. PGPZ launched in summer 2026 and describes its mandate as policy education, coordination, and advocacy specific to the Zcash ecosystem.

Pandya will lead lobbying, policy analysis, and coalition-building on Capitol Hill. He previously worked at FS Vector, a Washington-based advisory firm serving financial services and cryptocurrency clients.

What is PGPZ lobbying on?

The group's agenda spans six policy areas:

• Financial privacy, the issue most closely tied to Zcash's technical identity as a shielded-transaction network
• Digital asset market structure, with the CLARITY Act a stated focus
• Developer protections for open-source code contributors
• Anti-money laundering (AML) rules
• Sanctions policy
• Tax policy

The CLARITY Act is the most consequential item on that list. Market structure legislation will determine how digital assets are classified and which regulators supervise them, and a Zcash-specific advocate in those negotiations means privacy considerations now have dedicated representation in the room.

Developer protections carry direct operational weight for the protocol. Rules governing individuals who write and publish code affect every open-source project in the ecosystem, and PGPZ has flagged the topic as a core priority.

How did the group get here?

PGPZ did not emerge from nothing. Earlier Zcash advocacy ran through the Zcash Open Development Lab (ZODL) and policy veteran Paul Brigner, who spent years building relationships with US policymakers through briefings and policy events that shaped conversations around privacy-centric legislation.

ZODL is not exiting the ecosystem. It will continue concentrating on core protocol development, infrastructure, and wallet engineering, while supporting PGPZ's operations as an independent entity. The split mirrors a structure common among large protocols: technical stewardship in one organization, political representation in another.

Who pays for it?

Funding is not yet secured. PGPZ is seeking a $750,000 grant from Zcash Community Grants to cover its first year of operations. That request functions as an ecosystem-wide vote on whether direct political representation in Washington is worth the cost — a decision Zcash holders and grant participants will effectively make through the funding process.

The outcome of that grant request, and the trajectory of the CLARITY Act through Congress, will determine whether PGPZ's registration this October marks the start of durable privacy-protocol advocacy in Washington or a one-year experiment.