Zcash community consensus on NU7 speed and issuance changes

The Zcash community completed an advisory vote shaping preferences for Network Upgrade 7 (NU7) with roughly 2.4 million ZEC participating—about 66% of eligible Ironwood balances at the snapshot. Participants expressed overwhelming support for two main items: reducing the target block interval from 75 seconds to 25 seconds (ZIP 218), and preserving Zcash’s current Bitcoin-style halving schedule rather than moving to a smoothed issuance model (the alternative described in ZIP 234). Approximately 99.9% of participating ZEC favored the faster block cadence, and roughly 98.9% backed maintaining scheduled halvings.

The ZIP 218 approach couples shorter block spacing with adjustments that keep issuance over wall-clock time consistent, so that more frequent blocks do not increase daily new ZEC issuance; a draft post-NU7 subsidy figure is provided in the published materials. On the Network Sustainability Mechanism question, about 96.6% of participating ZEC supported beginning NSM reissuance in February 2031 rather than earlier dates. Coinholders also preferred that NU7 proceed without waiting indefinitely for every proposed component: features unfinished by Sept. 30 would be dropped under the favored option, and the poll supported disabling the legacy Sprout v4 transaction functionality when NU7 activates.

The vote used a privacy-preserving architecture run on a dedicated chain created by Valar Group. Homomorphic encryption and a distributed decryption authority of at least ten validators were employed so that aggregate tallies could be produced without revealing individual shielded balances. Project Tachyon, Valar Group, the Zcash Foundation, Zodl and Shielded Labs were named in the coordinator structure, and wallets including Vizor and Zodl supported the workflow. The advisory nature of the poll means implementation still requires formal ZIP activation, code changes, testing and ecosystem agreement. The Zcash Community Advisory Panel ran a parallel poll with a contrasting split on issuance smoothing, and developers noted continuing work on transaction performance and wallet libraries even as governance preferences were recorded.

Market reaction and stakeholder responses

Coinholders’ votes and subsequent coverage produced immediate market reaction: ZEC spiked to $1,388 and traded around $1,368 in the latest reports, gaining about 10.9% on the day and roughly 168% over 30 days, placing it ninth by market cap at $22.9 billion. Commentators linked part of the token’s dramatic yearly advance—over 2,500%—to the recent Grayscale ETF and noted ZEC has tripled since the Ironwood upgrade. Detailed vote figures add clarity: roughly 2.4 million ZEC voted (≈66% turnout of eligible Ironwood shielded balances) and 98.9% favored keeping Bitcoin-style halvings. On NSM timing, about 2.3 million ZEC voted to delay reissuance until February 2031 while ~70,239 supported starting as soon as possible. Shielded Labs, Project Tachyon, ZODL, the Zcash Foundation and Valar Group stated they are aligned on the February 2031 date as the most conservative reading of the outcome. Developers also signaled they plan to ship final NU7 items by the Sept. 30 cut-off; testnet and mainnet activation dates remain to be determined.

Mainnet target and testnet timing

The newest reports add schedule clarity and vote detail: developers are targeting Nov. 5 for NU7 mainnet activation, with testnet activation set for Oct. 6 and a final mainnet activation-height decision to follow on Oct. 20 after observing testnet performance. NU7 would shorten block interval to 25 seconds, disable Sprout v4 transactions and incorporate the Network Sustainability Mechanism while preserving scheduled halvings. The five primary implementation teams — including the Zcash Foundation, Project Tachyon, Valar Group, ZODL and Shielded Labs — said they reached unanimous agreement on scope and timeline, with specifications due by Sept. 30.

Vote tallies were refined: participation per question ranged roughly 2.399–2.404 million ZEC; 2,375,932.375 ZEC backed preserving halvings versus 22,384.875 for smoothing, and 2,319,643.75 ZEC favored February 2031 to begin recycling NSM funds while 70,239.625 preferred starting as soon as possible and 6,283 chose Feb. 2027. Implementers warned wallets should not need major changes but full nodes, indexers and explorers may require updates. Market reaction accompanied the announcements: ZEC rose about 20% in 24 hours in these reports, and sector indicators showed the privacy-coin segment substantially outperforming broader benchmarks.