Zcash token holders have overwhelmingly approved key technical and economic changes for the upcoming Network Upgrade 7 (NU7). In a privacy-preserving vote representing two-thirds of eligible shielded holdings, 99.9% of participating ZEC backed cutting block times from 75 to 25 seconds to speed up transactions. Additionally, 98.9% voted to preserve Bitcoin-style halvings over a smoothed issuance curve, while 96.6% chose to delay reissuing transaction fees collected via the Network Sustainability Mechanism until February 2031.
NU7 upgrade vote results
- ▪Approximately 99.3% of participating ZEC in the Network Upgrade 7 poll supported shipping the upgrade as soon as possible, excluding any features not implemented by a September 30, 2026 readiness deadline.
- ▪The Zcash Network Upgrade 7 sentiment poll drew participation from nearly 2.4 million ZEC out of approximately 3.6 million eligible tokens, representing about two-thirds of the eligible supply.
- ▪Zcash token holders voted to preserve the network's existing Bitcoin-style halving schedule instead of switching to a smoothed issuance curve.
- ▪Zcash token holders voted to cut the network's target block time to 25 seconds from 75 seconds in a sentiment poll for the upcoming Network Upgrade 7.
Privacy-preserving voting mechanism
- ▪The Zcash voting system encrypted and split ballots into 16 separate pieces, allowing validators to tally the results without revealing individual holder balances or identities.
- ▪Only Zcash tokens held in Ironwood, the network's newest shielded transaction pool, were eligible to participate in the Network Upgrade 7 sentiment poll.
- ▪The Network Upgrade 7 sentiment poll turnout of nearly two-thirds of eligible ZEC exceeded the 1 million ZEC threshold set by organizers to treat the results as representative.
Block time reduction
- ▪Cutting the Zcash target block time from 75 seconds to 25 seconds is intended to shorten transaction confirmation times and triple the network's transaction throughput.
- ▪The proposal to cut Zcash block times received 99.9% support from participating ZEC-weighted votes in the sentiment poll.
- ▪To keep the scheduled daily issuance of Zcash unchanged under the 25-second block time proposal, the amount of new ZEC issued per block will be reduced proportionally.
Bitcoin-style halving preservation
- ▪The proposal to keep Zcash's Bitcoin-style halving schedule received 98.9% support from participating ZEC-weighted votes in the sentiment poll.
- ▪The Zcash Community Advisory Panel split closely on the halving issue, with 57 members favoring a gradual issuance curve and 54 members favoring the preservation of halvings.
Network Sustainability Mechanism delay
- ▪Shielded Labs, Project Tachyon, ZODL, the Zcash Foundation, and Valar Group aligned on February 2031 as the reissuance start date, following a divergence where advisory panel voters preferred starting as soon as possible.
- ▪Zcash token holders voted 96.6% to delay the reissuance of ZEC collected through the Network Sustainability Mechanism until February 2031.
- ▪The Network Sustainability Mechanism is designed to pull at least 60% of transaction fees out of circulation and recycle them through future block rewards without exceeding the 21 million ZEC maximum supply.
Story comments
Loading comments…