Zcash developers have planned to activate the NU7 update for their privacy-focused blockchain at block number 3,543,405. This block is expected to be reached around November 5th. However, the chosen block height needs to be added to the technical documentation and incorporated into the node software.
NU7’s most notable change will be reducing the block time from 75 seconds to 25 seconds. This could roughly triple the speed at which payment transactions are added to blocks on the Zcash network. A ZEC deposit time on an exchange awaiting three confirmations could drop from approximately four minutes to around 75 seconds.
The update has been running on the test network since the beginning of October. However, the activation block agreed upon by the developers had not yet been incorporated into the distribution specifications at the time of this news. Therefore, November 5th should be considered a planned date; it should not be seen as a finalized and unchangeable activation date.
NU7 will temporarily remove 60% of the transaction fees collected per block from circulation. This amount is planned to be reimbursed to miners starting around February 2031. The change is designed to maintain Zcash’s current schedule of halving mining rewards.
With this update, Zcash’s initial privacy system, Sprout, will be completely shut down. ZEC remaining in Sprout addresses during activation will become unspendable. Therefore, those using Sprout need to migrate their assets to the new supported address types before the update takes effect.
This news doesn’t necessarily mean the price of Zcash will rise. For users, the most important issues will be the timely updating of node and wallet software and the transfer of old Sprout balances.
*This is not investment advice.
