Zcash Activates NU7 Upgrade on Testnet, Targets 25-Second Block Time
Summary
- Zcash said it has applied the NU7 upgrade to testnet, entering the final testing phase ahead of a planned mainnet launch in November.
- It said NU7 will reduce the block interval from 75 seconds to 25 seconds and introduce a Network Sustainability Mechanism that redirects part of transaction fees into future block rewards.
- It said ZEC in the Sprout privacy pool will become unusable once NU7 is fully activated and must be moved to another address before the upgrade.
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Zcash has activated its next network upgrade, NU7, on testnet, entering the final testing phase ahead of a planned mainnet rollout in November.
Cointelegraph reported on October 5 that block 4,465,026, the scheduled activation point for NU7, was produced at 6:21 p.m. UTC that day on the ZecBlock testnet explorer. Zcash also confirmed NU7's testnet activation in a post on X.
The core change in NU7 is a cut in Zcash's target block interval to 25 seconds from 75 seconds. The upgrade will also disable Version 4, or V4, transactions and introduce a Network Sustainability Mechanism that redirects part of transaction fees into future block rewards.
Once V4 transactions are disabled, ZEC held in the legacy Sprout privacy pool will no longer be usable after NU7 is fully activated. Users holding those funds must move them to another address before the upgrade takes effect.
The Zcash Foundation asked testnet operators to use the NU7 release candidate to test the upgrade in real-world conditions. Developers plan to make a final decision on the mainnet rollout based on the results of those testnet operations.
The Zcash development team plans to decide on October 20 whether to activate NU7 on mainnet and at what block height. The current target date for the mainnet rollout is November 5.
