Zcash Activates NU7 Upgrade, Cutting Block Time to 25 Seconds
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Privacy-focused cryptocurrency Zcash has completed a major network upgrade, sharply increasing transaction processing speed.
CoinDesk reported on November 6 that Zcash activated its NU7 upgrade at 2:34 a.m. UTC at block height 3,543,405. The core change cuts the target block interval to 25 seconds from 75 seconds, making privacy payment confirmations up to three times faster.
The real-world impact is clear. Merchants can receive an initial payment confirmation in about 25 seconds on average. For exchanges that require three confirmations, wait times drop to about 75 seconds from about four minutes.
The upgrade also included stability improvements. Zebra, Zcash node software developed by the Zcash Foundation and Project Tachyon, was tested in a 25-second block environment across 80 computers in 11 regions. During those tests, the orphan rate rose to 3.43% from 1.57% in the previous 75-second environment. Software optimization reduced the burden by cutting repeated computations.
A cap was also set on the amount of privacy transactions that can fit in each block. Under the change, worst-case daily download demand falls to 169 megabytes from 271 megabytes. The upgrade specification estimates that basic private payment throughput will more than double to more than six transactions per second from about three.
The fee structure is also changing. Miners will receive 40% of transaction fees, while the remaining 60% will be removed from circulation and placed in a separate reserve. That reserve is scheduled to be used to fund future block rewards starting in February 2031, while Zcash's total supply cap of 21 million coins will remain unchanged.
The upgrade also formally retires Sprout, the first privacy pool in Zcash, which launched in 2016. As a result, about 12,224 ZEC has become unusable. Co-founder Sean Bowe has proposed a recovery plan, but no proposal has been formally approved.
