Zcash Coinholders Back Faster Blocks and Halvings

Zcash coinholders have made their decision regarding the network's future upgrades. In a vote that drew over 2.4 million ZEC, nearly all participants backed quicker settlement times and preserving bitcoin-style halvings. The results of the NU7 upgrade will direct what features are included in the update, which aims to boost private settlement speed, security, and adoption.

The weighted vote, organized by Valar Group and Project Tachyon alongside the Zcash Foundation, saw 2,397,669 ZEC (≈99.9%) supporting cutting block times from 75 seconds to 25 seconds. Only 141.6 ZEC opposed this change. The vote also settled two other questions: 2,319,643 ZEC backed beginning to recycle ZEC removed through the Network Sustainability Mechanism in February 2031, and 2,333,854 ZEC backed deprecating the legacy Sprout pool immediately at NU7 activation.

The voting system used was notable for its privacy-preserving design. Only ZEC held in Ironwood, Zcash's newest shielded pool, was eligible to vote, and ballots were encrypted and split into 16 pieces before counting. This ensured that validators could compute the final tally without learning which holder cast which vote or how much ZEC any single participant controlled.