Zcash Community to Vote on Halving Abolition and Network Sustainability Mechanism

The Zcash community is set to vote on several key proposals, including the abolition of the halving mechanism and the introduction of a Network Sustainability Mechanism (NSM). The vote will take place between August 25th and September 14th, 2026. If approved, the NSM would introduce a steady and slowly declining curve for the issuance of new ZEC coins, rather than the current fixed halving schedule.

The proposal is aimed at addressing the issue of security budget, which is currently tied to the fixed halving schedule. According to the proposal, this mechanism provides no way of feeding funds removed from circulation back into issuance later, and once the planned issuance ends, securing the network rests on transaction fees alone.

Another key question on the ballot is the reissuance of transaction fees, which could start immediately or in 2027 or 2031. The vote also includes questions about shutting down the old Sprout pool, reducing block time from 75 to 25 seconds, and postponing or rejecting the NU7 protocol upgrade.

Only holders of shielded, spendable ZEC in the Ironwood pool are eligible to participate in the vote, and the snapshot is taken at mainnet block height 3,459,350. The result will be recorded through a purpose-built Tokenholder Voting Chain, which serves only to collect ballots and leaves the Zcash main chain untouched.