Zcash Holders Back Plan for 25-Second Blocks

Zcash coinholders have voted to reduce the target block time from 75 seconds to 25 seconds, which would speed up transaction processing and increase the likelihood of stale blocks. The vote, which saw over 2.4 million ZEC participating, also supported preserving the existing halving schedule and rejecting a smoother reward curve for miners.

The faster block time would reduce the average wait time for transactions to be confirmed from 75 seconds to 25 seconds, making it more noticeable in situations that rely on one or two confirmations. However, this would also increase the likelihood of stale blocks, which could rise from 0.4% to approximately 3.26%. The technical proposal, ZIP 218, includes limits on how many shielded actions each block can contain to prevent excessive processing demands.

The vote does not activate the Network Upgrade 7 (NU7) changes yet, and the final package must be tested and assigned an activation height before nodes can enforce the new features. The planned Network Sustainability Mechanism would provide a separate source of future miner rewards by removing funds from circulation and recycling them through later block subsidies.