Zcash Network Activates Ironwood Upgrade on July 28, Retiring Orchard Pool
Zcash's Ironwood upgrade is set to activate on July 28 at mainnet block 3,428,143, marking a significant change in how shielded ZEC transactions are accounted for. The existing Orchard pool will be retired for new outputs, and a new Ironwood shielded pool will take its place. A controlled bridge called a turnstile will constrain the flow of value between the two pools to ensure supply verifiability.
The legacy zcashd client has already reached end-of-life on July 18 at block 3,417,100, and users are advised to update to Zebra 6.0.0 or newer to avoid compatibility issues. Node operators and services will need to migrate to the new stack, which includes a modern configuration pattern and telemetry options.
For everyday users, the biggest visible change is where private funds live. New shielded transactions will be created in the fresh Ironwood pool, and wallets that stay current will either automatically migrate or provide a one-click flow to move remaining Orchard notes via the turnstile.