Zcash NU7 Network Upgrade Launches on Testnet

Zcash has activated its NU7 network upgrade on the public testnet, marking a significant step toward its mainnet rollout scheduled for November. The upgrade went live at block 4,465,026 on October 4, slightly ahead of the anticipated October 6 activation. NU7 introduces several key changes, including a reduction in target block times from 75 seconds to 25 seconds. This adjustment aims to decrease the average wait for a first confirmation to about 25 seconds while maintaining the existing issuance schedule and halving timetable.

The upgrade also introduces the Network Sustainability Mechanism (NSM), which allocates 60% of transaction fees to a reserve and 40% to miners. Part of the reserve can later be reissued as block rewards, though the 21 million ZEC supply cap remains unchanged. Additionally, NU7 imposes limits on shielded activity to manage network and wallet workloads as blocks become more frequent. It sets limits of 330 Orchard or Ironwood actions and 300 Sapling inputs and outputs, alongside a shared 330-action budget.

Another notable change is the invalidation of version 4 transactions, which rely on the older Sprout privacy system. ZEC remaining in the Sprout pool after NU7 reaches mainnet would become unspendable unless moved beforehand. Version 5 and version 6 transactions remain valid. Zcash developers are set to review the testnet results on October 20 before finalizing the mainnet activation height, with the current target set for November 5.

Meanwhile, ZEC is trading around $1,335, up about 2.9% over 24 hours, with roughly $625 million in 24-hour trading volume and a market cap of about $22.48 billion. Despite this recent gain, ZEC remains down about 15.6% over the past seven days. The price action puts $1,350-1,462 near-term resistance on the chart, while $1,284 is the immediate downside level from the current 24-hour range.