Zcash coinholders have voted to preserve the network’s bitcoin-style halving schedule and reduce block times from 75 seconds to 25 seconds, according to the results of the NU7 coinholder vote published September 14. The weighted vote, organized by Valar Group and Project Tachyon alongside the Zcash Foundation, drew roughly 2.4 million ZEC, far above the one million ZEC turnout threshold organizers set as the bar for legitimacy. The results will shape NU7, Zcash’s next major network upgrade, which is now being prepared for activation.
Halvings and Faster Blocks Win Overwhelming Support
Nearly all participating ZEC backed quicker settlement. About 2,397,669 ZEC, roughly 99.9 percent of votes cast, supported cutting the block target spacing to 25 seconds, while only 141.6 ZEC opposed the change. A separate question on issuance smoothing saw 2,375,932 ZEC, or about 98.9 percent, favor preserving Zcash’s bitcoin-style halvings over a smoother emission curve that would have reduced the new-coin reward more gradually. Halvings cut the miner block reward in half at fixed intervals, a schedule coinholders clearly want to keep. 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.
A Privacy-Preserving Vote
The ballot’s design was as notable as its outcome. 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. Validators could compute the final tally without learning which holder cast which vote or how much ZEC any single participant controlled, letting economic stake carry weight without exposing balances. The system replaces an earlier polling process and stands in contrast to February’s sentiment poll, which drew participation equal to only 7.25 percent of circulating supply. The result builds on Zcash’s broader push for faster private payments, including work such as Zakura, which has sharply reduced private-transaction proof times.
What NU7 Means Next
On scheduling, 2,382,601 ZEC, about 99.3 percent, backed shipping NU7 as soon as possible while dropping any feature not implemented by the September 30 readiness deadline, keeping the upgrade on track even if a component slips. The vote directs what the NU7 upgrade includes without changing Zcash’s maximum supply, which remains fixed. It follows the NU7 vote details that firm up in August, when organizers first outlined the questions and the dedicated voting chain that would tally them.
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