Fact of the Week
Did you know that Ironwood holds approximately 85% of all shielded ZEC?
As of November 8, around 4.24 million ZEC was held in the Ironwood pool, out of approximately 4.99 million ZEC across Zcash’s shielded pools.
Introduced in 2026, Ironwood has become Zcash’s largest shielded pool by balance, following the transition away from Orchard.
📩 In today’s edition
⚡ Zcash Developers Propose 20-Second Blocks
🔐 Vizor Wallet Adds NU7 Support and Improves Ledger Integration
🛡️ Cake Wallet Adds NU7 Support and Ledger Integration
📜 New ZIP Drafts Explore Private Wallet Messaging and Coinholder Voting
🏛️ Zcash Development Fund Enters Community Consultation Phase
🌍 Zcash Expands Developer Outreach Across Africa
🚀 Project Tachyon Outlines Zcash’s Long-Term Scaling Vision
Just days after NU7 reduced Zcash’s target block interval from 75 to 25 seconds, developers Dev Ojha and Evan Forbes introduced a new proposal to bring it down to 20 seconds. The change would further reduce confirmation times, improving the experience for everyday payments, exchange deposits, and cross-chain swaps.
The proposal builds on recent network performance improvements, with stress tests showing orphan rates between 1.9% and 3.3% under different node configurations. To avoid increasing wallet synchronization requirements, the proposed changes would preserve Zcash’s current daily shielded transaction capacity, issuance schedule, and 21 million ZEC supply cap. The draft is expected to be considered in upcoming community polls for potential inclusion in NU7.1, but no activation date has been set.
In a November 2 episode of Bankless, Zcash co-founder Sean Bowe and developer Dev Ojha discussed the technologies needed to scale private payments, including a long-term ambition of reaching 50,000 transactions per second. The conversation explored how Zcash could overcome current limitations in transaction throughput, wallet synchronization, and blockchain storage while preserving its privacy guarantees.
A key part of this vision is Project Tachyon, which is developing recursive zero-knowledge proofs to aggregate shielded transactions, reducing verification costs and the amount of data nodes must retain. The developers also discussed Private Information Retrieval (PIR) as a way for wallets to check for incoming payments without revealing their queries to servers. Tachyon remains under development, with further testing, security reviews, and community approval required before any mainnet activation.
Vizor Wallet released version 0.0.63, bringing full compatibility with Zcash Network Upgrade 7 (NU7) across its desktop and mobile applications. The update allows the wallet to operate under the new network rules, including 25-second blocks, while introducing support for migrating Orchard funds to Ironwood using Ledger hardware wallets.
The release builds on recent improvements to Ledger Bluetooth connectivity, Keystone transaction recovery, and wallet synchronization. Ledger users can now perform immediate migrations to Ironwood with the updated Zcash app, while Vizor provides guidance for completing any migrations interrupted by the network upgrade. These improvements make it easier to manage shielded ZEC while keeping private keys secured on hardware devices.
Cake Wallet released version 6.5.3 for iOS and Android, bringing support for Zcash Network Upgrade 7 (NU7) and Ledger hardware wallets. The update allows users to continue managing shielded ZEC under the network’s new consensus rules, including its faster 25-second block intervals.
The release also expands hardware wallet functionality, allowing users to manage shielded Zcash funds with the added security of a Ledger device. By bringing these capabilities to a multichain wallet, Cake Wallet makes Zcash’s latest improvements accessible to a broader audience.
On November 3, Zcash developer Arya (ZF) introduced two draft Zcash Improvement Proposals (ZIPs) exploring new possibilities for private communication and community governance.
Private Wallet Messaging: Proposes encrypted wallet-to-wallet communication using Orchard keys and anonymity networks, allowing users to exchange messages, payment requests, and transaction-related information without relying on public communication channels.
Lock-Weighted Coinholder Voting: Introduces a voting model where influence depends on both the amount of ZEC held and how long participants commit their funds. The proposal aims to discourage short-term voting manipulation, while raising questions about privacy and the influence of large holders.
Both proposals remain in the early stages of development and are open for community discussion, with no implementation timeline established.
Discussions over the future of Zcash Community Grants (ZCG) are moving into a new phase as the community prepares to evaluate competing proposals for its share of the Development Fund. Following the November 8 submission deadline, the process now shifts toward public consultation, with proposed polling questions scheduled for release on November 9.
Coordinated by Project Tachyon, Shielded Labs, Valar Group, the Zcash Foundation, and ZODL, the consultation period runs through November 15, followed by coinholder and community panel polls from November 16-30. The results will help determine whether any proposal has achieved sufficient support to move forward. If broad agreement emerges, developers and miners could coordinate a follow-up network upgrade, NU7.1, to implement the changes.
Zcash community initiatives are bringing privacy-focused education and development opportunities to more participants across Africa. From November 9-14, BlockchainUNN is hosting Zcash workshops and a dedicated hackathon track in Nigeria, supported by an approved ZecHub DAO proposal. The initiative aims to introduce participants to Zcash development and encourage them to build applications using privacy-preserving technology.
Meanwhile, Zcash East Africa is organizing a developer meetup on November 11 and has proposed a four-day, in-person development program in Nairobi, combining technical workshops, collaborative building sessions, and a community demo day. Together, these initiatives reflect growing efforts to connect regional developers with the tools and opportunities needed to contribute to the Zcash ecosystem.
1. A189 — Add Terp Network’s FIAB DAO to ZecHub DAO
Applicant / Organization: Terp Network — FIAB DAO
Status: Approved / Executed
Voting Results: 14 Yes · 0 No
Description:
- The proposal adds Terp Network’s FIAB DAO as a member of ZecHub DAO, with the aim of operating a Penumbra validator. The initiative expands collaboration between the communities and supports participation in privacy-focused blockchain infrastructure.
2. A188 — Zcash East Africa Operations: November–December 2026
Applicant / Organization: Zcash East Africa
Status: Approved / Executed
Voting Results: 10 Yes · 0 No
Description:
- The proposal supports Zcash East Africa’s operations during November and December 2026, continuing its regional education, community engagement, and adoption initiatives. The funding is intended to sustain outreach activities and strengthen participation in the Zcash ecosystem.
3. A185 — Zcash × BlockchainUNN: Hackathon Track Sponsorship
Applicant / Organization: BlockchainUNN
Status: Approved / Executed
Voting Results: 9 Yes · 2 No · 1 Abstain
Description:
- The proposal supports Zcash’s participation in BlockchainUNN Conference 5.0 in Nigeria, taking place November 9-14, 2026. The initiative includes developer workshops and a dedicated hackathon track designed to introduce participants to Zcash technologies and encourage the development of privacy-focused applications.