Zcash holders back faster blocks and bitcoin-style halvings in privacy vote
Zcash holders vote for faster blocks and fixed halvings
Zcash token holders have voted overwhelmingly to make payments faster and to keep the network's bitcoin-style halving schedule.
Nearly 2.4 million ZEC took part in the vote on the scope of NU7, Zcash's next major network upgrade. That is about two-thirds of the roughly 3.6 million ZEC eligible to vote.
Key vote results
- 99.9% of participating ZEC backed cutting block time to 25 seconds from 75 seconds.
- 98.9% voted to keep the existing halving schedule.
- Voters also backed delaying reissuance of Network Sustainability Mechanism fees until February 2031.
- Voters supported disabling transactions tied to the obsolete Sprout privacy system.
How the vote worked
Voting was weighted by ZEC, not by the number of people voting. One eligible ZEC equaled one vote. Organizers had set 1 million ZEC as the minimum turnout for the result to count as representative.
Only ZEC held in Ironwood, Zcash's newest private transaction pool, could vote. "Shielded" means the blockchain can verify that coins exist and are being spent correctly without publicly showing wallet balances or transaction details.
Ballots were encrypted and split into 16 pieces before counting. Validators could add up the final result without seeing which holder cast which vote or how much ZEC that holder controlled. In a standard token vote, a large wallet can reveal its balance and choice. Zcash's system lets that economic weight count while keeping both private.
Why the change matters
Blocks are groups of transactions added to the network. Cutting the time between blocks to 25 seconds from 75 seconds generally means users see payments confirmed faster.
Miners, the computers that help secure the network, are paid partly in newly created ZEC. A halving cuts that new-coin reward in half at fixed intervals. Keeping the halving schedule keeps Zcash's bitcoin-style approach instead of reducing new ZEC gradually over time.
What came before
A February sentiment poll for NU7 drew participation equal to only 7.25% of circulating ZEC. That poll showed sharp disagreements between coinholders and Zcash's Community Advisory Panel, or ZCAP.
The new voting system was introduced this summer to replace the previous token-holder voting process.
What happens next
Holders also voted to launch NU7 as soon as possible. The report does not give a launch date.
