Zcash holders vote to keep halvings, delay recycled ZEC until 2031
Zcash holders back halvings and 2031 fund recycling
Zcash coinholders voted overwhelmingly to keep the network's scheduled halvings and to wait until February 2031 before returning ZEC collected by the Network Sustainability Mechanism to future block rewards. The vote was part of an advisory poll on NU7, the next planned network upgrade.
The poll did not activate any changes, set a date for the upgrade, or guarantee that preferred features will be included. It was designed to gauge the preferences of participating coinholders.
Key results from the five-question poll
- Preserving halvings: about 2.376 million ZEC supported keeping halvings, versus about 22,385 ZEC for smoother issuance.
- Start recycling ZEC in February 2031: about 2.32 million ZEC chose that date, with about 70,240 for starting as soon as possible and about 6,283 for February 2027.
- Disable Sprout-era v4 transactions at NU7 activation: about 2.33 million ZEC supported it.
- Reduce target block spacing from 75 seconds to 25 seconds, with per-pool action limits: about 2.4 million ZEC favored it.
- Ship NU7 without any applicable feature that misses a September 30 implementation deadline: about 2.38 million ZEC supported it.
Between 2.399 million and 2.404 million ZEC participated in each question. The poll rules required only one question to pass the million-ZEC threshold for the poll to be considered representative.
What the advisory signals mean
The result gives implementers a strong signal from the economic stake that participated, but it is only advisory. The official NU7 page as of September 17 said the activation height had not been set, and specification work for preserving halvings remained open with deployment values unassigned.
Other Zcash groups gave different signals. The Zcash Community Advisory Panel (a group that provides community input to the Zcash Foundation) drew 135 of 198 eligible members for a 68% response rate. A community-authored recap said ZCAP narrowly favored smoother issuance, while other panels collectively preferred recycled issuance to begin as soon as possible. Those signals differ from the ZEC-weighted poll and are separate advisory inputs.
Mixed signals from other panels
On September 15, a public post said Shielded Labs, Project Tachyon, ZODL, the Zcash Foundation, and Valar Group had aligned on February 2031 as the most conservative interpretation of the outcome. The post added that another poll could revisit the timing if conditions change.
Next steps remain in implementation
The next consequential step is implementation rather than another vote. Specifications, code, review, testing, and a final activation decision will determine which preferences reach the mainnet (the primary network for Zcash) and when.
Sources
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