Zcash’s upcoming NU7 upgrade is nearing its mainnet launch after developers agreed on a block height that will trigger the network’s transition to faster transaction processing.
On Tuesday, developer Sean Bowe submitted a proposal specifying block 3,543,405 as the activation point. The decision followed discussions among Zcash Improvement Proposal (ZIP) editors, who are responsible for reviewing changes to the blockchain’s protocol rules.
Zakura’s public upgrade dashboard lists the same block as the planned activation height, with the mainnet rollout anticipated around Nov. 5.
Once activated, NU7 will reduce the time between Zcash blocks from 75 seconds to 25 seconds, potentially cutting payment confirmation times by two-thirds. An exchange requiring three confirmations before crediting a ZEC deposit could reduce the waiting period from nearly four minutes to approximately 75 seconds. The upgrade has been running on Zcash’s testnet since early October.
The update will also remove 60% of fees collected in each block from circulation, with those funds scheduled to be distributed to miners starting around February 2031. Zcash’s existing schedule for cutting mining rewards in half will remain unchanged.
NU7 will additionally shut down Sprout, Zcash’s original privacy protocol. Any coins still held in Sprout addresses when the upgrade activates will become unspendable. Holders must therefore move their funds before the expected early-November activation.
However, the launch arrangements still require further work. Although Bowe’s proposal had received two approvals, it had not been merged into the deployment specification as of 08:00 UTC Wednesday. The specification continued to show the mainnet activation height as undecided.
Developers must formally incorporate the selected block height into the deployment specification and include it in node software before NU7 can take effect.
