The timeline for NU7, the privacy network’s upcoming major upgrade, has been locked in by Zcash developers. According to a September 17 post on the Zcash Community Forum, the mainnet activation is scheduled for November 5, following a testnet rollout on October 6. This schedule comes on the heels of a coinholder vote supporting quicker blocks and the existing halving schedule, and it mirrors a unanimous consensus among the Zcash Foundation, Project Tachyon, Valar, ZODL, and Shielded Labs. The upgrade lowers target block spacing from 75 seconds down to 25 seconds and introduces a mechanism to recycle a segment of transaction fees back to miners in future years.
Three-times-faster blocks
Via ZIP-218, NU7 brings target block spacing down to 25 seconds, which is roughly a third of the present 75-second duration. Since transactions receive their initial confirmation upon entering a block, bridges and exchanges relying on a set number of confirmations will be able to release funds in approximately one-third of the previous time. Developers view this reduced wait time as progress toward making direct private payments viable at point-of-sale terminals, despite remaining slower than card taps. The update phases out the legacy v4 transaction format without adding any new ones, meaning wallets will likely require only minor adjustments, whereas full nodes, block explorers, and indexers could need updates. This builds on prior privacy initiatives, such as Zakura Common’s work on accelerating Zcash proofs.
A fee-backed sustainability mechanism
The mainnet will also integrate the Network Sustainability Mechanism through NU7. Pursuant to ZIP-235, about 60 percent of transaction fees will be temporarily taken out of circulation instead of going to miners. These coins will then be fed back via block rewards beginning in February 2031 as the issuance of Zcash declines across subsequent halvings. The underlying coinholder vote saw participation of roughly 2.4 million ZEC—representing 66 percent of the eligible pool—with 98.9 percent endorsing the halving schedule and 96.6 percent supporting February 2031 for the fee-reintroduction milestone.
What happens next
Code completion is targeted for September 30, testnet activation is slated for October 6, and a final decision on the mainnet will occur on October 20 with the selection of an activation height. November 5 is currently a target date rather than an absolute guarantee. This timeline cements the strategy established during the NU7 coinholder vote, which preserved bitcoin-style halvings for Zcash while reducing block times to 25 seconds.
