Zcash holders have given near-unanimous approval to key technical changes for the network's next major upgrade, NU7, in a governance vote that drew roughly two-thirds of eligible tokens. Nearly 2.4 million ZEC participated out of approximately 3.6 million eligible at the snapshot.
The vote results show strong consensus: 99.9% of participating ZEC backed reducing block times from 75 seconds to 25 seconds, while 98.9% voted to preserve Zcash's bitcoin-style halving schedule, where miners' newly created coin rewards are cut in half at fixed intervals.
How the Vote Worked
The voting process was structured to maintain privacy protections inherent to Zcash. Only coins held in Ironwood, the network's newest private transaction pool, were eligible to vote. Ballots were encrypted and split into 16 separate pieces before being counted, allowing validators to determine results without reconstructing which holder cast which vote or how much ZEC they controlled.
Organizers had set 1 million ZEC as the minimum turnout threshold to treat results as representative of coinholders. The vote met this standard with participation equivalent to roughly two-thirds of eligible tokens.
Other Governance Decisions
Holders also voted 96.6% in favor of delaying the reissuance of ZEC collected through the Network Sustainability Mechanism until February 2031. This mechanism removes funds from circulation, including at least 60% of transaction fees, and eventually recycles the ZEC through future block rewards without changing the network's maximum supply.
Additionally, 99.3% of voters backed shipping NU7 as soon as possible rather than waiting for every approved component to be implemented, with a September 30 readiness deadline for included features.
Transaction Speed Improvements
The vote to reduce block times aligns with broader efforts to accelerate private ZEC payments. The shorter block times generally mean users see payments confirmed faster, as blocks are batches of transactions added to the network.
While the vote provides developers with clear direction for NU7, the selected features still require implementation, testing, and inclusion in the eventual network upgrade.
