Zcash’s NU7 upgrade went live, lowering the target block time from 75 seconds to 25 seconds, while approximately 12,224 ZEC remaining in the old Sprout pool became unspendable.

According to CoinDesk, the upgrade activated on November 6 at 05.34 Turkey time, at block 3,543,405. With the previously announced deadline for Sprout balances now passed, payment speeds and the distribution of transaction fees across the network also changed.

25-second target, 39-second initial measurement

According to ZecStats data, the first 225 blocks produced by 07.59 Turkey time after activation arrived at an average interval of approximately 39 seconds. As mining difficulty continued adjusting to the new speed, the network had not yet reached its 25-second target.

The new target makes it possible for a private payment to receive its first confirmation in an average of 25 seconds. For a service that requires three confirmations, the expected wait could fall from about four minutes to 75 seconds. When users can spend their balances depends on the confirmation requirements of the exchange or payment service.

Increased capacity for private payments

The upgrade specification projects that capacity for simple private payments could rise from approximately three transactions per second to more than six. At the same time, it sets a limit on the amount of private transaction activity that can fit in each block.

Because Zcash wallets scan the network to find their own payments, these limits are intended to reduce the impact of excessive transaction loads on wallets. According to the specification, the highest daily download load drops from 271 megabytes to 169 megabytes.

60% of transaction fees allocated to a reserve

Under the new rules, 40% of transaction fees go to miners. The remaining 60% is removed from circulation and recorded in a reserve to support future block rewards.

The reserve is expected to begin contributing to block rewards around February 2031. The mechanism preserves the total supply cap of 21 million ZEC.

Balances remaining in Sprout are unspendable

NU7 retired Sprout, Zcash’s first privacy pool, launched in 2016. Under the new rules, approximately 12,224 ZEC remaining in the pool became unspendable.

Co-founder Sean Bowe proposed a possible recovery mechanism, but as of Friday, no method had been approved. The possibility of regaining access to these balances therefore depends on a separate measure that could be approved in the future.

Not investment advice.