Zcash Holders Vote Overwhelmingly for 25-Second Blocks and Against Touching Halvings in Historic NU7 Poll
Zcash holders have overwhelmingly backed faster blocks and the network’s existing halving schedule in a private governance poll that drew nearly 2.4 million ZEC of participation, one of the largest displays of economic stake the privacy network has ever seen.
The Zcash Community Forum’s published NU7 coinholder results show participation equal to roughly 66% of the 3.6 million ZEC held in the eligible Ironwood pool at the snapshot height. Organizers had set 1 million ZEC as the minimum participation level needed to consider the poll representative of coinholders, a threshold that was cleared by a wide margin.
Voting closed on Sept. 14 at 19:00 UTC after eligible balances were recorded at mainnet block 3,459,350 on Aug. 24. Only spendable shielded funds held in Ironwood at the snapshot could participate, while the coins could be moved afterward without affecting voting eligibility.
A 99.9% Mandate for Speed
Among the clearest results, roughly 99.9% of participating ZEC supported reducing Zcash’s block target from 75 seconds to 25 seconds. The proposal, set out in ZIP 218, pairs the shorter block interval with changes designed to keep issuance over wall-clock time at its existing rate.
Moving to three times as many blocks does not mean miners would receive three times as much new ZEC per day. ZIP 218 divides the per-block subsidy by a further factor of three after NU7 activation, maintaining the scheduled issuance rate while blocks arrive more frequently. The draft calculates a post-NU7 subsidy of 0.26041666 ZEC per block under the current reward level.
For users, the change promises faster transaction confirmations on a network that has long lagged competitors in block cadence, without inflating the supply schedule.
Coinholders Reject Smooth Issuance
Coinholders separately rejected a change to the network’s halving model. The published tally shows 2,375,932.375 ZEC supporting preservation of halvings, compared with just 22,384.875 ZEC favoring a smooth issuance curve. Another 4,147.625 ZEC preferred leaving issuance smoothing out of NU7, while 1,072.125 ZEC abstained.
The alternative, described in ZIP 234, would have replaced the step-based halving system with a gradually declining block subsidy calculated from the remaining money reserve. The proposal retains Zcash’s supply ceiling but changes how newly issued ZEC would reach the market over time. The message from coinholders was unambiguous: Bitcoin-style halvings stay.
How a Privacy Coin Voted in Secret
The voting system itself is a technical milestone. A dedicated chain created by Valar Group let economic stake determine voting weight without exposing each participant’s shielded balance alongside their choices. A distributed election authority of at least 10 validators held separate decryption-key shares. Individual validators cannot recover voter identities, while at least two-thirds of the validator set is required to recover the final aggregate tally.
Each vote was homomorphically encrypted, meaning validators could combine encrypted votes and produce totals without first revealing every ballot. Individual votes were split into 16 unlinkable pieces to preserve balance privacy even in a scenario where validators tried to coordinate, according to Valar Group developer Dev Bharel’s explanation in the governance thread.
Five groups were named in the coordinator structure: Project Tachyon, Valar Group, the Zcash Foundation, Zodl and Shielded Labs. Wallets including Vizor and Zodl supported the process, while the voting-chain software and tally-auditing tools were published for public inspection.
The mechanism became possible after Zcash activated Ironwood in July. Ironwood replaced the earlier Orchard shielded pool following disclosure of a flaw that could theoretically have allowed undetectable counterfeit ZEC. The new pool introduced stronger supply controls and became the source of balances eligible for the NU7 coinholder poll.
The 2031 Compromise on Recycled Fees
The sharpest difference between coinholders and other Zcash governance groups concerned when ZEC removed through the Network Sustainability Mechanism should begin returning through future block rewards. Coinholders allocated 2,319,643.750 ZEC to a February 2031 start date, roughly 96.6% of participating ZEC on that question. Only 70,239.625 ZEC favored beginning as soon as possible.
The NSM framework contemplates taking ZEC out of circulation and recycling it later through block subsidies without raising the maximum supply. ZIP 235 proposes removing at least 60% of transaction fees from circulation, with the remainder continuing to provide miner incentives.
A post-poll statement from representatives of Shielded Labs, Project Tachyon, ZODL, the Zcash Foundation and Valar Group aligned on February 2031 as the most conservative interpretation of the results, while leaving open the possibility of another poll if circumstances warrant an earlier start.
Meanwhile, the parallel Zcash Community Advisory Panel poll drew 135 ballots from 198 eligible members, a 68% response rate. Unlike coinholders, the panel was closely divided over issuance smoothing, recording 57 votes for smoothing and 54 for preserving halvings, a split that underscores why the coinholder poll was designed as the stronger signal.
What Happens Before NU7 Ships
Coinholders also backed moving NU7 forward without waiting indefinitely for every proposed component, supporting the removal of features unfinished by Sept. 30 so the upgrade can ship, and endorsed disabling version 4 transactions immediately at activation. That retires the remaining functionality associated with the legacy Sprout pool, which now holds fewer than 23,000 ZEC, with v4 transactions accounting for less than 0.1% of transaction volume.
A vote does not itself modify Zcash consensus rules. Developers describe the process as a sentiment poll for consensus changes, with implementation still requiring technical specifications, code, testing and ecosystem agreement. No NU7 activation height is currently specified.
Market reaction was muted. At the latest Sept. 16 reading, CoinGecko placed ZEC near 1,146 USD, up around 2% over 24 hours, with a market capitalization near 19.4 billion USD. ZEC had already staged a sharp rally before the poll closed, trading near 1,216 USD on Sept. 10 after climbing from roughly 814 USD during the preceding week.
For a network often criticized for opaque governance, the NU7 poll delivered something rare: a verifiable, privacy-preserving referendum in which nearly two-thirds of eligible stake voted, and the community’s economic majority spoke with almost total clarity.
Disclosure: This article does not represent investment advice. The content is for educational purposes only.
2.4 million ZEC voting, 66 percent of the Ironwood pool. for a privacy coin where participation is usually crickets this is genuinely historic
25 second blocks is the real news here. faster shields and better UX for a chain that has felt sluggish forever
@anon_orchard agreed, though 25s blocks means more total blocks to sync. hope the devs factored the node load in
node load is real, 3x blocks means 3x headers. pruned nodes will feel it before full nodes do
pruned nodes get the worst of it. tried syncing one on a pi last year and even 75s headers were painful, 25s triples that overhead
syncing a pruned node on a pi was your first mistake lol. hopefully zip 218 ships with better commitment tree handling, otherwise 3x blocks is gonna hurt small node operators the most
voting no on touching halvings was the correct call. messing with emission schedules mid-cycle would have wrecked the monetary credibility
agreed on keeping the halvings untouched, but 99.9 percent approval on 25s blocks is the wild part. basically means the forum framed the question so nobody could argue. good for shielded tx UX tho
cleared the 1 million ZEC threshold by 2.4x. whoever set that bar low owes the forum a drink lol
1 million threshold probably set by organizers scared of low turnout, then 2.4m shows up lol. next poll should raise the bar just to keep it honest
1 million bar cleared by 2.4x, turnout shamed every dao vote this year combined
2.4x the bar and 66 percent of ironwood showing up. whoever set the 1 million threshold played it way too safe lol
66 percent of eligible ironwood zec voted, that beats most shareholder elections lol. whoever set the 1m zec bar played it very safe
99.9% for 25 second blocks. when does any vote anywhere hit 99.9. zcash holders really hated waiting 75 seconds per confirmation
2.37 million ZEC voted to keep halvings versus 22 thousand. The smooth issuance crowd got absolutely buried.
99.9 percent happens when the alternative was waiting 75 seconds for a shield. easiest vote in zcash history
more blocks also means more note commitments to sync, shielded sync is already the bottleneck. 25s better ship with serious optimization
this is the real cost of 25s blocks. shielded sync already dominates the ux, tripling commitment events needs serious optimization shipped with zip 218 or small node operators tap out
zip 218 dividing the subsidy by three keeps daily issuance flat around 0.26 zec per block, faster confirms with zero extra inflation. clean design tbh
flat issuance is the whole argument. zec already fights the privacy coin inflation fud, faster blocks without extra emission was the only sellable combo
2.4 million ZEC voting on block timing while bigger chains cannot get 10 percent turnout for anything. shielded money talking with its full weight for once
keeping halvings intact 2.37 million to 22 thousand was the actual headline. shielded holders defending monetary credibility over convenience
2.37 million to 22 thousand and people still say privacy coin holders never cared about governance. this poll was the loudest possible rebuttal
2.37m to 22k on halvings is the quiet landslide. zip 218 keeping issuance flat made both sides easy to say yes
snapshot aug 24 at block 3459350, voting closed sept 14, coins movable in between without losing eligibility. whoever designed that mechanic thought it through, more polls like this please