Cryptoupdated 1h ago2 min read
Zcash Developers ValarDragon and Evan Forbes Propose 20-Second Blocks After NU7
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Zcash developers propose cutting target block interval from 25s to 20s. Proposal aims to speed first confirmations for POS payments, exchange deposits, cross-chain swaps.
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NU7 follows, NU7.1 eyed
Zcash developers ValarDragon and Evan Forbes proposed cutting Zcash's target block interval from 25 seconds to 20 seconds in a draft Zcash Improvement Proposal (ZIP) submitted to the Zcash community forum on Sunday. The proposal targets the NU7.1 network upgrade and asks that the change be included in the next community poll before any activation. The developers said the NU7 upgrade activated on the mainnet on Friday already cut the target block interval from 75 seconds to 25 seconds.
The plan aims to speed up transaction confirmations without placing significantly greater demands on the network. The draft would go to a community poll before any activation and NU7 had already cut the interval from 75 seconds to 25 seconds.
Orphan tests and limits
The draft ZIP said the change would not raise the network's overall daily capacity for private transactions and would preserve the existing issuance schedule even though blocks would be produced more often. CoinCodex reported that developers ran a test with 80 miners spread across 12 regions and found an orphan rate of 1.9% when miners used the same software, called Zakura, and 3.3% when miners used two different implementations, Zakura and Zebra-Andele. CoinGape similarly said the tests recorded orphan rates of 1.9% to 3.3% and described the results as meeting previous safety benchmarks.
CoinCodex said the proposal would keep the 2 MB block size limit while adjusting network settings so that light wallets do not have to download and process more data every day. CoinMarketCap added that NU7 introduced a Network Sustainability Mechanism and kept the 21 million ZEC supply cap intact.
What changes, what stays
The proposal would retain Zcash's 2 MB block size limit while adjusting network settings such that their timing remains the same as it is now. CoinCodex aims to speed up first confirmations for shop payments, exchange deposits, and cross-chain swaps, while exchanges would not need to change their current confirmation requirements. The reduction would shorten the expected wait for initial transaction confirmations and improve the user experience for point-of-sale payments, exchange deposits and cross-chain swaps.
The draft ZIP still has to undergo a community poll, and if the change is accepted it would be included in NU7.1, while if not the target interval would stay at 25s. CoinMarketCap gave a concrete example, saying an exchange requiring three confirmations under NU7's 25-second spacing waits 75 seconds for a deposit to clear, while 20-second blocks would cut that wait to 60 seconds.