ZCash upgrade set to coincide with first halving

The privacy-focused cryptocurrency ZCash is preparing for its first-ever halving. Activation is expected to occur on November 18 on block #1,046,400.

As a result of the halving, miners’ rewards will drop from 6.25 ZEC to 3.125 ZEC. At the same time, the fifth major upgrade named Canopy will be activated. It will launch the Network Development Fund and enhance ZCash’s security.

The forthcoming changes behind the development of the cryptocurrency Electric Coin Company (ECC) and the Zcash Foundation were agreed in July. The Canopy upgrade includes five ZIP proposals to improve the ZCash blockchain (ZIPs).

Activation of ZIP-207 and ZIP-214 will create the Network Development Fund. The first proposal defines a mechanism for supporting funding streams allocated from a portion of the block reward. The second describes changes to the consensus rules regarding the proposed structure of the development fund. The new rules will be in effect for the next four years.

With their activation, the share of miners from the reward funds will amount to 80%. Of the remaining 20% of funds, 8% will go to the Grants Fund, 7% will be reserved for ECC, and 5% for the Zcash Foundation.

ZIP-211 will disable the ability to add new values to the balances of pools that support the old-format Sprout addresses. In doing so, developers take another step toward a full deprecation of the old Sprout (the first iteration of Zcash), reducing the attack surface on the network and the overall complexity of the source code.

ZIP-212 will address potential privacy compromises associated with using diversified addresses. In particular, the proposal would avoid assumptions about the reliability of zk-SNARK technology.

ZIP-215 will modify the signature validity criteria of Ed25519 signatures used in Sprout transactions, making them compatible with batch verification.

From a technical standpoint, the forthcoming upgrade, like all previous major upgrades to the Zcash network, is a hard fork. Accordingly, node operators will need to update their software. To facilitate the process, the developers released a dedicated guide.

In early October, the Electric Coin Company, by a majority vote of investors and stakeholders, decided to reorganize and come under the control of a newly created nonprofit company Bootstrap Project.

A majority of the investors and owners have informed us of their generous willingness to donate ECC in support of our shared mission to empower everyone with economic freedom.https://t.co/ho9nViwgrq#Zcash $ZEC

— Electric Coin Company (@ElectricCoinCo) October 12, 2020

It is stated that this move will not entail a restructuring of ECC’s current structure with its operations, management, and staff. Changes to the governance structure with increased role for the community are planned for the end of 2021.

The ECC reward of 7% of rewards for found blocks will be dedicated exclusively to funding the project’s ‘mission.’ Currently, these funds can be used to operate the company itself.

The nonprofit status is also intended to ease the company’s tax burden.

The fourth major Zcash upgrade, Heartwood, took place in July this year.

Exclusive interview with Zcash’s founder and the CEO of the Electric Coin Company, Zooko Wilcox — coming soon to ForkLog! Don’t miss it!

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