Tomorrow at 10:30 a.m., Zcash will close off a route
About 12,000 $ZEC are still sitting in the pool, worth $16 million
The private keys are in their owners’ hands, and the coins are on the ledger—but they can’t be spent
This isn’t a hack or a burn
NU7 activates tomorrow at block 3,543,405, disabling v4 transactions—the only format that can withdraw from the Sprout pool
Sprout was the privacy pool of 2016. Sapling and Orchard replaced it long ago, and only longtime users are still parked there
After tomorrow, things will get strange: you own the coins, but the network won’t recognize the way you’re trying to spend them
Migration makes it even worse
New wallets don’t support Sprout keys. You’ll have to run an old node or use third-party tools, and scan the full 280 GB
And withdrawals have to go through the transparent pool, making the amount public
To save your money, you have to give up your privacy
This was decided by a vote
In September’s governance vote, 2.4 million ZEC participated, with 99.9% in favor of disabling v4
The process was legitimate; the result was a majority voting to lock up a minority’s assets
I see two issues here
Ownership and usability are two different things. The blockchain ledger only records the former; whether you can move your coins depends on which formats the network recognizes
For the privacy sector, this is a long-term discount factor: established projects can lock out longtime users—why should other coins be any different?
The market impact is small: 0.14% of the circulating supply. Don’t use this as a reason to chase shorts
But it damages the narrative: people buy privacy coins because they believe “the assets belong only to me.” Now you have to add, “as long as the protocol still recognizes them.”
There’s only one thing to do now
Dig out your old backups from 2016–2018—wallet.dat or addresses starting with zc. If you find any, check the balance and move the coins before tonight
Coins on exchanges, at transparent addresses, or at newer privacy addresses aren’t affected
One key, one ledger, one closed-off channel
Do your coins really belong to you, or to the current version of the protocol?
#Zcash预计NU7升级致1600万美元ZEC无法转出
About 12,000 $ZEC are still sitting in the pool, worth $16 million
The private keys are in their owners’ hands, and the coins are on the ledger—but they can’t be spent
This isn’t a hack or a burn
NU7 activates tomorrow at block 3,543,405, disabling v4 transactions—the only format that can withdraw from the Sprout pool
Sprout was the privacy pool of 2016. Sapling and Orchard replaced it long ago, and only longtime users are still parked there
After tomorrow, things will get strange: you own the coins, but the network won’t recognize the way you’re trying to spend them
Migration makes it even worse
New wallets don’t support Sprout keys. You’ll have to run an old node or use third-party tools, and scan the full 280 GB
And withdrawals have to go through the transparent pool, making the amount public
To save your money, you have to give up your privacy
This was decided by a vote
In September’s governance vote, 2.4 million ZEC participated, with 99.9% in favor of disabling v4
The process was legitimate; the result was a majority voting to lock up a minority’s assets
I see two issues here
Ownership and usability are two different things. The blockchain ledger only records the former; whether you can move your coins depends on which formats the network recognizes
For the privacy sector, this is a long-term discount factor: established projects can lock out longtime users—why should other coins be any different?
The market impact is small: 0.14% of the circulating supply. Don’t use this as a reason to chase shorts
But it damages the narrative: people buy privacy coins because they believe “the assets belong only to me.” Now you have to add, “as long as the protocol still recognizes them.”
There’s only one thing to do now
Dig out your old backups from 2016–2018—wallet.dat or addresses starting with zc. If you find any, check the balance and move the coins before tonight
Coins on exchanges, at transparent addresses, or at newer privacy addresses aren’t affected
One key, one ledger, one closed-off channel
Do your coins really belong to you, or to the current version of the protocol?
#Zcash预计NU7升级致1600万美元ZEC无法转出
