You can hold the private key in your hand and still be unable to spend your money. That could happen to Zcash as soon as tomorrow. According to CoinDesk, around 12,226 ZEC remain in Sprout, Zcash’s oldest privacy pool. At $1,300 per coin, that’s about $16 million. Once the NU7 upgrade activates, those coins will become unspendable. Even stranger, not even the blockchain can reveal who owns them.
Sprout launched with the mainnet in October 2016 and has long since been superseded by newer pools. Under ZIP 2003, NU7 will reject version 4 transactions—the only format that can spend Sprout coins—because keeping support for them would add software complexity and security risks. The activation height is 3,543,405. Based on block times, CoinDesk estimates it will be reached around Thursday evening U.S. Eastern Time, or Friday in Asia.
ZecStats data shows that the pool still held around 22,263 coins a week ago. About 9,094 flowed out in a single day on Sunday, but only 40 had left by Wednesday. The owners of the remaining 12,000 or so coins may not have seen the news, or they may have lost their private keys long ago. Public data can’t tell us which. These coins still count toward the total supply, and ZIP 2003 also states that spending them may never be enabled again.
The market, meanwhile, is celebrating. According to CoinDesk data from this morning, $ZEC rose 11.7% over 24 hours to around $1,318, leading major coins. The rally comes ahead of NU7, which will also cut block times from 75 seconds to 25. To me, this is a sobering reminder for everyone: “Not your keys, not your coins”—but only if you can keep up with the protocol’s rules. Imagine you put some ZEC into Sprout a few years ago and forgot about it. By the time you remember, it may be impossible to move forever.
Do you have any coins in your wallet that you haven’t touched in years? When was the last time you checked that you could still spend them?
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⚠️ Not investment advice · DYOR
#Zcash #PrivacyCoins #CryptoDaily
Sprout launched with the mainnet in October 2016 and has long since been superseded by newer pools. Under ZIP 2003, NU7 will reject version 4 transactions—the only format that can spend Sprout coins—because keeping support for them would add software complexity and security risks. The activation height is 3,543,405. Based on block times, CoinDesk estimates it will be reached around Thursday evening U.S. Eastern Time, or Friday in Asia.
ZecStats data shows that the pool still held around 22,263 coins a week ago. About 9,094 flowed out in a single day on Sunday, but only 40 had left by Wednesday. The owners of the remaining 12,000 or so coins may not have seen the news, or they may have lost their private keys long ago. Public data can’t tell us which. These coins still count toward the total supply, and ZIP 2003 also states that spending them may never be enabled again.
The market, meanwhile, is celebrating. According to CoinDesk data from this morning, $ZEC rose 11.7% over 24 hours to around $1,318, leading major coins. The rally comes ahead of NU7, which will also cut block times from 75 seconds to 25. To me, this is a sobering reminder for everyone: “Not your keys, not your coins”—but only if you can keep up with the protocol’s rules. Imagine you put some ZEC into Sprout a few years ago and forgot about it. By the time you remember, it may be impossible to move forever.
Do you have any coins in your wallet that you haven’t touched in years? When was the last time you checked that you could still spend them?
See today’s other highlights in the image 👆
⚠️ Not investment advice · DYOR
#Zcash #PrivacyCoins #CryptoDaily
