Just now, the Zcash community put a troubling issue on the table: even with your private key in hand, you may not be able to move your coins.
At the heart of the discussion is ZIP 2003, part of the NU7 network upgrade. The proposal plans to disable v4 transactions starting with NU7 activation. Sprout, the oldest privacy pool, can only send funds using v4—v5 and v6 are not supported. Under the current draft, coins left in Sprout after the upgrade would no longer be accepted for spending by the network, even if their private keys remain intact.
A few verifiable figures and milestones:
🔹 A public dashboard shows that, as of October 17, approximately 22,309 ZEC remain in the Sprout pool
🔹 These coins will not be “burned”; they will still count toward the circulating supply. However, the team has not promised that spending will definitely be restored in the future
🔹 NU7 is already running on testnet; the mainnet activation height has not yet been finalized. The coordination timeline lists October 20 as the final decision point, while November 5 remains a tentative target date
🔹 The same upgrade will also reduce the target block interval from about 75 seconds to 25 seconds, but the real sticking point is the removal of the old pool’s spending format
To be clear: this does not mean “all ZEC will be frozen.” Transparent addresses and assets in pools such as Sapling that can use the new format are not subject to the same restriction. The risk mainly affects old balances that have not yet been moved out of Sprout, as well as wallets and toolchains that still construct v4 transactions.
The mainnet decision window arrives tomorrow (October 20). If you still have a very old Zcash wallet, you should first check whether it is still using Sprout rather than guessing about the market.
Do you think the community will stick with the freeze, or leave a way out for the old pool?
#Zcash Proposal would freeze Sprout spending under NU7 #BTC #ETH
At the heart of the discussion is ZIP 2003, part of the NU7 network upgrade. The proposal plans to disable v4 transactions starting with NU7 activation. Sprout, the oldest privacy pool, can only send funds using v4—v5 and v6 are not supported. Under the current draft, coins left in Sprout after the upgrade would no longer be accepted for spending by the network, even if their private keys remain intact.
A few verifiable figures and milestones:
🔹 A public dashboard shows that, as of October 17, approximately 22,309 ZEC remain in the Sprout pool
🔹 These coins will not be “burned”; they will still count toward the circulating supply. However, the team has not promised that spending will definitely be restored in the future
🔹 NU7 is already running on testnet; the mainnet activation height has not yet been finalized. The coordination timeline lists October 20 as the final decision point, while November 5 remains a tentative target date
🔹 The same upgrade will also reduce the target block interval from about 75 seconds to 25 seconds, but the real sticking point is the removal of the old pool’s spending format
To be clear: this does not mean “all ZEC will be frozen.” Transparent addresses and assets in pools such as Sapling that can use the new format are not subject to the same restriction. The risk mainly affects old balances that have not yet been moved out of Sprout, as well as wallets and toolchains that still construct v4 transactions.
The mainnet decision window arrives tomorrow (October 20). If you still have a very old Zcash wallet, you should first check whether it is still using Sprout rather than guessing about the market.
Do you think the community will stick with the freeze, or leave a way out for the old pool?
#Zcash Proposal would freeze Sprout spending under NU7 #BTC #ETH