Zcash Holders Vote on NU7 Upgrade Preferences

Participating Zcash coinholders have provided a clear signal for the network's upcoming NU7 upgrade through a series of advisory polls. The results, which saw participation between 2.399 million and 2.404 million ZEC across various questions, indicate a preference for maintaining the current halving schedule rather than transitioning to a smoother issuance curve.

On the question of monetary policy, 2,375,932.375 ZEC were cast in favor of keeping scheduled halvings, while 22,384.875 ZEC supported a smoother issuance model. Regarding the Network Sustainability Mechanism, voters preferred February 2031 as the start date for returning collected ZEC to future block rewards, with 2,319,643.75 ZEC supporting this timeline.

The poll also addressed technical and operational changes. Approximately 2.33 million ZEC supported disabling Sprout-era v4 transactions upon the activation of NU7. Additionally, nearly 2.4 million ZEC favored reducing target block spacing from 75 seconds to 25 seconds, alongside the implementation of per-pool action limits. Voters also supported a proposal to ship the upgrade without any features that fail to meet a September 30 implementation deadline.

While these results provide a signal from the economic stake, the poll is advisory and does not automatically activate changes or guarantee that specific features will be included in the final release. The Zcash Community Advisory Panel showed different preferences, with a community-authored recap noting that the panel narrowly favored smoother issuance and an earlier start date for recycled issuance.

As of September 17, the activation height for the NU7 upgrade had not been set, and specification work for the halving schedule remained ongoing. The next steps for the network involve the development of specifications, code, testing, and a final decision on activation, which will determine which of these preferences are ultimately deployed to the mainnet.