Edition #18Sunday, July 19, 2026

Zcash Weekly — July 19, 2026

Zakura 1.0.0 launches — a new Zcash node targeting 50K TPS. zcashd retires after 10 years. Dash integrates Orchard. Ironwood in 9 days.

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Archive note: this edition uses the current ZecBlock name and links. Reporting and publication dates are unchanged.

Zakura 1.0.0: A New Zcash Node Targeting 50,000 TPS

The biggest infrastructure announcement in Zcash since Zebra. Valar Group and Project Tachyon (Sean Bowe + Dev Ojha) released Zakura 1.0.0 on July 15 — a Zcash full node forked from Zebra, built for scale. Zakura syncs mainnet in 4 hours 20 minutes (vs Zebra's ~20 hours), supports native block pruning (bootstrap from snapshot in under 2 minutes), includes a zcashd-compatibility mode for legacy integrations, and ships with an experimental P2P v2 transport layer targeting sub-500ms block propagation. The long-term target: 50,000 TPS via Tachyon's recursive proofs and Valar's private information retrieval. CoinDesk covered it. ZF welcomed the fork publicly. 29 Zakura nodes are already live on mainnet. zakura.com · CoinDesk · GitHub

zakura.com

zcashd Retired After 10 Years

On July 18, zcashd reached its scheduled end-of-life at block 3,417,100. The original C++ node software that launched Zcash in 2016 is gone. The network now runs entirely on Rust-based clients — Zebra and Zakura. Cypherpunk: "BREAKING: after 10 years, zcashd is officially retired. The chain now runs on Zebra and Zakura." ZF released zcashd-compatibility preview builds (Zebra 6.0.0-zcashd-compat.1 and .2) during the final week to smooth the transition for operators still using zcashd RPC interfaces. zodl_co tweet · cypherpunk tweet

zodl_co tweet

Dash Integrates Zcash's Orchard Protocol

Dash activated Orchard-based shielded pools on its Evolution chain on July 17 via Dash Platform v4.0.0. The implementation is a Dash-parameterized fork of Zcash's Orchard crate with 1-second confirmations and 20-second wallet sync. Dash CTO Samuel Westrich said the Orchard code was "open source and mature, which made it easier to add than expected." Validation of Zcash's privacy technology being adopted by a $431M market cap chain — regardless of the timing relative to the Orchard bug. Cryptopolitan · GitHub release

Cryptopolitan

Ecosystem

Forbes names ZEC in its 2026 Top 10 Cryptocurrencies

(July 16). Zcash joined BTC, ETH, SOL, HYPE, and five others on the Forbes Advisor shortlist — filtered for $5B+ market cap with utility or store-of-value criteria. ZEC jumped 17% on the news. Forbes cited the 2024 halving, tightening shielded supply, and the SEC closing its investigation without enforcement. They also flagged MiCA 2027 and the Orchard bug as risks. Forbes · BeInCrypto analysis

Forbes

Noir Wallet Desktop App launched.

The Chrome extension wallet expanded to a standalone desktop application this week, adding to its Keystone hardware integration and RHEA DeFi suite.

Flutter/Dart Zcash SDK released.

Developer kamba888 published a comprehensive SDK: zec_wallet (core Dart layer over librustzcash), zec_wallet_ui (drop-in wallet UI), and zec_wallet_ui_platform (native companion). Supports shielded send/receive, unified addresses, and lightwalletd sync.

Irondevs Contest launched.

jenkin (CodeZ) announced a 1 ZEC prize for data storytelling/visualization projects built on CodeZ's Zcash source mirror, focused on the Ironwood activation.

Governance & Grants

New submissions this week:

- Legitimacy Beyond Transparency (#360) — privacy and institutional trust

Still under review: Ursa Chat (#354), Chadwick Bailey (#353), Go Transaction Parser (#352), FROST Multi-Sig SDK (#351), Web3Lagos (#349), Light Client Privacy Transport (#348), Zcash Arabia (#347), Türkiye RLAY HUB (#346), Zcash Explained (#345), ZECsy Amsterdam (#344), Indexer Observatory (#343), Constant-Time Hardening (#342), KeepKey Orchard (#341), Offensive Security (#340), Privacy Stack (#339).

Protocol & Development

Zebra 6.1.0 + 6.2.0 Security Releases (July 17)

Two security releases in one day. 6.1.0 fixes issues in block verification, node liveness, and mining. 6.2.0 followed with additional hardening. No consensus changes — all operators should upgrade before July 28. ZF also shipped zcashd-compat preview builds (6.0.0-zcashd-compat.1 and .2) with RPC compatibility for operators still using zcashd-style interfaces. Zebra 6.1.0 · Zebra 6.2.0 · ZF tweet

Zebra 6.1.0

Zaino 0.6.0 Stable (July 13)

Full Ironwood support: v6 transaction format, Orchard→Ironwood pool transition, unified NodeBackedIndexerService. This is the Ironwood-ready version for wallet and indexer infrastructure. Release

Release

ZF Engineering Update (June 29–July 12)

Zebra v6.0.0 shipped with full NU6.3 support. New shielded pool + v6 tx format. Several security fixes. Read-only secondary DB access confirmed working for indexers. ZF tweet

ZF tweet

Ironwood Mainnet: 9 Days

Activation at block 3,428,143 (~July 28, 8AM EST). All infrastructure must be on Zebra 6.x or Zakura 1.x. The zcashd-compat builds bridge legacy integrations. No further date changes announced.

Tweets of the Week

"Ironwood goes live in ten days. The possibility of counterfeiting bugs in our project has kept me awake at night. No more."
— @ebfull · link

"BREAKING: after 10 years, zcashd is officially retired. The chain now runs on Zebra and Zakura."
— @cypherpunk · link

"Great work to everyone in the decade long path! From Zcashd builders at ECC/ZODL, every node operator and miner in the community, to ZF for the foresight into making an all Rust implementation, deviating away from Bitcoin's rules. Its paved the foundation for great things."
— @zkDragon · link

Forum Highlights

Zakura introduction and ZF response

ZF's statement "this is good for Zcash, and we welcome it" set the tone. The @ZakuraZcash account's thread documenting the ecosystem effort to ship Ironwood in 6 weeks — crediting Shielded Labs for disclosure, ZODL for the patch, Tachyon for verification, Valar Group and ZF for shipping NU6.3 — is the clearest public coordination summary published so far.

Gustavo Valverde on "End-to-End Zcash Products"

ZF engineer initiated a discussion on the need for visible, documented integration paths for Zcash products. A key developer-experience gap being acknowledged at the foundation level.

zcashd retirement reflections

nuttycom (Kris Nuttycombe): "Thank you zcashd. But thank you also to @ZcashFoundation, whose diligent work on zebrad has made it ready to take over the network."

Privacy Corner

Migrating Privately to Ironwood

In 9 days, Ironwood activates. Every Orchard user will eventually migrate funds to the new pool through the turnstile. Here's what that means for your privacy — and what you can do about it.

When you migrate, two things become observable: the amount transferred and the approximate timing. If you're the only person migrating at a given moment, your old-pool activity and new-pool activity become trivially linked.

How to protect yourself:

1. Migrate with the crowd. The more users migrating simultaneously, the larger your anonymity set. Don't rush on day one unless many others are too — and don't wait until you're alone at the end.

2. Split amounts. A single migration of exactly 247.38 ZEC is more identifiable than three migrations of common round-ish amounts spread over days.

3. Don't immediately transact. If you migrate 500 ZEC and immediately send 500 ZEC from the new pool, the timing correlation is obvious. Let your funds sit before acting.

4. Use wallet-default timing. Most wallets will batch migrations automatically. Trust the wallet's timing over manual action — it's designed to blend you in.

The turnstile verifies supply integrity. Your job is to make sure you're not the only one walking through it at any given moment.

Network Snapshot

ZEC Price

$527.16 · +1.0%

Market Cap

$8.85B · —

24h Volume

$266.1M · —

Block Height

3,417,911 · +7,839

Network Upgrade

NU6.2 (Ironwood T-9 days, block 3,428,143) · —

Chain Size

~257 GB · —

Zcash Privacy Index

Privacy Score

29 · 29

Shielded Pool

4,387,059 ZEC · 4,387,712 ZEC

Shielded % of Supply

26.1% · 26.1%

Orchard Pool

3,771,067 ZEC · —

Sapling Pool

590,583 ZEC · —

Privacy Metrics

Privacy Score

29 · 29

Shielded Pool

4,387,059 ZEC · 4,387,712 ZEC

Shielded % of Supply

26.1% · 26.1%

Orchard Pool

3,771,067 ZEC · —

Sapling Pool

590,583 ZEC · —

Cross-Chain Activity (24h)

Inflows

Ethereum ($2.38M), Tron ($80K), Bitcoin ($69K)

Outflows

Tron ($1.22M), Ethereum ($926K), Arbitrum ($202K)

24h Volume

$6.16M across 572 swaps

Network Health

Active Nodes

320 (+53.8% WoW)

Countries

Tor Nodes

The node count jumped 54% in one week — from ~208 to 320. That's Zakura. Within 4 days of launch, 29 Zakura nodes are live alongside 178 Zebra instances. The network has never had this much client diversity. The shielded pool is flat (~-650 ZEC), meaning deshielding pressure has essentially stopped as the ecosystem waits for Ironwood. Cross-chain volume remains elevated at $6.16M/day — capital continues flowing in from Ethereum and Tron. ZEC holding steady above $520 into activation week.

Live data →

Tool Updates

ZecBlock

Shipped Ironwood supply audit with live Zebra reconciliation (authoritative pool balance verification), exchange address labels (Gemini, Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, Hyperunit), node GeoIP map, and core-first sitemaps for SEO. API endpoints now at 104.

What's Ahead

July 23Arborist Call resumes.
July 28Ironwood/NU6.3 mainnet activation (block 3,428,143).
Jul 31–Aug 14Q3 CDRGP retroactive grants proposal window.
Aug 31–Sep 6Cypherpunk Week Amsterdam.
October 27–29Zcon7, Cancún. Zcash turns 10.