Zcash coinholders have just delivered the largest governance vote in the network’s history, with nearly two-thirds of eligible ZEC participating. Over 2,375,000 ZEC voted to keep the bitcoin-style four-year halving schedule, while just over 22,000 favored switching to smoother, gradual issuance. That result gives a clear mandate for the next upgrade cycle, with NU 7 reaching public testnet on October 4 and mainnet targeted for November 5. 5 independent engineering groups agreed to build NU 7 around the coinholder result. Coinholders also overwhelmingly approved a speed upgrade, cutting block times from 75 seconds to 25 seconds to accelerate transaction processing.
The significance here is twofold: Zcash’s traditionally privacy-focused network has put its core design questions to a record coinholder vote and ended up with a more explicit development roadmap. That contrasts with earlier cycles where fewer voices drove protocol decisions. The next checkpoint is the planned November 5 mainnet rollout, which will test whether that broad consensus carries into execution.