Zcash is preparing Network Upgrade 7, scheduled for around November 5, 2026 at block height 3,543,405, to reduce the interval between blocks from 75 to 25 seconds and disable Sprout transactions. ZEC holders in the legacy Sprout pool must migrate their funds to the Sapling pool, while mainnet operators must deploy Zebra 7.0.0, released on October 22, 2026, before activation to remain on the consensus chain. The average wait for a first confirmation should therefore be cut by two-thirds, without changing the amount of ZEC issued per day. The upgrade also introduces a Network Sustainability Mechanism that removes 60% of transaction fees from circulation and places them in a reserve, while miners retain the remaining 40%, with a partial reissue from that reserve beginning at height 8,939,664. It raises the limits on Orchard, Ironwood and Sapling activity, enabling up to 6.6 transactions per second compared with 2.9 previously, cuts the worst-case synchronization bandwidth that can be imposed on light wallets by about 37% and fixes seven security advisories, while leaving the halving schedule and the 21 million ZEC supply cap unchanged.
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