Zcash developers are targeting November 5 for the NU7 mainnet upgrade after ecosystem organisations and engineering teams agreed on its planned scope and timetable. The upgrade is expected to introduce 25-second block intervals, deactivate version 4 transactions and implement a Network Sustainability Mechanism. A testnet activation is scheduled for October 6, while the final mainnet decision and activation height are expected to be made on October 20 after developers review testnet performance.
NU7 is coming! All of the Zcash development orgs have come to unanimous agreement about the contents and timeline of our next network upgrade, following the sentiment collection results earlier this week.
Activation approximately November 5.
Learn more:https://t.co/3pSKptV9gO
— Sean Bowe (@ebfull) September 17, 2026
Zcash developer Sean Bowe said on September 17 that the Zcash Foundation, Project Tachyon, Valar Group, ZODL, Shielded Labs and relevant engineering teams had reached agreement on the planned package and schedule.
The current development timeline sets September 30 as the feature-completion deadline. Code intended for NU7 is expected to be ready for inclusion in the testnet upgrade by that date. Developers will then activate the upgrade on testnet on October 6 and observe its performance for about two weeks.
On October 20, developers are expected to decide whether the upgrade is ready for mainnet and set the activation height. The November 5 date will proceed only if the testnet review supports the planned deployment.
One of the main changes is a reduction in Zcash’s target block interval from 75 seconds to 25 seconds. The change would produce roughly three times as many blocks over the same period, while the subsidy per block would be reduced so that daily ZEC issuance remains unchanged.
The shorter interval is intended to provide faster confirmations, which could be useful for payments, exchange deposits and cross-chain transactions that depend on block confirmations.
However, faster blocks also create additional technical considerations. A draft proposal estimates a theoretical stale-block rate of about 3.26% at the new interval. Testing with 99 geographically distributed Zebra nodes and 2 MB blocks produced a 4.86% stale-block rate and a 0.37% fork rate.
NU7 is also expected to deactivate version 4 transactions. The change affects the older Sprout shielded pool as Zcash continues its transition toward newer privacy technology.
The Network Sustainability Mechanism will preserve Zcash’s existing halving schedule under the selected configuration. Previously removed ZEC is expected to begin returning to circulation from February 2031, subject to the final rules and technical review.
Bowe said NU7 would not introduce a new transaction format and should not require major wallet changes. Full nodes, indexers and block explorers may need updates to handle the new consensus rules.
The upgrade comes as ZEC has recently experienced significant market activity, although the price movement cannot be attributed solely to NU7. The next key milestones are the September 30 feature deadline, October 6 testnet activation and October 20 mainnet decision.
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