Zcash's NU7 Upgrade Is Live, and Blocks Now Target 25 Seconds

Zcash flipped the switch on NU7 on Nov. 6, according to CoinDesk Research's November Zcash Monthly. The network upgrade reshapes how fast the chain aims to produce blocks: the target now sits at 25 seconds instead of 75. That's a threefold speed-up in the chain's block cadence.

The scary part of any big protocol change is a chain split, and it didn't happen. Zcash kept running as one chain through the activation. CoinDesk Research also noted that most of the service categories it tracks were already NU7-ready when the upgrade landed.

What didn't change matters just as much. ZEC's hard cap of 21 million coins stays exactly where it was, and the halving schedule is untouched. For holders, the scarcity math that underpins Zcash's monetary policy survived the upgrade intact.

NU7 is a network upgrade, meaning nodes and the services built around Zcash had to be prepared for the new rules ahead of activation. The research shop's monthly check-in suggests the ecosystem largely did its homework, with the tracked service categories mostly ready to go.

Shorter target block times mean the chain aims to churn out blocks more frequently than before. The next question is how the rest of the ecosystem settles in now that NU7 is live and the chain has cleared activation without drama.