What to know:
- The Zcash Ironwood Upgrade will seal the Orchard pool during its July 28 activation date.
- Turnstile controls will prevent excess ZEC from leaving the retired Orchard shielded pool.
- Wallets and exchanges may briefly pause ZEC services while completing the NU6.3 rollout.
The Zcash Ironwood Upgrade is scheduled for July 28 and aims to contain any unverified ZEC linked to the Orchard shielded pool flaw. The hard fork will close the old pool. It will also limit how much ZEC can leave.
The upgrade, also called NU6.3, is set for block 3,428,143. It will retire the current Orchard pool. A new shielded pool will use corrected cryptographic circuitry after the activation.
How the Zcash Ironwood Upgrade Will Contain Excess ZEC
Zcash founder Zooko Wilcox explained the plan in a July 19 post on X. He said the network cannot identify or freeze individual counterfeit coins. Orchard hides transaction details by design.
It also means that users would not be able to prove that any counterfeit ZEC was not issued. No signs of any unauthorized creation of tokens were found by developers. But they cannot rule out any abuse in the past for sure.
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The Zcash Ironwood Upgrade will include a turnstile feature that will regulate withdrawal transactions from the old pool. It will count how much legitimate ZEC entered. Any other sum would not be able to withdraw from the pool.
Once the upgrade is implemented, no more transactions with ZEC will be possible within the old Orchard pool. Users will be able to withdraw tokens only through the turnstile. It is supposed to isolate all excess funds, if any are present.
Why Zcash Created a New Pool After the Orchard Flaw
The vulnerability was revealed by security researcher Taylor Hornby on May 29 during the Orchard pool audit. This bug would allow creating counterfeit ZEC. It is quite possible that this activity would not be publicly visible.
Orchard activity was disabled by developers upon finding out about the vulnerability. The functionality was restored after the NU6.2 hard fork, which included fixed cryptography.
The Zcash Ironwood Upgrade also provides a separate pool for future transactions. Any excess value created before this upgrade would stay in the original pool. The node operators would be able to check the allowed circulating supply.
No need for any actions on behalf of users prior to the hard fork. Deposits and withdrawals of funds can be temporarily paused by wallets and exchanges during updates. This service may continue until software is updated by the providers.
To use the new system, Orchard users would need to use specific wallet tools to migrate their funds to the new pool.
Their balances would not be available in wallets that lack such capabilities. The schedule depends on software updates by individual providers.
What Ironwood Means for Zcash Privacy and Supply
The update is planned on July 28, following the network shift to another system. Some providers are currently migrating to the new system. Additional time would be needed to implement the Zcash Ironwood Upgrade successfully.
The Zcash Ironwood Upgrade aims to decrease uncertainty of the supply without compromising the privacy of the transactions. This upgrade will not expose whether there were any exploits. It would prevent unverified value from going into circulation.
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