Zcash Community Backs Bitcoin-Style Halvings and Faster Transactions in NU7 Polls

The Zcash community has expressed a strong preference for traditional Bitcoin-style halvings and faster transaction processing in recent sentiment polls. Closing on September 14, the polls revealed that 98.9% of ZEC coinholders voted to retain the halving mechanism rather than switch to a smoothed issuance model.

Among the proposals discussed, the most significant was the Network Sustainability Mechanism outlined in ZIP 234, which aimed to replace the halving cycle with a gradual issuance curve. However, the community decisively rejected this idea, favoring the halving approach that occurs approximately every four years, with the next anticipated in late 2028.

Another key proposal, ZIP 218, received broad support for reducing the target block interval from 75 seconds to 25 seconds, effectively tripling the network's transaction throughput while maintaining ZEC's hard supply cap of 21 million coins. Additionally, the polls indicated a preference for a later reissuance start date for coins taken out of circulation, set for 2031.

Currently, around 4.89 million ZEC, or 28.9% of the total circulating supply, are held in shielded pools, with shielded transactions accounting for 59.3% of recent network activity. While the polls reflect community sentiment, implementing these proposals will require further development, testing, and formal consensus activation through Zcash’s ZIP mechanism.