Zcash Foundation Announces Zebra Sync Fixes Ahead of NU7 Upgrade

The Zcash Foundation has announced important synchronization fixes for Zebra nodes, which are crucial for the upcoming NU7 upgrade scheduled for November 5. The foundation reported that the fixes address issues where nodes stopped syncing near the chain tip, ensuring that operators can maintain reliable connections to the network.

In an engineering update released on October 21, the foundation highlighted that the fixes were merged into the development branch, although they have not yet been included in a published release. The synchronization problems were identified after the release of Zebra 7.0.0-rc.0, and the foundation confirmed that similar issues were observed on a mainnet node. The adjustments made will improve how Zebra requests blocks from peers and manages failed downloads.

As the NU7 upgrade approaches, it is critical for operators using the older Zebra 6.4.x client to upgrade, as this version is set to stop functioning around November 2. The upcoming NU7 upgrade aims to reduce block confirmation times from 75 seconds to just 25 seconds, enhancing the overall efficiency of the Zcash network.

While the foundation's update provides a roadmap for the upcoming changes, it emphasizes that the fixes and improvements must be implemented by operators to ensure continued network reliability. The update also includes enhancements to how ZEC amounts are handled through Zebra's RPC types and a migration guide for services transitioning from the zcashd interface.