Zcash NU7

The activation height for NU7 has not yet been set.

What is NU7?

NU7 is planned to be the ninth major network upgrade for Zcash. For an indication of what is likely to be included, see the NU7 Candidate ZIPs at zips.z.cash.

How do I upgrade?

If NU7 includes major consensus changes as expected, then it will not be supported by zcashd. In order to prepare for this upgrade, you will need to upgrade to the Zebra consensus node developed by the Zcash Foundation.

Zebra is an independent Zcash node implementation written in the memory-safe Rust language. Since Zebra was implemented from scratch in an async, parallelized way, Zebra is currently faster than zcashd. It is consensus-compatible with zcashd, and Zebra and zcashd nodes will co-exist on the network in the run-up to NU7.

Zcashd is being deprecated in 2025.

Full nodes are being migrated to zebrad, and the Zallet wallet is being built as a replacement for the zcashd wallet. Click here for more info on Zcashd deprecation.

If you are unsure about how to switch from zcashd to Zebra or how to upgrade your Zebra node, don’t worry! The Zebra Book should answer most upgrade-related questions.

Note for ASIC Miners

ASIC miners do not verify consensus rules, and it is likely that NU7 will not alter the block header, so there’s no specific upgrade action needed on their part. They rely on the mining pool they’re connecting to, which is responsible for upgrading its nodes.

Additional Resources