Zcash’s Ironwood network upgrade has a date. July 28. That’s when the privacy-focused blockchain swaps out its compromised Orchard pool for a fresh one.
The upgrade was announced back in June as a fix for what’s been called an “infinity” bug in Orchard, Zcash’s main private transaction pool. The vulnerability was serious enough that Zcash dropped 50% the day it was disclosed — falling from $602 to $299. ZEC has since climbed back to around $492, but the damage to confidence was real.
Ironwood doesn’t just patch the old pool. It replaces it. Funds moving out of Orchard will pass through an accounting checkpoint before landing in the new pool. That checkpoint could reveal whether anyone actually exploited the bug to create counterfeit ZEC tokens. As Shielded Labs put it: counterfeiters face a choice — move the fake funds and risk exposure, or leave them behind forever.
Core developer Sean Bowe confirmed the activation height. Block 3,428,143. That’s expected around 8 AM EST on July 28. The date was pushed back a week from the original July 21 target after Shielded Labs warned that exchanges, mining pools, and wallets needed more time to prepare.
One more milestone worth noting: Zcash just crossed 80% of its max 21 million ZEC supply. Over 16.8 million ZEC is now in circulation.
