Zcash Developers Target November 5 for NU7 Upgrade

Zcash developers have unanimously agreed to target November 5 for the mainnet activation of the NU7 network upgrade, following a scheduled testnet launch on October 6. The upgrade represents one of the most significant changes to the privacy-focused cryptocurrency in years, primarily reducing the target block spacing from 75 seconds to 25 seconds. The timeline was announced by developer Sean Bowe and confirmed across the Zcash ecosystem. The plan sets September 30 as the code completion deadline, with the official testnet activation on October 6. Developers will then assess the testnet's performance before making a final decision on the mainnet activation height on October 20. The November 5 date is a target, contingent on successful testing. "All of the Zcash development orgs have come to unanimous agreement about the contents and timeline of our next network upgrade," Bowe stated in a post on the Zcash Community Forum. The core technical change in NU7 is the threefold reduction in block time, which aims to shorten transaction confirmation latency and increase consensus bandwidth.