Zcash Ironwood upgrade may be delayed over readiness

The Zcash development community is considering a potential delay to its upcoming Ironwood network upgrade, citing concerns that key infrastructure providers may not be ready for the simultaneous migration to new core software. The upgrade, designed to permanently secure the network's shielded coin supply after a critical vulnerability was disclosed, is currently targeted for late July.

According to statements from Shielded Labs, the organization coordinating ecosystem support, exchanges, wallet providers, and mining pools are facing a significant challenge. They must migrate from the long-standing "zcashd" software to a new suite called the Z3 stack-comprising Zebra, Zaino, and Zallet-at the same time as the Ironwood activation. Jason McGee, executive director of Shielded Labs, stated that feedback from these operators shows mixed levels of preparedness, with some needing more time to deploy and test the new software. He emphasized that no final decision to postpone has been made.

The Ironwood upgrade is the planned permanent solution to a flaw discovered in Zcash's Orchard shielded transaction pool. Researchers found that an "infinity bug" could have theoretically allowed an...