On November 6, 2026, Decrypt reported that Zcash would disable support for its original Sprout privacy technology later that same day.
Approximately 12,224 ZEC—valued at roughly $15–16 million at the time—remained in Sprout, Zcash’s first shielded pool introduced at the network’s 2016 launch. According to data from ZecStats, these coins would become unspendable once the NU7 network upgrade activated.
Sprout uses zero-knowledge proofs to let users hide transaction amounts and addresses. Newer shielded-pool designs (Sapling, Orchard, and Ironwood) later replaced it. Deposits into Sprout had already been disabled for years, yet holders could still withdraw existing funds using v4 transactions.
NU7, activating at block 3,543,405, makes v4 transactions invalid. The upgrade was expected Thursday evening in the United States, with the exact moment depending on block production speed. At publication the chain had reached block 3,543,027.
The change removes support for outdated code that demands high computing resources and carries potential security risks. The coins are not destroyed; they will continue to count toward Zcash’s circulating supply. A later upgrade could theoretically restore spendability, though the specification warns this may never happen, and the team had shown no interest in doing so.
Holders whose ZEC still sits in Sprout (addresses starting with “zc”) must move those funds through a compatible withdrawal mechanism before activation or risk losing access indefinitely. The blockchain cannot show which portion of the balance belongs to active users versus keys that have already been lost.
Regular ZEC holders using modern supported wallets do not need to migrate coins out of Sprout, although keeping wallet software updated remains important.
As a side effect of NU7, Zcash’s target block time drops from 75 seconds to 25 seconds, allowing first confirmations roughly three times faster for everyone else.
The original article was published at 2026-11-06T03:46:03+08:00.