Zcash core developers have proposed cutting the privacy blockchain’s target block interval from 25 seconds down to 20 seconds. The effort aims to accelerate confirmation speeds and streamline settlement across merchant checkouts and cross-chain operations, arriving merely days after the network successfully deployed its landmark Network Upgrade 7.
Developers ValarDragon and Evan Forbes published the draft Zcash Improvement Proposal on the official community forum on Sunday. The authors recommended incorporating the adjustment into the forthcoming community governance poll to formalize its inclusion in the scheduled Network Upgrade 7.1 release.
Under the proposal, trimming the block time would notably reduce waiting periods for initial transaction receipts. Proponents highlighted that faster execution cycles would directly improve the end-user experience across real-world commercial touchpoints, including point-of-sale retail terminals, centralized exchange deposit credit windows, and decentralized cross-chain swap bridges.
Despite the acceleration in block generation frequency, the developers clarified that the operational modification would neither expand the ledger’s aggregate daily throughput for shielded transactions nor alter the established token issuance schedule. Monetary dynamics and emissions would remain fully aligned with existing network parameters.
The initiative follows closely on the heels of the live activation of Network Upgrade 7, which executed across the mainnet on Friday. That release achieved a foundational technical milestone by slashing the original 75-second block interval down to 25 seconds, tripling block production frequency while keeping chain consensus intact.
Alongside the initial timing reduction, Network Upgrade 7 rolled out a dedicated Network Sustainability Mechanism. The framework establishes a programmatic recycling protocol that channels a designated portion of circulating transaction fees back into future block mining subsidies, ensuring long-term validator incentives while strictly enforcing the native cryptocurrency’s hard supply limit of 21 million tokens.
