Zcash (ZEC) developers proposed a network upgrade called Ironwood that would let anyone verify the privacy coin's 21 million supply cap after a counterfeiting bug rattled holders.
Key Points:
- Ironwood would create a new shielded pool and close the old Orchard pool to fresh deposits.
- The upgrade lets users confirm that no more than 21 million ZEC exist on the network.
- Activation is targeted for late July, pending testing and audits.
Ironwood Plan Targets ZEC Supply
Shielded Labs, the Zcash Foundation and the Zcash Open Development Lab unveiled Ironwood on June 6, joined by Tachyon and Valar Group. The proposal answers a critical bug in the Orchard shielded pool that could let an attacker create fake ZEC without detection. That flaw had gone undetected since 2022.
Ironwood would spin up a fresh privacy pool built on repaired code, then shut the old Orchard pool to new deposits. Funds could only exit through a turnstile, an accounting checkpoint tied to recorded inflows.
Once the upgrade is live, anyone running Zcash software could add up balances across the old and new pools and confirm that no more than 21 million coins circulate. Any counterfeit ZEC would either surface when holders try to move it or stay stranded in the old pool and effectively get destroyed. Developers had already patched the original bug on June 2 with help from mining pools ViaBTC and Foundry.
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Why The Zcash Bug Spooked Holders
Zcash built its pitch on shielded, private transactions and a fixed cap of 21 million coins, so a flaw that could quietly inflate that supply struck the asset at its core.
Analyst Yashu Gola flagged a rising wedge on the four-hour chart, a pattern that often hints buying momentum is fading. He named $314 as the level bulls need to defend, warning that a clean break below it could open a deeper slide. After the bounce, ZEC has struggled to hold above the $420 to $430 zone.
The teams target late July for activation but have set no firm date, citing development, audits and coordination as gating factors. A broader refresh runs alongside it, retiring the old zcashd client for a new command-line wallet called Zallet.
The plan capped one of the roughest weeks in the token's history. ZEC sank from roughly $635 to about $303 within days of the disclosure, a drop near 52%, then clawed back close to $442. The coin still sits down about 26% over the past 30 days.
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