Zcash neared its highest price in nearly a decade, and ZEC holders are opening a governance vote on the network's next major upgrade, NU7. The vote sets Zcash's issuance schedule, block interval, and how unfinished upgrade features get handled.
Zcash neared $900 for the first time in nearly a decade before easing back to trade above $830. The privacy coin's climb comes as ZEC holders open a vote on the network's next major upgrade.
NU7 Vote Opens to Shielded ZEC Holders
Through the NU7 Coinholder Vote, ZEC holders get voting power tied to their shielded holdings rather than validator participation or delegated voting. Eligibility is set by a snapshot at Zcash mainnet block 3,459,350, projected for August, and ZEC must be shielded, spendable, and stored in Ironwood at that moment. Coins held in Orchard, Sapling, or Sprout, on exchanges, or on other networks are ineligible unless already migrated.
Voting opens August 25 and closes September 14 at 22:00 GMT+3. Holders don't need to keep their ZEC in place once the snapshot passes, and wallets including Vizor, Zashi, and Zkool support the process, along with Keystone hardware wallets.
What's on the Ballot
The vote covers Zcash's rate of new ZEC issuance, when previously removed ZEC returns through future block rewards, and when the network should retire legacy Sprout transactions. Holders will also weigh in on shortening the block interval and on how developers should handle NU7 features that aren't ready in time — either delaying the upgrade or shipping without them.
Under the hood, the system encrypts each vote and its ZEC amount with homomorphic encryption, then splits every vote into 16 unlinkable ballots, revealing only aggregate totals per option once voting closes.
Bitcoin Recovers Above $77,000
Meanwhile, Bitcoin slipped to $75,500 over the weekend before climbing back above $77,500, up more than 21% from the prior Monday.
Bitcoin's market cap has climbed to $1.555 trillion, while its share of the total crypto market has slipped just below 58%.
Sources: CryptoPotato, U.Today
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