Zcash has launched its new Zakura 1.0.0 full node software, a key step toward its goal of Visa-scale transaction throughput. 0.0 full node software, marking a significant step toward its ambition of achieving Visa-scale transaction throughput. This development is central to a broader strategy aiming for 50,000 transactions per second (TPS) while upholding robust privacy guarantees.
The network is also preparing for the Ironwood (NU6.3) upgrade on July 28, which addresses past vulnerabilities and aims to stabilize the shielded ecosystem.
Zakura strengthens the Zcash network foundation
Key figures like Sean Bowe, a founding member of Zcash’s zero-knowledge cryptography, and Dev Ojha, Osmosis cofounder and leader of Valar Group, are spearheading this drive for scalability and resilience. Their independent initiatives, Project Tachyon and Valar Group, are working in tandem with Zakura to tackle the complex technical challenges of scaling a privacy-preserving blockchain.
Zakura isn’t just an update; it’s a foundational shift for the Zcash network. Released on Wednesday, July 17, 2026, this new full node software forks from the Zcash Foundation’s Zebra node, bringing vital improvements in efficiency and accessibility.
It also replaces the legacy zcashd client, which reached its end of life on July 18, 2026, ensuring continued compatibility for wallets and exchanges built upon its interface. This seamless transition is critical for user experience and ecosystem stability.
One of Zakura’s standout features is its ability to prune old blockchain data, significantly cutting disk usage for node operators. This pruning allows the team to publish ready-made, stripped-down blockchain copies, typically around 11 gigabytes.
New nodes can download these copies instead of processing the entire history block-by-block, accelerating startup times to under two minutes. This makes the process an impressive 680 times faster than previous methods.
Targeting 50,000 transactions per second
The goal to handle 50,000 transactions per second is a “floor,” not just a target, for Zcash, aspiring to match global payment processors like Visa and Mastercard. Achieving this requires overcoming the substantial computational overhead of Zcash’s zk-SNARKs, which provide privacy but demand significant verification data for each transaction.
Currently, the network processes a modest 3 to 20 shielded transactions per second. Reaching the 50,000 TPS target with Zcash’s existing cryptography would necessitate nodes processing over 500 megabytes of data every second. This enormous data flow presents a major challenge for current Zcash software.
Project Tachyon drives consensus data efficiency
Sean Bowe’s Project Tachyon directly addresses the network’s throughput challenge by developing recursive proofs. This innovative cryptographic technique allows a single proof to validate the authenticity of thousands of others, dramatically compressing the data needed for consensus.
Under Tachyon, a node verifies one proof instead of thousands, which the team says reduces the requirement for consensus data from 100 megabytes per second to 500 megabytes. This level is claimed to be technically achievable with careful engineering. Early projections suggest this could enable thousands of TPS for shielded transactions, with a near-term milestone of up to 10,000 TPS.
Valar Group tackles wallet performance
Beyond network-level scaling, Zcash faces bottlenecks at the wallet layer, where privacy features introduce unique complexities. Because Zcash transactions conceal sender, receiver, and amount, a wallet cannot simply query a server for its specific transactions without compromising user privacy.
Instead, wallet software must download and locally test every transaction, which limits performance to about one transaction per second. Dev Ojha’s Valar Group is working to remove this bottleneck by developing private information retrieval (PIR) techniques.
PIR allows a wallet to fetch its relevant data from a server without revealing which specific entries were requested. This advancement is crucial for improving user experience and enabling wallets to operate efficiently within a high-throughput, privacy-centric environment.
Ironwood upgrade fortifies network integrity
In addition to scaling efforts, Zcash is rolling out the Ironwood (NU6.3) upgrade, scheduled to activate on the mainnet at block 3,428,143, approximately 8 a.m. Eastern on July 28, 2026. Zakura supports this upgrade from its release, underscoring its role in the network’s immediate future.
Ironwood is a direct response to a critical soundness bug discovered in May 2026 within the Orchard shielded pool. This flaw, present since Orchard’s activation in May 2022, could have allowed for the undetected creation of counterfeit ZEC.
Developers disabled Orchard through an emergency response completed June 2, then restored it with a corrected circuit via the NU6.2 hard fork at block 3,364,600 on June 3. However, due to the nature of zero-knowledge proofs, the network couldn’t definitively ascertain if any counterfeit ZEC had been minted during the four years the vulnerability was active.
Ironwood introduces a “turnstile” mechanism at the Orchard shielded pool’s boundary, capping what can leave and enter. This system leverages the fact that ZEC amounts crossing into or out of shielded pools are public, even when internal transactions are private.
By sealing Orchard to new deposits, the turnstile becomes the only exit point, effectively trapping any fake coins inside. This measure helps restore confidence in the integrity of the ZEC supply.
Zcash scaling efforts accelerate with NU7
These concurrent developments, from Zakura’s foundational improvements to Project Tachyon’s cryptographic breakthroughs and Valar Group’s wallet solutions, illustrate Zcash’s multifaceted strategy. The NU7 network upgrade, already showing promising early results on its testnet launched May 22, 2026, further validates this trajectory.
The NU7 testnet has demonstrated block times dropping from 75 seconds to 25 seconds, a threefold reduction. Additionally, shielded TPS doubled on the testnet compared to previous benchmarks, contributing to a potential 300% increase in overall transaction speed.
This integrated approach is essential for Zcash to bridge the gap from its current capacity to the demands of a global payment system. The focus on both node efficiency and cryptographic innovation, coupled with crucial security upgrades like Ironwood, underscores a determined effort to deliver on the promise of truly private, scalable digital cash.