Zcash Developers Propose Further Block-Time Reduction After NU7

Zcash developers are pushing for a protocol change that would speed up how quickly transactions receive initial confirmations on the network. The proposal aims to reduce Zcash’s target block interval from 25 seconds to 20 seconds, a seemingly small adjustment that could matter for wallets and payment flows where users expect faster settlement.

According to a draft Zcash Improvement Proposal (ZIP) submitted to the Zcash community forum by developers ValarDragon and Evan Forbes, the change is intended to be considered in the next community poll and, if approved, included in the upcoming NU7.1 network upgrade.

Key takeaways

• Developers propose lowering Zcash’s target block interval from 25 seconds to 20 seconds to shorten expected confirmation times.
• The draft ZIP asks for the change to be considered via an upcoming community poll and targeted for NU7.1.
• The proposal says the change would not increase daily capacity for private transactions.
• It also claims the network’s issuance schedule and Zcash’s 21 million ZEC supply cap would remain intact, despite more frequent block production.

Faster confirmations after NU7 goes live

The timing of the proposal is notable. Zcash’s NU7 upgrade was activated on the mainnet just days earlier, following earlier rollout steps. As reported in earlier coverage from Cointelegraph, NU7 reduced the network’s target block interval from 75 seconds down to 25 seconds.

NU7 also introduced a Network Sustainability Mechanism, designed to recycle a portion of transaction fees into future mining rewards while maintaining Zcash’s 21 million ZEC supply cap. With the network already moving toward faster blocks, the new ZIP effectively continues that performance-oriented direction—tightening the remaining gap between “fast enough” and “faster than the last major upgrade.”

What the ZIP is asking for

In the draft ZIP posted on the Zcash community forum, ValarDragon and Evan Forbes outline their case for reducing target spacing between blocks from 25 seconds to 20 seconds. The developers argue that this would reduce the waiting time for initial transaction confirmations.

They connect the change to practical on-chain usage, listing workflows where confirmation speed can translate into smoother user experiences—specifically point-of-sale payments, exchange deposits, and cross-chain swaps. For these kinds of operations, longer confirmation windows can create extra friction, including slower user feedback and delayed downstream processing at exchanges or swap services.

The proposal also explicitly addresses capacity and monetary policy concerns. The draft states that speeding up block production should not raise the network’s overall daily capacity for private transactions, and it would preserve the existing issuance schedule even though blocks would be produced more frequently.

For investors and operators watching Zcash’s roadmap, these clarifications are important. “Faster blocks” can sometimes imply knock-on effects for incentives, fee dynamics, or the practical throughput of the chain. By stating that capacity and issuance mechanics should remain consistent, the developers are signaling that the objective is latency improvement rather than a broad change to how the network scales.

Why 5 seconds could still matter

Reducing a target block interval from 25 seconds to 20 seconds cuts the expected cadence by roughly 20%. While that is not the same magnitude as NU7’s earlier move from 75 seconds to 25 seconds, it still has potential effects on real-world settlement timing.

In decentralized systems, the “time to confirmation” is often driven by block production and the number of confirmations needed by a specific wallet, payment processor, exchange, or bridge. Even when software is coded to wait for a fixed number of confirmations, shorter block times generally reduce the wall-clock delay—meaning users may reach a “safe to proceed” threshold sooner.

That may be especially relevant as Zcash continues to roll out upgrades that emphasize operational improvements alongside economic design elements like the Network Sustainability Mechanism introduced in NU7.

What to watch before NU7.1

Because the draft ZIP is not an activated protocol change yet, the next step is political and procedural: it is intended to be included in a community poll and then considered for NU7.1. That means the outcome will depend on whether forum participants and governance processes accept the tradeoffs implied by the proposal.

Readers should pay close attention to any discussion addressing how the new target interval will be implemented and whether the assumptions in the ZIP—especially around private transaction capacity and the preservation of the issuance schedule—hold up under scrutiny. With NU7 only recently activated, the Zcash community is essentially testing momentum: can the network keep improving responsiveness without disturbing the incentive structure and monetary constraints Zcash is built around?

For now, the core question is whether the community will view this incremental reduction as a worthwhile latency upgrade for NU7.1—and whether follow-on governance and implementation details confirm that it improves confirmation speed without unintended side effects.