Zcash (ZEC) has applied its next upgrade, NU7, to its testnet.

On Oct. 6 (local time), blockchain media outlet CoinPost reported that Zcash activated NU7 on its testnet on Oct. 5. A block at height 4,465,026, which served as the activation threshold, was also mined that day.

The core of the upgrade is shortening block creation time. Zcash plans to cut the block interval on the mainnet to 25 seconds from 75 seconds once NU7 is applied. It will reduce issuance per block to one-third to keep total new issuance per day unchanged.

Zcash is targeting around Nov. 5 for mainnet deployment. It plans to decide whether to proceed with final implementation after reflecting testnet results on Oct. 20. A testnet is an experimental network used to verify protocol changes in an environment close to real conditions before mainnet adoption.

NU7 also includes changes to how fees are handled. Zcash will introduce a Network Sustainability Mechanism (NSM) that removes 60 percent of each block’s transaction fees from circulation and accumulates them as a public reserve. Miners will receive the remaining 40 percent. The accumulated reserve will be paid out as block rewards in a reissuance process scheduled to begin in February 2031, and the total supply cap will not change.

The network’s operating environment will also change. After NU7 is activated, version 4 transactions will become invalid, and Zcash remaining in the oldest private transaction pool, Sprout, will no longer be usable. As a result, users who have left assets in older pools will need to check whether to move them.

Ordinary holders using the latest wallets are not expected to need to take separate action. In contrast, operators of full nodes, indexers and block explorers will need to use software compatible with Zebra or Zecra. The existing node software, zcashd, does not support NU7.

This test run is closer to a network restructuring than a simple feature addition. Zcash is pursuing an upgrade that cuts block creation time to 25 seconds, adopts a structure that accumulates 60 percent of fees as reserves, and phases out older transaction formats and legacy privacy pools. As a result, the final decision scheduled for Oct. 20 and whether the mainnet adopts the change in early November are expected to be key turning points for the Zcash network’s transition.