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Zcash retires zcashd as Ironwood upgrade seals old Orchard pool

Zcash retires zcashd as Ironwood upgrade seals old Orchard pool

The network ended zcashd on July 18, shifted to Rust-based Zebra and Zakura, and plans the July 28, 2026 Ironwood hard fork to contain any potentially forged ZEC tied to Orchard.

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Fact Check
All three verified sources corroborate the core claim. The Zcash Foundation official announcement confirms the launch of Zakura (a Zebra fork), the requirement to migrate off zcashd, and the NU6.3/Ironwood upgrade activating end of July. The social media post confirms zcashd's end-of-life on July 18 at block height 3,417,100. The Phemex news report confirms the network continuing on Zebra and Zakura with Zallet replacing legacy zcashd wallet functions. Each specific element of the claim—block height, EOL date, Zakura launch, Zebra continuation, Zallet wallet replacement, and Ironwood upgrade timing—is directly supported.
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Summary

Zcash retired zcashd, its original node software, at block height 3,417,100 on July 18 as the network continued on Rust-based implementations including Zebra and the newly launched Zakura 1.0.0, ahead of the Ironwood (NU6.3) hard fork scheduled for July 28, 2026. Zakura, a fast-sync full node refactored from Zebra, adds pruning, snapshot synchronization and a compatibility mode with legacy zcashd, which the project says can cut startup time for new nodes to under two minutes, while Zallet has taken over wallet functions previously handled by the zcashd wallet. Ironwood is set to activate at block 3,428,143 and retire Zcash’s old Orchard shielded pool, introduce a corrected new shielded pool and route withdrawals from the old pool through a turnstile so any hypothetical excess ZEC created by a previously disclosed vulnerability remains trapped there. Zcash will also begin operating the new Zakura node, which Bitcoin.com said cuts sync time by about fivefold versus the previous system. Zcash has said the flaw was unlikely to have been exploited, but because Orchard hides transaction details, past abuse cannot be ruled out with complete certainty.

Terms & Concepts
  • Orchard shielded pool: Zcash’s privacy-focused transaction pool where transfer details are hidden on-chain.
  • snapshot synchronization: Syncing from a saved network state instead of downloading full history.
  • turnstile: A control mechanism that limits how much value can exit a pool based on how much valid value previously entered it.