Zcash is planning upgrades to make transactions up to four times faster. This news comes as the value of ZEC, its cryptocurrency, increased by 73% in the last month.
Summary
- Zcash’s NU7, planned as the network’s ninth upgrade, will introduce Zcash Shielded Assets and a Network Sustainability Mechanism with more than 90% community support.
- Project Tachyon aims to scale shielded transaction throughput to thousands of TPS using proof-carrying wallets and oblivious synchronisation.
- FROST v3 brings threshold signatures with cheater detection by default, with the Zcash Foundation expecting finalisation in 2026 as part of the Z3 tech stack.
The Zcash Foundation announced its plans for the next major network upgrade, called NU7, detailing a three-step technical process. In addition, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) concluded its investigation into the Zcash Foundation on May 20th without taking any legal action, resolving a period of regulatory uncertainty.
The upcoming NU7 update will bring Zcash Shielded Assets, letting users create custom tokens with the same strong privacy features as Zcash, and a new system to improve how fees work on the network. A recent community survey showed overwhelming support – over 90% of ZCAP members and coin holders – for focusing on Project Tachyon and making Orchard Quantum Recoverability a priority.
Good news! The initial version of the NU7 test network is now running. This update significantly improves performance by doubling the speed of private transactions and cutting block creation time from 75 seconds to just 25 seconds.
— Cypherpunk ($CYPH) (@cypherpunk) May 22, 2026
What each of the three upgrades does
Project Tachyon aims to significantly increase Zcash’s transaction speed – potentially reaching thousands per second – by improving how shielded transactions are processed. This upgrade also fixes a problem that was causing increasing costs for those who support the network, paving the way for Zcash to handle more transactions without becoming more expensive.
Crypto.news has been following the recent price increases of Zcash – a 73% jump in the last month – and has analyzed what’s causing these changes and where the money is flowing.
FROST v3 enhances Zcash privacy features by adding more adaptable signature requirements to shielded transactions. It also includes built-in safeguards against cheating and improved memory security. The Zcash Foundation anticipates completing FROST v3 and another upgrade, ZIP-312, in 2026. These will be part of a larger system, called Z3, which combines the Zebra, Zaino, and Zallet components and automatically uses Tor for enhanced privacy.
zcash is about to get much faster
— mert (@mert) May 22, 2026
Why the quantum angle is driving fresh interest in Zcash
Zcash (ZEC) has seen a significant 73% increase in value this month, likely due to growing interest in technologies that can withstand the threat of quantum computers. Investors are increasingly recognizing Zcash’s core technology – its zero-knowledge proofs – as essential infrastructure, particularly as it now powers key networks built on Ethereum, rather than simply viewing it as a speculative investment.
As a crypto investor, I’ve been following the discussions around quantum computing and its potential impact on cryptocurrencies. I recently read on Crypto.news that breaking Bitcoin‘s encryption, which relies on something called elliptic curve cryptography, would likely require a quantum computer with around 2,330 qubits. It’s good to have a sense of the timeline and what level of quantum computing power would pose a real threat.
The NU7 upgrade adds a new feature called Orchard Quantum Recoverability, which helps protect Zcash keys from potential threats posed by future quantum computers. According to a Citi study, a quantum attack on major financial institutions could cause between $2 and $3.3 trillion in economic losses. With this new feature, Zcash is becoming one of the first digital currencies to proactively address this potential risk.
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2026-05-22 20:23