Quick take:
- ZCash will undergo a halving around the 18th of November
- Block rewards will drop from 12.5 ZEC to 6.25 ZEC
- At the same time, the ZCash network will undergo the Canopy Upgrade
- This upgrade will establish a new fund for the next four years by allocating 20% of mining rewards towards the development of ZCash (ZEC)
The privacy coin of ZCash (ZEC) has two significant events happening in the month of November, and on the same day. To begin with, ZCash will undergo its first halving event that will result in block rewards reducing from their current 12.5 ZEC to 6.25 ZEC. Additionally, the ZCash network will undergo the Canopy Upgrade which is the fifth major network upgrade of ZEC.
The team at the Electric Coin Company notified the crypto community of the two events via the following tweets.
At the same time, Zcash will experience its first halvening. This means the block reward will be cut in half, 6.25 ZEC to 3.125 ZEC, starting with block 1,046,400.
— Electric Coin Company (@ElectricCoinCo) November 9, 2020
More on the ZCash Halving
With respect to the halving, the event is estimated to occur on the 18th of November at around 11:58UTC. It will be triggered at block height 1,046,400 with the current countdown indicating that the event is now less than 8 days away.
More on the ZCash (ZEC) Canopy Upgrade
As mentioned above, the ZCash Canopy upgrade is meant to allocate 20% of the mining rewards towards the development of the ZEC ecosystem as explained below.
Miners will receive 80% of the mining reward. The remaining 20% will be divided between the new Major Grants Fund (8%), Electric Coin Co (7%), the Zcash Foundation (5%).
The community chose “Canopy” as the name for this network upgrade to evoke themes of collaboration and a vibrant and hospitable ecosystem for many participants.
The team at Messari has further estimated that the upgrade will provide up to $70 Million in funds for the development of ZCash for the next four years.
Therefore, the Canopy Upgrade will enable developers to continue focusing on ZCash and finding improvements without the heavy burden of wondering where funding will be sourced from. With the guaranteed funding, the next four years might be full of surprises in terms of new ZCash (ZEC) features and integrations.