The Zcash blockchain development team has warned of a potential delay in activating the Ironwood upgrade, as some exchanges, pools, and wallets may not be ready to implement the changes by the end of July.
Update on Ironwood, from @aquietinvestor: https://t.co/KxHnXMr1SH pic.twitter.com/XYCyRndzkh
— zooko🛡🦓🦓🦓 ⓩ (@zooko) July 2, 2026
The Ironwood upgrade aims to launch a new secure pool and limit the supply of ZEC following the discovery of a vulnerability in Orchard.
Jason McGee, head of Shielded Labs, cautioned on the community forum that infrastructure participants need more time to safely prepare for the upgrade.
The ecosystem is currently gearing up for two major changes: the Ironwood upgrade itself and the transition from the old software for validators and nodes (zcashd) to the Z3 stack. This solution consists of three main components:
- Zebra — for running a node;
- Zaino — for transmitting blockchain data to applications;
- Zallet — for wallet functionalities.
According to McGee, the last two components are still under development and not yet ready for full deployment.
A final decision on postponing the upgrade has not yet been made. Currently, security audits have not identified any new critical bugs, and developers continue to verify the system ahead of the Ironwood activation.
It’s worth noting that in June, analysts at Allium discovered five major profitable short positions on ZEC at Hyperliquid, totaling over $72 million, opened just days before the vulnerability was found.