ZCASH'S 25-SECOND BLOCKS GO LIVE ON PUBLIC TESTNET AHEAD OF SCHEDULE

Summary from the TLDR Crypto newsletter

Zcash activated its NU7 upgrade on the public testnet at block 4,465,026, cutting target block time from 75 seconds to 25 seconds and reducing three-confirmation finality from 225 seconds to 75 seconds. The upgrade splits fees 40/60 between miners and a reserve for future mining rewards, and reduces per-block rewards to one-third their current amount to maintain ZEC's issuance schedule despite the tripled block rate. NU7 also retires Sprout, Zcash's original shielded payment protocol, requiring holders to migrate funds before the planned November 5 mainnet activation. Both major node implementations, Zakura and Zebra, shipped compatible releases in the first two days of October, with developers targeting an October 20 decision on mainnet confirmation.