Shielded Labs has raised the possibility of delaying the upgrade to Zcash’s Ironwood network, citing readiness concerns among exchanges, mining pools and wallet providers ahead of a planned activation in late July.
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- Shielded Labs says that Zcash’s Ironwood upgrade may be delayed because ecosystem participants need more time to prepare.
- Exchanges, wallets and mining pools are simultaneously migrating from zcashd to the new Z3 software stack.
- Ironwood is designed to secure Zcash supplies after the Orchard “infinity” bug was exposed.
According to a July 3 post on the Zcash community forum by Shielded Labs CEO Jason McGee, the network is trying to complete two major changes at the same time. Alongside Ironwood, infrastructure providers are also expected to replace Zcash’s long-standing contract and wallet software, zcashd, with a new software stack known as Z3 Stack.
McGee He said Feedback from ecosystem participants showed varying levels of preparedness. While some operators believe they can complete the migration before the planned activation window, others indicated they will need additional time to deploy and test the new software. He added that no decision has been made to postpone Ironwood.
Infrastructure migration remains the biggest obstacle
As part of the transition, Zcash is retiring the use of zcashd, which has long been used by exchanges, wallets, and other network operators to connect to the blockchain and process transactions. Its replacement consists of Zebra to operate network nodes, Zaino for blockchain data services, and Zallet for wallet functions.
According to Zcash’s official porting guidance, some features available in zcashd will not have direct replacements, meaning operators may need to modify their infrastructure before switching to the new package. McGee also said that both Zallet and Zaino are still in development and have not yet been considered production ready, making deployment timelines uncertain for some ecosystem participants.
The overlap between software migration and Ironwood activation created a practical challenge. Ironwood’s delay could increase uncertainty over the protected supply of Zcash, while moving forward without adequate preparation could leave exchanges, mining pools, and wallet providers struggling to safely complete the migration.
Ironwood is designed to secure a protected Zcash supply
Ironwood was proposed after researchers identified The “infinity” bug. In Orchard, the primary protected transaction pool for Zcash. According to the development team, the vulnerability could theoretically allow an attacker to create an unlimited amount of fake ZEC within Orchard without immediate detection. The developers also said they found no evidence that the flaw had ever been exploited.
Since Orchard’s privacy protections prevent anyone from proving that no counterfeit coins were created, Ironwood offers an alternative protected pool and closes Orchard to any new activity. Funds leaving Orchard will pass through an accounting checkpoint that prevents more ZEC from exiting than was originally entered, allowing users to verify that the circulating supply remains within the protocol’s intended limits.
Earlier this year, developers temporarily disabled Orchard transactions through an emergency network update after the vulnerability was revealed while work on Ironwood was ongoing. The upcoming upgrade constitutes a permanent solution aimed at restoring confidence in protected network supplies.
Meanwhile, Zcash founder Zooko Wilcox said recent security reviews did not reveal any additional serious vulnerabilities in the new app. He added that developers continue to verify the upgraded system before activating Ironwood, while discussions remain ongoing on whether additional setup time is needed for ecosystem participants before proceeding with the network upgrade.
