Zcash plans to launch its Ironwood network upgrade on July 28, addressing an “infinity” bug that affected its Orchard private transaction pool. This upgrade aims to replace the compromised Orchard pool and may provide insights into whether counterfeit tokens were created due to the vulnerability.
The Ironwood upgrade, announced in June, will close the current Orchard pool, halt new activity, and establish a new private pool. Funds transitioning from Orchard will undergo an accounting checkpoint, which could help determine if counterfeit Zcash (ZEC) tokens were produced through the bug. “Zcash’s Ironwood mainnet activation height has been set and tagged! All of the major organizations are committed to activation of NU6.3 at height 3428143, which is approximately July 28th at 8AM EST,” said Zcash core developer Sean Bowe.
Shielded Labs had previously suggested delaying the Ironwood upgrade, citing that exchanges, mining pools, and wallets may not have sufficient time to prepare for the late-July activation. Bowe’s recent comment confirmed the upgrade would proceed, now set for July 28, a week later than the initial target date of July 21.
In June, Shielded Labs noted that Ironwood could provide evidence on whether the Orchard vulnerability was exploited. As users shift their funds from Orchard to the new pool, potential counterfeiters would need to decide whether to attempt moving counterfeit funds and risk exposure or leave them behind.
The price of ZEC dropped significantly, falling 50% from $602.68 to $299.25 following the bug disclosure on June 3. However, it has partially recovered since then and is currently trading at $492.61.
This week, Zcash also reached a significant milestone, with over 80% of its maximum supply of 21 million ZEC now issued. A report from ruZCASH indicated that there are currently 16,806,723 ZEC in circulation.
