Zcash co-founder Zooko Wilcox outlined a plan to protect the cryptocurrency from potentially forged tokens during the July 28 Ironwood hard fork. Scheduled for block 3,428,143, this upgrade aims to freeze any suspicious ZEC within the vulnerable Orchard pool.
Details of the Ironwood Upgrade
The Ironwood hard fork, also known as NU6.3, will deactivate the original Orchard pool, which had a critical bug discovered by researcher Taylor Hornby at Shielded Labs. This flaw could theoretically allow undetected minting of ZEC inside the private pool. Although no exploitation was found, the pool's privacy means hidden issuance cannot be entirely ruled out.
To address this, the old Orchard pool will be sealed, and a new one with corrected cryptography will launch. Transfers between the old and new pools will only proceed through a cryptographic "turnstile" gateway designed to strictly limit coin movement. This mechanism ensures no more coins exit the old pool than were legitimately issued.
Background and Impact
The vulnerability was patched at the protocol level by 2026, yet the potential threat prompted this emergency measure. The update aims to maintain Zcash's mathematical integrity and ensure the currency's unstoppable and private nature. Zooko emphasized the importance of the move in publicly discussing the upgrade.
This action will cause temporary freezes in wallets and exchanges handling ZEC during the fork week. The hard fork represents a critical step in fortifying the network amid concerns of phantom coin issuance.
Zcash to Close Old Orchard Pool in July 28 Upgrade Over Security Flaw
This article is for informational purposes and does not constitute financial advice.
