Zips

.. Title: Specifications and Zcash Improvement Proposals

What are ZIPs?

Zcash Improvement Proposals (ZIPs) are the way to:

• propose new features for the Zcash cryptocurrency <https://z.cash/>__ and their rationale,
• specify the implementation details of the feature,
• collect community input on the proposal, and
• document design decisions.

Contributing

The authors of a ZIP are responsible for building consensus within the community and documenting / addressing dissenting opinions.

Anyone can write a ZIP! We encourage community contributions and decentralization of work on the Zcash protocol. If you’d like to bounce ideas off people before formally writing a ZIP, we encourage it! Visit the Zcash Community Forum <https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/c/community-collaboration/7>__ to talk about your idea.

Participation in the Zcash project is subject to a Code of Conduct <https://github.com/zcash/zcash/blob/master/code_of_conduct.md>__.

The Zcash protocol is documented in its Protocol Specification <rendered/protocol/protocol.pdf>__ (dark mode version) <rendered/protocol/protocol-dark.pdf>__.

To start contributing, first read ZIP 0 <zips/zip-0000.rst>__ which documents the ZIP process. Then clone this repo <https://github.com/zcash/zips>__ from GitHub, and start adding your draft ZIP, formatted either as reStructuredText or as Markdown, into the zips/ directory.

For example, if using reStructuredText, use a filename matching zips/draft-*.rst. Use make to check that you are using correct reStructuredText <https://docutils.sourceforge.io/rst.html>__ or Markdown <https://pandoc.org/MANUAL.html#pandocs-markdown>__ syntax, and double-check the generated rendered/draft-*.html file before filing a Pull Request. See here <protocol/README.rst>__ for the project dependencies.

Settled Mainnet Network Upgrade

The most recent settled Network Upgrade on Mainnet is NU6.1, which activated at Mainnet block height 3146400 on November 24, 2025, at 19:56 UTC.

NU6.1 is described in ZIP 255: Deployment of the NU6.1 Network Upgrade <zips/zip-0255.md>__. It deployed the following ZIPs:

• ZIP 1016: Community and Coinholder Funding Model <zips/zip-1016.md>__
• ZIP 271: Deferred Dev Fund Lockbox Disbursement <zips/zip-0271.md>__

NU7 Candidate ZIPs

The following ZIPs are under consideration for deployment in NU7:

• ZIP 226: Transfer and Burn of Zcash Shielded Assets <zips/zip-0226.rst>__
• ZIP 227: Issuance of Zcash Shielded Assets <zips/zip-0227.rst>__
• ZIP 230: Version 6 Transaction Format <zips/zip-0230.rst>__
• ZIP 231: Memo Bundles <zips/zip-0231.md>__
• ZIP 233: Network Sustainability Mechanism: Removing Funds From Circulation <zips/zip-0233.md>__
• ZIP 234: Network Sustainability Mechanism: Issuance Smoothing <zips/zip-0234.md>__
• ZIP 235: Network Sustainability Mechanism: Remove 60% of Transaction Fees From Circulation <zips/zip-0235.md>__
• ZIP 246: Digests for the Version 6 Transaction Format <zips/zip-0246.rst>__
• ZIP 2002: Explicit Fees <zips/zip-2002.rst>__
• ZIP 2003: Disallow version 4 transactions <zips/zip-2003.rst>__

In addition, ZIP 317: Proportional Transfer Fee Mechanism <zips/zip-0317.rst>__ may be updated.

This list is only provided here for easy reference; no decision has been made on whether to include each of these ZIPs.

draft-arya-deploy-nu7: Deployment of the NU7 Network Upgrade <zips/draft-arya-deploy-nu7.md>__ will define which ZIPs are included in NU7.

License

Unless otherwise stated in this repository’s individual files, the contents of this repository are released under the terms of the MIT license. See COPYING <COPYING.rst>__ for more information or see https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT .

Released ZIPs

.. raw:: html

<embed><table> <tr> <th>ZIP</th> <th>Title</th> <th>Status</th> </tr> <tr> <td>0</td> <td class="left"><a href="zips/zip-0000.rst">ZIP Process</a></td> <td>Active</td> <tr> <td>32</td> <td class="left"><a href="zips/zip-0032.rst">Shielded Hierarchical Deterministic Wallets</a></td> <td>Final</td> <tr> <td>143</td> <td class="left"><a href="zips/zip-0143.rst">Transaction Signature Validation for Overwinter</a></td> <td>Final</td> <tr> <td>155</td> <td class="left"><a href="zips/zip-0155.rst">addrv2 message</a></td> <td>Proposed</td> <tr> <td>173</td> <td class="left"><a href="zips/zip-0173.rst">Bech32 Format</a></td> <td>Final</td> <tr> <td>200</td> <td class="left"><a href="zips/zip-0200.rst">Network Upgrade Mechanism</a></td> <td>Final</td> <tr> <td>201</td> <td class="left"><a href="zips/zip-0201.rst">Network Peer Management for Overwinter</a></td> <td>Final</td> <tr> <td>202</td> <td class="left"><a href="zips/zip-0202.rst">Version 3 Transaction Format for Overwinter</a></td> <td>Final</td> <tr> <td>203</td> <td class="left"><a href="zips/zip-0203.rst">Transaction Expiry</a></td> <td>Final</td> <tr> <td>205</td> <td class="left"><a href="zips/zip-0205.rst">Deployment of the Sapling Network Upgrade</a></td> <td>Final</td> <tr> <td>206</td> <td class="left"><a href="zips/zip-0206.rst">Deployment of the Blossom Network Upgrade</a></td> <td>Final</td> <tr> <td>207</td> <td class="left"><a href="zips/zip-0207.rst">Funding Streams</a></td> <td>[Revision 0: Canopy, Revision 1: NU6] Final</td> <tr> <td>208</td> <td class="left"><a href="zips/zip-0208.rst">Shorter Block Target Spacing</a></td> <td>Final</td> <tr> <td>209</td> <td class="left"><a href="zips/zip-0209.rst">Prohibit Negative Shielded Chain Value Pool Balances</a></td> <td>Final</td> <tr> <td>211</td> <td class="left"><a href="zips/zip-0211.rst">Disabling Addition of New Value to the Sprout Chain Value Pool</a></td> <td>Final</td> <tr> <td>212</td> <td class="left"><a href="zips/zip-0212.rst">Allow Recipient to Derive Ephemeral Secret from Note Plaintext</a></td> <td>Final</td> <tr> <td>213</td> <td class="left"><a href="zips/zip-0213.rst">Shielded Coinbase</a></td> <td>Final</td> <tr> <td>214</td> <td class="left"><a href="zips/zip-0214.rst">Consensus rules for a Zcash Development Fund</a></td> <td>[Revision 0: Canopy, Revision 1: NU6] Final, [Revision 2: NU6.1] Proposed</td> <tr> <td>215</td> <td class="left"><a href="zips/zip-0215.rst">Explicitly Defining and Modifying Ed25519 Validation Rules</a></td> <td>Final</td> <tr> <td>216</td> <td class="left"><a href="zips/zip-0216.rst">Require Canonical Jubjub Point Encodings</a></td> <td>Final</td> <tr> <td>221</td> <td class="left"><a href="zips/zip-0221.rst">FlyClient - Consensus-Layer Changes</a></td> <td>Final</td> <tr> <td>224</td> <td class="left"><a href="zips/zip-0224.rst">Orchard Shielded Protocol</a></td> <td>Final</td> <tr> <td>225</td> <td class="left"><a href="zips/zip-0225.rst">Version 5 Transaction Format</a></td> <td>Final</td> <tr> <td>236</td> <td class="left"><a href="zips/zip-0236.rst">Blocks should balance exactly</a></td> <td>Final</td> <tr> <td>239</td> <td class="left"><a href="zips/zip-0239.rst">Relay of Version 5 Transactions</a></td> <td>Final</td> <tr> <td>243</td> <td class="left"><a href="zips/zip-0243.rst">Transaction Signature Validation for Sapling</a></td> <td>Final</td> <tr> <td>244</td> <td class="left"><a href="zips/zip-0244.rst">Transaction Identifier Non-Malleability</a></td> <td>Final</td> <tr> <td>250</td> <td class="left"><a href="zips/zip-0250.rst">Deployment of the Heartwood Network Upgrade</a></td> <td>Final</td> <tr> <td>251</td> <td class="left"><a href="zips/zip-0251.rst">Deployment of the Canopy Network Upgrade</a></td> <td>Final</td> <tr> <td>252</td> <td class="left"><a href="zips/zip-0252.rst">Deployment of the NU5 Network Upgrade</a></td> <td>Final</td> <tr> <td>253</td> <td class="left"><a href="zips/zip-0253.md">Deployment of the NU6 Network Upgrade</a></td> <td>Final</td> <tr> <td>255</td> <td class="left"><a href="zips/zip-0255.md">Deployment of the NU6.1 Network Upgrade</a></td> <td>Proposed</td> <tr> <td>271</td> <td class="left"><a href="zips/zip-0271.md">Dev Fund Extension and One-Time Disbursement</a></td> <td>Proposed</td> <tr> <td>300</td> <td class="left"><a href="zips/zip-0300.rst">Cross-chain Atomic Transactions</a></td> <td>Proposed</td> <tr> <td>301</td> <td class="left"><a href="zips/zip-0301.rst">Zcash Stratum Protocol</a></td> <td>Active</td> <tr> <td>308</td> <td class="left"><a href="zips/zip-0308.rst">Sprout to Sapling Migration</a></td> <td>Active</td> <tr> <td>316</td> <td class="left"><a href="zips/zip-0316.rst">Unified Addresses and Unified Viewing Keys</a></td> <td>[Revision 0] Active, [Revision 1] Proposed</td> <tr> <td>317</td> <td class="left"><a href="zips/zip-0317.rst">Proportional Transfer Fee Mechanism</a></td> <td>Active</td> <tr> <td>320</td> <td class="left"><a href="zips/zip-0320.rst">Defining an Address Type to which funds can only be sent from Transparent Addresses</a></td> <td>Active</td> <tr> <td>321</td> <td class="left"><a href="zips/zip-0321.rst">Payment Request URIs</a></td> <td>Active</td> <tr> <td>401</td> <td class="left"><a href="zips/zip-0401.rst">Addressing Mempool Denial-of-Service</a></td> <td>Active</td> <tr> <td>1014</td> <td class="left"><a href="zips/zip-1014.rst">Establishing a Dev Fund for ECC, ZF, and Major Grants</a></td> <td>Active</td> <tr> <td>1015</td> <td class="left"><a href="zips/zip-1015.rst">Block Subsidy Allocation for Non-Direct Development Funding</a></td> <td>Final</td> <tr> <td>1016</td> <td class="left"><a href="zips/zip-1016.md">Community and Coinholder Funding Model</a></td> <td>Proposed</td> <tr> <td>2001</td> <td class="left"><a href="zips/zip-2001.rst">Lockbox Funding Streams</a></td> <td>Final</td>

</table></embed>

Draft