‘Not good for Zcash’ – ZODL founder pushes back against Crosslink upgrade

The Zcash ecosystem is divided on the proposed Crosslink upgrade that seeks to bring a hybrid proof-of-work (PoW) and proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus system. 

The broader community seems against the proposal. Even the two leading ecosystem developers, Zcash Open Development Lab (ZODL) and Shielded Labs, have divergent views on Crosslink. 

In an X post, Josh Swihart, ZODL founder and former ECC CEO, acknowledged that they started the project in 2021 but later shelved it, calling it a ‘distraction.’

Shielded Labs, another ecosystem developer, revived it in 2024. But Swihart warned that the speed benefit from the proposal does not warrant the risks. 

Adding a staking layer adds protocol complexity and new security assumptions. The finality gain doesn’t warrant the risk. Zcash should stay on Nakamoto consensus.

Swihart added that the proposal is “not good for Zcash” and has not “broad support” to change the current mining (PoW)-based consensus. 

Similarly, Mert Mumtaz, CEO of Helius and privacy champion, echoed a similar stance, calling the proposal an ‘awful idea.’

What’s next for Zcash’s race for block speed?

In most cases, such proposals, if adopted and face massive division among ecosystem players, tend to split the chain, commonly called a hard fork. When asked if Zcash may face a similar split, Swihart downplayed such a scenario. 

Someone could fork, but it I don’t think it’d be Zcash. Not enough interest to be viable. Momentum is pure PoW.

The proposal aims to prevent a 51% network attack risk associated with PoW and get faster finality via PoS. 

That said, such a move would need the proposal to be adopted into a Zcash Improvement Proposal (ZIP) for a governance vote. 

Only after the vote can the proposal be adopted, and a consensus upgrade be effected. Currently, the proposal is at the prototype and community feedback level. And the signaling, as mentioned by Swihart, seems negative for meaningful progress. 

In the meantime, the Zcash Foundation confirmed Network Upgrade 7 (NU7) will go live on mainnet on the 5th of November. The upgrade seeks to increase block speed by 3x, from 75 seconds to 25 seconds in ideal conditions.  

Still, the practical finality time will be about 75-100 seconds, or over 1 minute. For comparison, the top 10 fastest chains include Solana and Aptos, which have sub-second finality time. 

That’s why Crosslink proponents want the proposal considered after the NU7 upgrade to make the chain competitive and improve finality time. That said, ZEC’s price was still above $1000 and traded at $1,183 at press time. 

Final Summary

• ZODL founder warned that the Crosslink proposal could add ‘protocol complexity and security risks.’
• Zcash’s NU7 upgrade will go live on mainnet on November 5, promising 3x faster block speed.