Zcash completes Ironwood upgrade consensus rule changes, expected to activate in July

The Zcash developers have completed the consensus rule changes for the Ironwood upgrade and plan to activate this upgrade in July. This upgrade will introduce a new privacy transaction pool based on the Orchard protocol to replace the old Orchard pool, and adjustments will be made to ensure that the circulating supply of ZEC remains constrained.

According to the developers' plan, Ironwood will introduce a "flag" mechanism between the old and new Orchard pools, restricting the old pool from receiving new transactions while allowing for change generation as a privacy protection measure. After the upgrade is activated, the old Orchard pool will be prohibited from receiving new deposits, and wallets will route new transactions to the new pool.

The developers stated that this design combines the existing turnstile mechanism to ensure that the circulating supply of ZEC cannot be infinitely minted and allows users to migrate their funds to the new pool to reduce potential risks.