Zcash Developers Seek 20-Second Target Blocks After NU7

Zcash developers ValarDragon and Evan Forbes proposed cutting the network’s target block interval from 25 seconds to 20 seconds after the NU7 mainnet activation on Nov. 6. The developers intend the change to shorten initial confirmation waits, but it remains an inactive proposal.

ValarDragon and Forbes asked the next community poll to include the change and want it considered for NU7.1. Until that process advances, the current 25-second target remains in force, and the proposal discloses no implementation timetable.

What does the 20-second target actually change?

NU7 reset the target block interval from 75 seconds to 25 seconds during its Nov. 6 mainnet activation. Cutting another five seconds would lower the target by 20% from the current setting and by roughly 73% from the pre-NU7 interval.

A 25-second target equates to 2.4 target intervals per minute, while a 20-second target equates to three. Those are scheduling equivalents, not reported measures of actual block production, transaction throughput or network utilization.

Because the proposal changes a target interval, it does not guarantee that every payment will confirm in exactly 20 seconds. It establishes a shorter scheduling goal rather than a fixed confirmation deadline for users.

The measurable change is a five-second reduction in the target, not a guaranteed five-second improvement in final settlement.

Which payment operations stand to benefit?

The developers identify three practical use cases: point-of-sale payments, exchange deposits and cross-chain swaps. In each case, they describe the benefit as a shorter wait for an initial confirmation.

The commercial benefit depends on each operator’s confirmation policy. A payment processor, exchange or swap service may begin its next operational step sooner when the first confirmation arrives earlier, but the proposal does not say how operators credit deposits or complete swaps.

That makes the claim narrower than an end-to-end settlement claim. The proposal targets the first confirmation; it does not promise that every exchange credit, point-of-sale purchase or cross-chain swap will finish within a specified number of seconds.

The clearest claimed benefit is a quicker first confirmation for payment-facing services, subject to their own operating rules.

Does a shorter interval expand capacity?

ValarDragon and Forbes say the shorter target would leave Zcash’s overall daily capacity for private transactions unchanged. They also say the issuance schedule would remain unchanged.

The capacity statement limits what a faster target can mean commercially. Even if target intervals arrive more often, the developers do not present the proposal as a way to process additional private transactions per day.

No throughput benchmark, fee estimate or revenue projection appears in the proposal. That absence leaves open the practical question of whether shorter waits would prompt enough additional use to affect fees or service economics, although the developers offer no such forecast.

The unchanged issuance schedule also means token issuance would not accelerate under the proposal. The stated goal is waiting time, not a higher daily transaction ceiling or a faster issuance pace.

What must happen before the change takes effect?

ValarDragon and Forbes want the draft included in the next community poll. They also seek consideration for NU7.1, with no implementation window yet established.

Neither the poll date nor a NU7.1 release date appears in the proposal. The announcement identifies no client release, consensus test results or activation mechanism, so it does not establish that the change is implementation-ready.

Until the community process and any subsequent release occur, 20 seconds remains a proposal rather than a network rule. The current target remains 25 seconds.

The next community poll is the first disclosed checkpoint, while NU7.1 is the developers’ requested implementation window; neither has a date.