Zcash Ironwood Timeline Pressured by Software Migration

Shielded Labs has raised the possibility of delaying Zcash’s Ironwood network upgrade, warning that ecosystem participants like exchanges, mining pools and wallets may not have enough time to prepare their systems for the planned activation in late July. 

Jason McGee, executive director of Shielded Labs, said in a Zcash community forum post that two major projects are moving forward at the same time. Alongside Ironwood, infrastructure providers are being asked to replace Zcash’s longstanding node and wallet software, zcashd, with a new collection of tools known as the Z3 stack.

The concerns highlight the trade-off between quickly restoring confidence in Zcash’s shielded supply and giving ecosystem participants enough time to deploy and audit the new infrastructure safely. 

Ironwood was proposed after researchers discovered an “infinity” bug in Orchard, Zcash’s main private transaction pool. The flaw could theoretically have allowed an attacker to create an unlimited amount of counterfeit ZEC tokens inside the pool without detection. Developers said there was no evidence that the pool had been exploited. However, Orchard’s privacy features make it impossible to prove that no fake coins were created. 

Source: Zooko Wilcox

Ironwood rollout collides with Zcash software migration

Ironwood would open a replacement private pool and prevent new activity inside the existing Orchard pool. Funds leaving Orchard would have to pass through an accounting checkpoint that prevents more ZEC from exiting than what originally entered. This would allow users to verify that the circulating supply remains within Zcash’s intended limits. 

At the same time, Zcash is retiring zcashd, the software used by many ecosystem participants to connect to the network and process transactions. Its replacement stack includes Zebra for operating a network node, Zaino for supplying blockchain data to applications and Zallet for wallet functions. 

The network’s official guidance documents said operators may need to modify their systems as some zcashd functions will not have direct replacements. 

Related: Why ZEC fell 40% even after Zcash patched a shielded pool bug

McGee said Zallet and Zaino were still under development and not ready for production use. Feedback gathered from infrastructure providers suggested that some expect to be ready by late July, while others need more time, he added.

McGee said no delay has been finalized. 

Zcash founder Zooko Wilcox said security reviews had found no additional serious bugs so far and that developers are also working to verify the new system before Ironwood activates. 

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