Zcash’s new node client Zakura goes live: 5× faster synchronization, with Visa-level 50k TPS as a long-term goal

Zcash’s new full-node client Zakura, jointly developed by Project Tachyon and Valar Group, has officially been released. The mainnet synchronization time has been reduced from Zebra’s 20 hours 46 minutes to 4 hours 20 minutes—nearly 5 times faster. The first official version supports the Ironwood upgrade, scheduled to be activated on July 28, and the newly created shielded notes will, by default, be equipped with “quantum recoverability.”
（Background: Zcash decided to launch the upgrade in the evening on 7/28; the older Orchard shielded pool containing vulnerabilities will begin migrating）
（Background update: Zcash Ironwood latest progress—multiple organizations have reached consensus, and formal verification and audits are progressing in parallel）

Table of contents

Toggle

• Sync is 5 times faster; running a node no longer requires waiting a day
• Ironwood’s funds are preset to be recoverable after Q-Day
• The wallet side currently has only 1 TPS; the target is 50k

Key highlights

• Zakura mainnet sync: 4 hours 20 minutes, nearly 5 times faster than Zebra’s 20 hours 46 minutes
• An 11 GB pruned snapshot can let a node come online in 1 minute 50 seconds, about 680x faster than initial P2P sync; full archival snapshot takes about 37 minutes
• After Ironwood launches on July 28, new shielded notes will, by default, have quantum recoverability under ZIP 2005

Zcash full-node client Zakura has released version 1.0.0. It is an open-source client forked from Zebra from the Zcash Foundation. It is compatible with consensus rules, and the first version already supports the Ironwood (NU6.3) upgrade that will be launched on July 28.

There are two maintainers: Zcash co-founder and Project Tachyon lead Sean Bowe, and Osmosis co-founder and Valar Group lead Dev Ojha. Both teams currently rely mainly on private ZEC donations, with no organizations backing them. The timing is also just right—long-running node software zcashd reached end-of-life on July 18. Zakura provides a compatibility mode that replicates the original RPC interface, allowing wallets, exchanges, and mining pools to migrate at low cost.

Sync is 5 times faster; running a node no longer requires waiting a day

Based on team-published tests in the same environment, Zakura completes mainnet synchronization in about 4 hours 20 minutes, while Zebra takes about 20 hours 46 minutes. It also supports native block pruning and node snapshots; an ~11 GB pruned snapshot can reduce node startup time to 1 minute 50 seconds, about 680x faster than doing initial sync via the standard P2P network, while a full archival snapshot takes about 37 minutes.

These figures are test results under specific conditions; real-world performance still depends on hardware, storage, and network configuration. However, the point isn’t benchmarking—it’s that the disk, time, and integration costs required to deploy a Zcash node are being lowered, making infrastructure operators more willing to upgrade.

Ironwood’s funds are preset to be recoverable after Q-Day

Ironwood will default to implementing ZIP 2005, ensuring that all newly created shielded notes have quantum recoverability. Sean Bowe explained recently:

Quantum recoverability should also be included. This means that if Q-Day arrives, no matter what happens, you can recover your funds.

Q-Day refers to the point when quantum computers become strong enough to practically threaten current cryptography. ZIP 2005 works by writing, at note creation time, the cryptographic materials required to verify ownership under the future recovery agreement; if something really goes wrong, the network can pause the affected privacy protocol(s), then move the funds to a new secure shielded pool via a Recovery Protocol that will be released later.

Here, it’s important to distinguish quantum recoverability from being quantum-resistant. Ironwood’s current partial proofs and signature mechanisms may still be threatened by future quantum computing. The full Recovery Protocol has also not been deployed yet. Moreover, funds left in Sprout, Sapling, or the old Orchard pool will not automatically get this capability—you need to migrate them to Ironwood for it to apply.

The wallet side currently has only 1 TPS; the target is 50k

Zakura isn’t a standalone performance client; it’s the first layer in a three-layer architecture. Zakura handles the node and network layer. Project Tachyon uses recursive proofs to compress consensus data, reducing the amount the node needs to process from payment-level scale of over 500 MB/s to about 100 MB/s. Valar Group uses private information retrieval to address a bottleneck: privacy wallets must download and scan large volumes of transactions to know which ones belong to them—that’s where the current ~1 TPS ceiling comes from.

The team says the goal is: “Our dream is to support payments for the whole world. Mastercard and Visa each handle more than 50k transactions per second—that’s our floor.”

Ironwood is expected to be activated around July 28, at about block height 3,428,143. At that time, new privacy payments will automatically route to Ironwood, and the old Orchard pool will switch to only allowing outgoing transactions. The gap from 1 TPS to 50k TPS is a factor of 50,000 in between—yet what’s going live now is only the first layer in the three layers.

Frequently asked questions

What is quantum recoverability? How is it different from being quantum-resistant?

Quantum recoverability means that the cryptographic materials needed for the future recovery agreement are written when a note is created. When Q-Day truly arrives, holders can recover funds into a new secure pool. It’s not quantum-resistant: Ironwood’s current partial proofs and signature mechanisms may still be threatened by quantum computing.

When will the Zcash Ironwood upgrade launch?

Ironwood (NU6.3) is expected to launch on July 28, around block height 3,428,143. After activation, new privacy payments will automatically route to Ironwood, and the old Orchard pool will become withdrawals-only. Funds leaving will require accounting through the Turnstile mechanism.