Zcash has officially implemented the Ironwood Network upgrade. This change discontinues the previous Orchard privacy pool and begins migrating user funds to a new privacy pool. The goal is to permanently isolate potentially counterfeit ZEC within the old pool, preventing it from entering the market.

Old privacy pool stops flowing out

This upgrade stemmed from a critical vulnerability exposed in May. Security researcher Taylor Hornby discovered a flaw in Orchard while using Claude Opus 4.8 that had persisted for approximately four years and could theoretically be used to forge ZEC. Although the development team released an emergency patch in June, due to the default hiding of details in privacy transactions, it is impossible to confirm whether the vulnerability has been exploited.

After Ironwood's launch, Orchard, holding approximately 3.7 million ZEC, was officially decommissioned. The new mechanism incorporates a "gate"-like accounting design, preventing the amount of ZEC flowing out of the old pool from exceeding the verifiable historical deposits. This ensures that even if counterfeit coins existed in the past, they cannot flow out of the old pool and enter the market.

• The Orchard old pool contains approximately 3.7 million ZEC.
• Based on the prices mentioned in the article, the value is estimated at approximately $1.7 billion.
• Outflow from the old pool will be subject to verifiable deposit limits.

Prices initially fell after the vulnerability was disclosed, then stabilized.

After the vulnerability was disclosed, the market initially questioned the reliability of Zcash's supply. Reports indicate that ZEC fell by 38% at the time. Following Ironwood's proposed fix, market sentiment stabilized, and Zcash recovered approximately $2.5 billion in market capitalization in early June.

As of the time of this report, ZEC was priced at approximately $464, with a market capitalization approaching $8 billion. For the market, this upgrade is not merely a routine technical update, but more importantly, it relates to restoring the integrity of Zcash's supply and the credibility of privacy assets.

Privacy reminders will still be in effect during the migration.

In addition to addressing potential counterfeit currency issues, Ironwood also introduces quantum-resistant transaction records and formally verified proof circuits. The developers hope to reduce the probability of similar vulnerabilities recurring and improve future network security.

However, privacy infrastructure provider Nym believes that users may expose online information related to their wallet balances if they lack additional protection when migrating funds. Zcash developers recommend that users do not rush into migration and use privacy tools such as Tor or NymVPN when transferring funds.