The upgrade will, among other things, replace Zcash's original naming system with a number-based one.
The Zcash NU5 upgrade will be activated at block 1687104 which is estimated to be mined on May 31st at 17:30.
Zcash to release new update today Network Upgrade 5 (NU5) which will implement various improvements, such as a change in the Zcashd consensus mechanism, the introduction of a new protected pool and other improvements to the network.
What is NU5?
NU5 will be the sixth major upgrade to the Zcash network and a critical component for the future release of the Halo Arc product suite. The release of the upgrade is supported by Electric Coin Co and the Zcash Foundation. NU5 will facilitate the implementation of the Orchard shielded protocol and Unified Addresses, while providing them with full support.
NU5 represents the continued evolution of the zk-SNARK technology stack and will move to Zcash the Halo testbed, which will remove the need for trusted configuration and update the underlying cryptography of the protocol.
On the other hand, the update also introduces a series of changes in the nomenclature system that will move from a system based on aliases (Sapling, Canopy, etc.) to a numerical system, the objective of which is to provide greater clarity and consistency in the future.
What improvements are being implemented with NU5?
NU5 will create a new version of Zcashd, the consensus node for Zcash. This will include support for:
- ZIP 216: Requires canonical encodings of Jubjub points. Fixes a bug in Sapling's implementation of consensus rules, rejecting all non-canonical representations of Jubjub points.
- ZIP 224: It implements the Orchard shielded protocol, with spending keys and payment addresses that are susceptible to future scalability improvements. New pools with separate privacy sets are instituted in major network upgrades to increase the security of the monetary base.
- ZIP 225: Introduces a new peer-to-peer transaction format to include support for the data elements required for the Orchard protocol. The new transaction format defines well-delimited regions of the serialized form to serve each of the existing pools of funds, and adds and describes a new region containing Orchard-specific elements.
- ZIP 239: This proposal alters the peer-to-peer network protocol and adds a new type of inv message that must be used to announce V5 transactions. This ensures that nodes in the network cannot perform a denial of service attack on wallets that are sending V5 transactions to the mempool.
- ZIP 244: This upgrade defines a new transaction digest algorithm for the NU5 network upgrade onwards, in order to introduce non-malleable transaction identifiers that commit all transaction data except for transaction validity certificates.
- ZIP 316: Introduces Unified Addresses (UA), a future-proof Zcash address format that improves usability, increases ease of interoperability, and supports Zcash shielding by default. UAs make Zcash easier to use by removing the complexity of multiple address types, simplifying the user experience, and increasing interoperability between shielded and transparent applications.
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