ZEC Implements Turnstile Strategy Ahead of Ironwood Hard Fork

Zcash (ZEC) has been taking measures to preserve its mathematical integrity in anticipation of an upcoming hard fork.

The network is preparing for Ironwood, scheduled to activate on July 28, 2026, at block 3,428,143. This will permanently isolate the vulnerable Orchard pool and lock up any potentially forged ZEC.

A critical bug was discovered in the Orchard pool that could have allowed hackers to mint undetected ZEC. However, developers found no evidence it had been exploited before the patch was deployed.

Zooko Wilcox, co-founder and lead developer of Zcash, has implemented a strategy called the 'turnstile' mechanism. This will seal the original Orchard pool and launch a new one with corrected cryptography on July 28.