In the blockchain of the anonymous cryptocurrency Zcash, the Heartwood hard fork at block 903,000 has been activated. The update will ensure the confidentiality of mining.
Heartwood is the fourth update on the Zcash network since the emergence of this cryptocurrency in 2016. Heartwood was activated with the support of the Zcash Foundation and the Electric Coin Company (ECC) supporting the development of the Zcash cryptocurrency. The update contains two suggestions for improving Zcash (ZIP): Shielded Coinbase (ZIP 213), which enables anonymous mining of Zcash, and Flyclient, which supports light clients for confirming transactions. Hardfork is not backward compatible. This means that all nodes must update their software in order to successfully sync with the new Zcash blockchain.
“The Zcash Foundation is pleased to present the Heartwood update in partnership with ECC. Soon, users will be able to connect to the Zcash network using an alternative Zebra client compatible with the Zcash consensus developed by the Zcash Foundation, ”said Josh Cincinnati, executive director of the Zcash Foundation.
Note that the Zebra client using the Rust programming language was launched by Parity Technologies last June. Shielded Coinbase will allow miners to receive rewards for processing transactions directly to secure Zcash addresses that hide the transaction amount, addresses, and an encrypted text field. ECC CTO Nathan Wilcox said the ZIP 213 was planned to be implemented from the beginning of the project. The update was implemented thanks to the Sapling hard fork, which was activated in 2018.
“With secure transactions, individual miners can receive rewards anonymously. Mining pools can also send payouts to their clients in confidence, ”said Nathan Wilcox.
Flyclient's offer allows you to confirm transactions even with a minimum of information. Similar to Simplified Payment Verification (SPV), a block header without its contents is sufficient to confirm a transaction. In addition, Flyclient makes it easy to interact with other blockchains, including Ethereum. Summa founder and developer James Prestwich added that a full Zcash node is required for "full" privacy. Flyclient will protect light clients from intruders and ensure complete anonymity of each wallet.
As a reminder, in June 2018, the Overwinter hard fork was successfully passed on the Zcash network to prepare the Zcash code for the larger Sapling hard fork, and in December 2019 the Blossom hard fork took place on the Zcash network.
