November 5 has been the pencilled-in date for the next Zcash upgrade for weeks. On October 22, 2026, it became possible for the first time to check whether that date holds. The upgrade's deployment document now names a fixed block height, and that height together with the current state of the blockchain produces a window that sits just beside it.
The documented facts: ZIP 259, the document governing the rollout of NU7, lists block 3,543,405 as the mainnet activation height. The Zcash blockchain stood at block 3,527,079 on October 22. Our assessment follows further down: a height in the document does not turn the target date into a commitment from the developers, but it shifts the evidence considerably.
ZIP 259 carries mainnet height 3,543,405 and consensus branch 0x77190AD9
ZIP stands for Zcash Improvement Proposal. It is the format in which the project records its protocol changes, comparable to the BIPs at Bitcoin. Among those documents, ZIP 259 is the organisational one: it governs how and when the upgrade reaches the network. What NU7 changes in substance sits in the other documents.
Two numbers now appear in that do...
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