Share this article
Privacy Crypto Zcash Goes Live With 'Sapling' Network Hard Fork
The zcash protocol implemented its Sapling upgrade on Sunday in the hopes of making transactions faster and more secure.
By Nikhilesh De
Updated Sep 13, 2021, 8:32 a.m. Published Oct 29, 2018, 5:00 p.m.
The privacy-focused cryptocurrency zcash has officially implemented its network hard fork, known as Sapling.
Activated on schedule at block 419,200, Sapling has long been planned as an upgrade aimed at making the network faster, lighter and more secure.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
On Sunday, the Zerocoin Electric Coin Company's Elise Hadmon wrote that "Sapling activation, occurring on the momentous occasion of the currency's second birthday, brings us one step closer to widespread adoption of an open, permissionless and private payment system."
The company anticipates that transactions will take 90 percent less time and require 97 percent less memory to occur as a result. That being said, the overall zcash ecosystem will still need some time to add new addresses, Hadmon wrote.
Hadmon added that users cannot yet transfer funds from old shielded addresses to the new version without showing amounts, writing:
"This allows us to audit the monetary base of ZEC held in shielded addresses. We are developing a tool to automate the migration of funds in a way that allows users to minimize the impact on their privacy. We recommend that users wait for the release of this tool, if feasible."
No timeline was presented for when this tool may be released.
Following the upgrade's implementation, network data indicates that zcash's hashrate briefly fell to 1.5 GH/s, lower than it has been in nearly three weeks. By press time, however, it had returned to roughly 2 GH/s.
Zcash's hashrate has been fluctuating between just under 1.5 GH/s and 2 GH/s for more than a month now.
Trees image via Shutterstock
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
Ethereum’s P2P Layer Is Improving Just as Institutional ETH Buys Pick Up
Early PeerDAS performance is proof that the Ethereum Foundation can now ship complex networking improvements at scale.
What to know:
- Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said that the network is addressing its lack of peer-to-peer networking expertise, highlighting the progress of PeerDAS.
- PeerDAS, a prototype for Data Availability Sampling, is crucial for Ethereum's scalability and decentralization through sharding.
- BitMine Immersion Technologies has significantly increased its Ethereum holdings, viewing it as a strategic investment in the network's future scaling capabilities.
Top Stories
