Zcash Founder Zooko Reveals Strategy to Freeze Potential Fake ZEC in July 28 Hard Fork

Zooko Wilcox reveals how Zcash’s July 28 Ironwood hard fork will freeze potential fake ZEC, triggering temporary wallet and exchange freezes this week.

Gamza Khanzadaev · 19 Jul 2026 · 5 min read

Wire content from U.Today

Zcash Founder Zooko Reveals Strategy to Freeze Potential Fake ZEC in July 28 Hard Fork

News

By
Gamza Khanzadaev

Sun, 19/07/2026 – 10:50

Zooko Wilcox reveals how Zcash’s July 28 Ironwood hard fork will freeze potential fake ZEC, triggering temporary wallet and exchange freezes this week.

Zcash Founder Zooko Reveals Strategy to Freeze Potential Fake ZEC in July 28 Hard Fork

Cover image via depositphotos.com

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by our writers are their own and do not represent the views of U.Today. The financial and market information provided on U.Today is intended for informational purposes only. U.Today is not liable for any financial losses incurred while trading cryptocurrencies. Conduct your own research by contacting financial experts before making any investment decisions. We believe that all content is accurate as of the date of publication, but certain offers mentioned may no longer be available.

Zcash (ZEC) co-founder and lead developer, Zooko Wilcox, has revealed the details of an emergency strategy designed to preserve the coin’s mathematical integrity. The network is preparing for the Ironwood hard fork (NU6.3), which will activate on July 28, 2026, at block 3,428,143 to permanently isolate the vulnerable Orchard pool and lock up any potentially forged ZEC.

The “turnstile” strategy: How to lock up phantom coins

For those who missed it, a critical bug was discovered by Shielded Labs researcher Taylor Hornby that could theoretically have allowed hackers to mint ZEC undetected inside the private Orchard pool. By 2026, developers had quickly fixed the vulnerability at the protocol level and found no evidence that it had actually been exploited.

However, because the Orchard pool provides complete privacy, no one can guarantee that hidden issuance did not occur before the patch was deployed.

HOT Stories

What Could Ignite $100K Bitcoin Rally? Novogratz Names Three Factors

XRP’s Price Health Is on the Line, Did Shiba Inu (SHIB) Finally Bottom? Ethereum’s (ETH) Mini-Golden Cross: Crypto Market Review

Zooko’s strategy eliminates the need for blind trust. On July 28, the original Orchard pool will be completely sealed and a new, clean Orchard pool with corrected cryptography will launch in its place.

Ironwood Ironwood Ironwood!

Humanity is going to have a form of money that is unstoppable, private, and has full correctness proofs (formal verification) of some of its key properties, thanks to heroic math by an awesome team led by @TachyonZcash. https://t.co/Z85ktHtoPE

— zooko🛡🦓🦓🦓 ⓩ (@zooko) July 19, 2026

Funds will be transferable from the old system to the new one only through a special turnstile gateway. This cryptographic mechanism strictly controls the balance: it will prevent more coins from leaving the old pool than legitimately entered throughout its entire history.