CipherScan rebrands to ZecBlock. NU7 activates on Zcash testnet with 25-second blocks. Q3 retroactive grants fund 37 projects. NEAR Intents hacked for $3.8M. Shielded atomic swap bridge goes beta on testnet.
Top Stories
After months of people trying to spell "CipherScan" and ending up on someone else's website — or nowhere — it has a new name. CipherScan is now ZecBlock. Same project, same codebase, same indexer, same person answering questions. Just easier to spell, easier to find, and Zcash right in the name. The domain is now zecblock.com, and the X handle moved to @zecblock. All old CipherScan links redirect. Forum announcement
NU7, the next major Zcash network upgrade, activated on public testnet at block 4,465,026 on October 4. The headline feature: blocks now come every 25 seconds instead of 75. That cuts first-confirmation wait from over a minute to under half a minute — a real difference at point-of-sale, on exchanges, and for cross-chain bridges. NU7 also introduces a Network Sustainability Mechanism that recycles part of every transaction fee into future block rewards, plus new shielded limits to protect wallets from spam. Daily ZEC issuance stays the same. Mainnet operators don't need to do anything yet — no mainnet activation height is set. Zebra 7.0.0-rc.0 announcement
The Q3 Coinholder-Directed Retroactive Grants Program closed September 29, and the results are in: 37 projects received funding. The funded list spans security research (bug bounties for the Orchard counterfeiting vulnerability and five critical Zebra consensus divergence bugs), infrastructure (Zec.rocks, lightwalletd-rs, CipherScan), protocol work (Ironwood zk-SNARK formal verification, ZODL core development), wallets (Unstoppable Wallet, Zafu, Nozy, Zallet), tooling (ZecKit, ZecBooks, Zcash Names), and community efforts. Q4 call for proposals opens October 30. Full results · Analysis: "The Hand of God"
NEAR's custodial contracts on Omni were hacked, with attackers stealing $3.8M. This matters for Zcash because ZODL's cross-chain integration uses NEAR Intents. The thread discusses the implications and what this means for shielded cross-chain infrastructure. A timely reminder that bridges remain the weakest link in cross-chain design. Forum
Ecosystem
The Skyhook team that demonstrated trustless shielded ZEC-to-EVM atomic swaps last week shipped a working beta. The experience is nearly identical to NEAR Intents: one transaction from the Ethereum side, fully automated liquidity provider. Runs on testnet with sepETH→TAZ. Try it · Forum
Redesigned browser extension, website payment flows, and new developer SDKs. Forum
A post-quantum cryptography proposal for Zcash, exploring what the protocol needs to be ready for a post-quantum world. Forum
A grant application targeting mobile money integration in East Africa. Forum
Governance & Grants
New grant applications this week:
New grant applications this week:
Q3 retroactive grants results are the headline — see Top Stories. Highlights from the funded list:
Q4 timeline: Call for proposals opens October 30. Review period November 16–December 16. Voting December 17–29.
Protocol & Development
(ZIP 218) — 3x faster confirmations, same daily ZEC issuance
transaction fee recycling into future block rewards
wallet-level spam protection
Testnet operators should upgrade before activation. Mainnet operators should ensure they're running Zebra 6.4.2 (last week's emergency fix) but don't need to act on NU7 yet.
Bridge programmability discussion. A thread exploring whether trustless DeFi access to Ethereum from Zcash is feasible — building on last week's atomic swap breakthrough. Forum
Tweets of the Week
"CipherScan is now ZecBlock 🟨 Same explorer. Rebuilt from the block up."
"It's here: a beta, fully-automated sepETH→TAZ atomic shielded swap bridge."
Forum Highlights
an analysis of what Q3's coinholder vote reveals about ecosystem governance dynamics. Thread
testing how shielded Zcash runs on budget phones. Thread
regular governance transparency. Thread
a community documentary project. Thread
community building series continues. Thread
Privacy Corner
A name change doesn't change the math. The shielded pools are still accumulating, migration transactions are still climbing, and the transparent pool is still shrinking. But the rebrand does change one thing: the project that tracks all of this is now easier to find.
The irony isn't lost on us — a privacy analytics platform that was hard to find because people kept misspelling its name. ZecBlock fixes that. The data stays the same. The mission stays the same. Now more people will find it.
Network Snapshot
ZEC Price
~$1,395 · +0.9%
Block Height
~3,506,100 · +6,263
Network Upgrade
NU6.3 Ironwood (mainnet) · NU7 (testnet) · —
Hashrate
~30.8 GSol/s · −0.8%
Zcash Privacy Index
Powered by ZecBlock — live data from the Zcash blockchain.
Privacy Score
43 · 42
Shielded TX % (all-time)
24.2% · 24.1%
Ironwood Pool
~4,005,000 ZEC · 3,989,866 ZEC
Orchard Pool
~376,000 ZEC · 379,575 ZEC
Sapling Pool
~501,500 ZEC · 502,306 ZEC
Sprout Pool
~22,200 ZEC · 22,313 ZEC
24h Volume
~$6.9M
24h Swaps
~1,380
All-Time Volume
~$580M
All-Time Swaps
~90,100
Hashrate
~30.8 GSol/s
Tool Updates
ZecBlock:
Rebranded from CipherScan. New domain (zecblock.com), new X handle (@zecblock), all old links redirect. No downtime during the transition.
CipherPay:
No new features this week.
What's Ahead