After a small peak in value around the end of July, privacy coin Zcash has seen a steady decline as the current bear market took its toll.
However, Zcash has been hard at work with developments, and on August 16 they announced the release of Zcash 2.0.0, the very first version of the Zcash node software that is compatible with their Sapling network upgrade.
What is Sapling?
Sapling is the major upgrade to Zcash that is scheduled to launch in October 2018. 2 years in the making, Sapling will considerably improve the performance of encrypted transactions through shielded breakthroughs. Currently, all Zcash transactions use transparent addresses, which advocates of privacy coins believe compromises user anonymity. However, with the launch of Sapling, shielded addresses will become the norm on the platform.
Sapling activated on the testnet at block 280000 for a second time, following changes made to the consensus which resulted in an automatic rollback of nodes. The first block of Sapling will be block 419200, currently predicted to occur on October 28.
If users keep their Zcash software updated, they will automatically be upgraded to the main chain. However, for users running a full node of their own and have their client configured to continue running the old code, they will have to manually switch to the new code.
How Does Zcash 2.0.0 Work?
The 2.0.0 version of Zcash will allow for greater security on the platform and hypervigilance against hacks. Since it will be compatible with Sapling, it is advisable that users of the Zcash platform upgrade their software quickly, to avail of the added benefits ASAP.
2.0.0 will offer experimental support for the Sapling RPC functionality, but for full support users will have to wait until the 2.0.1 release. According to the Zcash roadmap, this should occur on September 23.
The Zcash team states:
Developers must specify -experimentalfeatures and -developersapling to use the existing functionality on testnet after activation. Alternatively, developers can use these features in regtest mode.
Changes Included in Zcash 2.0.0
Version 2.0.0 comes with quite a few changes and improvements. Here are just a few:
- Set Sapling activation height for mainnet and testnet
- Adopt official Sapling system parameters
- Support for rollbacks of testnet
- Experimental wallet support for Sapling z-addresses
- Experimental support for building Sapling transactions
- Experimental support for Sapling note encryption and decryption
- Codebase for ZIP 32 integration, including bumping the Rust compiler version to 1.28
To get the full list of changes, check out Zcash’s GitHub milestone for 2.0.0.
If you can’t wait to get started with the upgrade, check out their download page. You can also follow up on new announcements and releases by following Zcash on their Twitter and forum.
Related: What the Future Holds for Zcash: Can It Win the Battle of the Privacy Coins?
