Zcoin is undergoing its first block halving on block 302438 (approximately 15 September 2020) as planned. As long as you are on Zcoin v.0.14.0.5 and above, you are all set for the halving. This post seeks to summarize the upcoming changes to the block reward that are coming with the halving.

What is Halving?

Zcoin follows Bitcoin’s supply schedule which halves approximately every 4 years. Satoshi’s rationale of halving is to start a coin with a wide distribution, then taper inflation off to become a deflationary asset.

The halving refers to the planned halving of the block rewards which will drop from 25 XZC per block to 12.5 XZC per block. The inflation rate of Zcoin is expected to drop from ~25% p.a. pre-halving to ~12%. p.a. post-halving and will be the largest drop of inflation ever in Zcoin’s history as we move into the next phase of distribution.

End of Founders’ Rewards and Adjustment of Block Rewards

As from the results of a year long discussion with the community, the block rewards are being adjusted as a balance between continuing development, Znodes and miners. You can read more about this here.

Founders’ Rewards of 8% of the block reward will also completely cease as planned. This means that our founders and seed investors will stop receiving any further block rewards. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the founders and seed investors for supporting us throughout this early stage of Zcoin!

We are confident that the new block reward division will serve Zcoin well for the next 4 years.

What happens after halving?

In the weeks following halving, Lelantus, our next-gen privacy protocol that doesn’t require a trusted setup will be ready for release. This will also enables privacy on by default with transparent opt-in. We are undergoing final reviews before pushing it to our testnet. Also, The Trail of Bits audit for the cryptographic library has been completed and the ABDK Consulting review of the protocol is wrapping up with only minor modifications needed to address its findings.

In October, our integrations to DeFi will be ready to go live. Chain-locks code is undergoing final touch-ups and integration of spork functionality, which adds further security to the network, is nearly complete. We also expect Receiver Address Privacy to be ready over the coming weeks.

Finally, we are well underway with a rebranding and renaming exercise. This has been a desire for many in the community for a very long time, especially when we are often overlooked as a fork because of our name. A new name, domain and logo has been chosen to reflect our unique privacy mechanism, along with branding guidelines and a new modern website. We plan to unveil this closer towards the Lelantus launch.

As you can see, the halving kicks off a new chapter in the project’s history and so many exciting developments are in-progress and coming to fruition. We’re excited for what’s ahead and hope you’ll continue on this journey with us in building an easy to use cryptocurrency with the highest levels of privacy.