Zcash Improvement Proposals
What is ZIP
A Zcash Improvement Proposal (ZIP) is a design document providing information to the Zcash community, or describing a new feature for Zcash or its processes or environment. The ZIP should provide a concise technical specification of the feature and a rationale for the feature.
We intend ZIPs to be the primary mechanism for proposing new features, for collecting community input on an issue, and for documenting the design decisions that have gone into Zcash. The Owner(s) of the ZIP (usually the authors(s)) are responsible for building consensus within the community and documenting dissenting opinions.
Because the ZIPs are maintained as text files in a versioned repository, their revision history is the historical record of the feature proposal.
-> zips.z.cash
ZIP Editors
For every ZIP that comes in, it must undergo the review process. ZIP editors are tasked with ensuring the format and content of any ZIP adequately describes terms, rationale and technical changes made.
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* Jack Grigg, Kris Nuttycombe and Daira-Emma Hopwood associated with the ECC.
* Conrado, and Arya, associated with the ZF.
* Sam and Mark, associated with SL.
Notable Current ZIPs
Statuses and titles below were checked against the ZIP index at zips.z.cash on 18 August 2026. A ZIP's status changes over time, so treat the index as the source of truth.
Draft: Transparent Zcash Extensions
Draft: Transfer and Burn of Zcash Shielded Assets
Draft: Issuance of Zcash Shielded Assets
Withdrawn: Withdrawn Version 6 Transaction Format — obsoleted by ZIP 229, which now defines transaction version 6. See the NU6.3 list below.
Draft: Transaction Identifier Digests & Signature Validation for Transparent Zcash Extensions
Draft: Standardized Memo Field Format
Draft: Sapling Address Signatures
Draft: Light Client Protocol for Payment Detection
Draft: Security Properties of Sapling Viewing Keys
Active: Defining an Address Type to which funds can only be sent from Transparent Addresses
Draft: Wallet.dat format
NU6.3 (Ironwood) ZIPs
NU6.3 is described in ZIP 258, together with the additional ZIPs listed here. The full candidate set is published on the ZIP index.
Draft: Deployment of the NU6.3 Network Upgrade
Draft: Version 6 Transaction Format
Draft: Orchard to Ironwood Migration
Draft: NU6.3 Consequences for Wallets
Proposed: Ironwood Quantum Recoverability
Reserved: Restricting Transfers into the Orchard Pool
Three earlier ZIPs are also updated for NU6.3: ZIP 209, ZIP 213 and ZIP 317.
