ZecHub
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The resources you need to build on Zcash, grouped by what each one is for rather than listed in one pile.
The stack changed a great deal in 2026. zcashd, which ran the network for most of its history, reached its end of life on 18 July 2026 at block height 3417100, and every unmodified node shut down at that height and will refuse to restart. Guides written for zcashd are history now rather than a starting point, so this page is organised around what replaced it.
| Layer | What to use | Start with |
|---|---|---|
| Full node | Zebra or Zakura | The Zebra Book, zakura.com |
| Full node wallet | Zallet, in beta | The Zallet Book |
| Light wallet server | Zaino or lightwalletd | Zaino, lightwalletd |
| Wallet libraries | The librustzcash crates | librustzcash |
| Mobile | Android and iOS SDKs | Android, iOS |
| Specification | Protocol spec and ZIPs | zips.z.cash |
A node validates consensus and holds the chain. There are two actively developed implementations.
Zebra is the Zcash Foundation's node, written in Rust, and is the one most guides now assume. The Zebra Book covers installing and running it, and the repository is where development happens.
Zakura is a newer node, described by its authors as a "consensus-compatible Zcash full node, built for scale", with faster sync, block pruning and a zcashd compatibility mode. It is led by Sean Bowe, a Zcash cofounder, and Dev Ojha. It is open source under Apache 2.0 at zakura-core/zakura.
ZecHub has a Full Nodes page covering the trade-offs between them.
zcashd bundled a wallet with the node. That wallet is gone, and Zallet is the replacement. The Zallet Book describes it as "a full-node Zcash wallet written in Rust" being "built as a replacement for the zcashd wallet".
Read the security warning before depending on it. Zallet is in beta, "has not been fully reviewed", breaking changes "may occur at any time, requiring you to delete and recreate your Zallet wallet", and not every zcashd RPC method has been ported yet.
If you are moving an existing setup across, ZecHub has a migration guide from zcashd to Zebra and Zallet and a Zallet quick reference.
Most wallets do not run a node. They talk to a server that keeps the chain and hands back a compact view of it.
lightwalletd is the original service, written in Go, described as "a backend service that provides a bandwidth-efficient interface to the Zcash blockchain". Zaino is the newer indexer, written in Rust, and reads from a full validator rather than carrying its own copy of the chain.
The Light Client Protocol documentation covers the protocol itself. The Lightwallet Nodes page covers what these servers can and cannot see about a user, which is worth understanding before you pick one.
Most wallet work happens in the Rust crates under librustzcash, which the mobile SDKs and several desktop wallets build on. Each crate is documented on docs.rs.
| Crate | What it is for |
|---|---|
| zcash_client_backend | "APIs for creating shielded Zcash light clients", including sync and transaction construction |
| zcash_client_sqlite | "An SQLite-based Zcash light client", the storage layer for the above |
| zcash_keys | "Zcash key and address management" |
| zcash_primitives | "Rust implementations of the Zcash primitives" |
| zcash_protocol | "Zcash protocol network constants and value types" |
| orchard | "The Orchard shielded transaction protocol" |
| sapling-crypto | "Cryptographic library for Zcash Sapling" |
| pczt | "Tools for working with partially-created Zcash transactions", used for hardware and multi-device signing |
| zip321 | Payment request URIs, as specified in ZIP 321 |
For mobile, the Android SDK and the iOS SDK wrap those libraries. The iOS repository was previously called ZcashLightClientKit, so older links and articles use that name.
The protocol specification is the authority on how Zcash works, including address and key encodings.
ZIPs are where changes are proposed and specified, and the index shows which are drafts and which are final. Consensus changes ship in network upgrades, and ZecHub tracks those on the Network Upgrades page.
For the cryptography underneath, read The halo2 Book and The Orchard Book, with the halo2 and orchard crate docs alongside. The FROST Book covers threshold signatures, and ZecHub has a FROST page.
Testnet is a separate chain with valueless coins, called TAZ. Both Zebra and Zakura can run against it, and the testnet guide covers node configuration.
testnet.zcashexplorer.app is a working testnet block explorer, with a mainnet counterpart at mainnet.zcashexplorer.app.
Getting TAZ is the awkward part, because the faucets linked from older documentation have stopped responding. zcashfaucet.jinolabs.xyz is a community-run faucet that runs "its own node, wallet and miner", pays "shielded z2z drips", and gates claims with "browser proof of work instead of a captcha vendor". It is open source under MIT. If it is unavailable, ask in the Zcash R&D Discord, which is what the Zcash documentation itself suggests.
Zcash Documentation is still the broadest single source, covering protocol concepts, integration and mining. Read it with some care. It is versioned against zcashd, so parts of it describe a node that no longer runs, while the protocol and light client sections remain useful. The Zcash Wallet App Threat Model that lives there is worth reading before designing anything that touches user privacy.
If you are new to blockchains generally, Mastering Bitcoin is the usual recommendation for the shared fundamentals, and is free to read in full. It does not cover shielded transactions.
Arti is the Rust implementation of Tor, used by zcash_client_backend to route wallet traffic. Tailscale comes up for connecting to a node you run yourself. warp2 is a fast sync implementation by Hanh, though it has not been updated since 2023.
The Zcash R&D Discord is where protocol and wallet development is discussed, and the Zcash Community Forum carries longer proposals and support threads.
Recent hackathon results are a good picture of what people are building: ZecHub 2024, ZecHub 2025 and the Zypherpunk Hackathon 2025.
Kept because older articles link to them, and because they are still the reference for how the retired node behaved. Do not start here.
The zcashd Book and the zcashd RPC reference document software that reached end of life in July 2026. The zcash/zcash repository is archived.
If you have a resource to add, or you spot something here that has gone stale, open an issue or a pull request. Teams do not always have capacity to keep everything current, and flagging what you ran into helps direct the guides.
Last updated: August 2026
