Zcash Activates NU7 Upgrade, Recycles 60% of Fees for Future Block Rewards

The NU7 upgrade is notable less for what it does now than for the precedent it sets: routing fees toward future block rewards is a structural answer to the long-standing question of how a capped-supply chain pays for its own security after emissions taper. That the mechanism reissues removed ZEC from 2031 rather than minting new supply keeps it inside the 21 million cap, a design choice privacy-coin watchers will scrutinize. The timing is awkward, arriving amid the community's unresolved development-fund debate, so whether the sustainability mechanism and the funding argument stay separate conversations is the open question.