First Transaction Confirmation on Zcash Could Drop to 20 Seconds: Will Energy Waste in Mining Increase?

Zcash developers Ojha and Forbes have proposed cutting the network's block target from 25 seconds to 20 seconds, three days after the NU7 upgrade, which would reduce first transaction confirmation waits to roughly 20 seconds. The change would raise block frequency by 25%, and the article questions whether that increases energy waste in mining. It matters because faster settlement improves Zcash's usability for payments, though the trade-off between confirmation speed and mining efficiency remains unresolved. Watch whether the proposal is accepted and how miners respond to the higher block rate.