Privacy-focused public chain Zcash developers propose reducing block interval to 20 seconds.

Zcash developers Dev Ojha and Evan Forbes have proposed cutting the network's target block interval from 25 seconds to 20 seconds, a change slated for community discussion and possible inclusion in the NU7.1 upgrade but not yet approved or scheduled for activation. The proposal follows NU7's recent reduction of the target interval from 75 seconds to 25 seconds; if adopted, three-confirmation transaction wait times would fall from an estimated 75 seconds to 60 seconds, though actual times would still vary. Testing across 80 miners in 12 regions showed orphan rates of 1.9% to 3.3% for 20-second blocks depending on the software used. The plan would also reduce per-block private transaction capacity to preserve daily capacity, the issuance schedule, and the 21 million ZEC supply cap. It matters because faster finality could improve Zcash's usability for shielded payments, and the next things to watch are the community vote and whether the change is folded into NU7.1.