New Release 5.5.0

Release 5.5.0 introduces a number of bug fixes and changes to the underlying libraries that support Zcash. Much of this work lays the foundation for the fund availability features coming with the next release. Those features will provide the ability to spend funds before a wallet is fully synchronized. In addition, this release introduces a proportional fee mechanism that may help address future periods of high transaction load on the blockchain. Mobile wallet users sending regular single-recipient transactions will not be affected by this change.

The Zcash protocol continues to be our primary focus at ECC, as we work to exit “Emergency Mode” and deliver a solid and reliable user experience.

Summary of Changes

  • Proportional fee mechanism for the zcashd bundled wallet and mining partners;
  • Foundation work for fund availability/fast balance readiness;
  • Refactor of common code shared in zcashd wallet for z_sendmany, z_shieldcoinbase and z_mergetoaddress;
  • A bugfix enables Orchard transactions to be created and verified on 32-bit platforms.

All node operators, which includes our mining and other ecosystem partners, should upgrade to this latest version as soon as practical.

Additional RPC changes and feature deprecations have been included in this release. For technical details on these changes, including potential impacts of the proportional fee mechanism for node operators, please read the full release notes available at https://github.com/zcash/zcash/tree/v5.5.0/doc/release-notes/release-notes-5.5.0.md.