Zcash Completes Ironwood Proof After Orchard Flaw

Project Tachyon said the machine-checked proof establishes Ironwood’s balance integrity following the counterfeiting vulnerability found in Zcash’s Orchard pool.

Zcash Completes Ironwood Proof After Orchard Flaw

DOGE

$0.07058

1.23%

TRX

$0.3248

0.35%

LINK

$8.40

1.02%

ZEC

$461.93

2.55%

ADA

$0.1623

4.79%

XRP

$1.07

1.57%

ETH

$1,909.86

1.84%

BTC

$63,793.37

0.96%

XMR

$344.24

1.11%

BNB

$571.66

1.08%

XLM

$0.1744

1.33%

SOL

$73.45

0.27%

HYPE

$54.70

2.73%

Written by

Ezra Reguerra

staff writer

Reviewed by

Yohan Yun

staff editor

Written by

Ezra Reguerra

staff writer

Reviewed by

Yohan Yun

staff editor

Zcash says Ironwood proof rules out undetectable counterfeiting bugs

Latest News

Published

Jul 29, 2026

Zcash researchers published more than 2,700 machine-checked theorems designed to rule out undetectable counterfeiting bugs in Ironwood.

Zcash researchers have completed formal verification of Ironwood, publishing a machine-checked proof that the network’s new shielded pool does not contain undetectable counterfeiting bugs under its stated cryptographic assumptions.

On Tuesday, Project Tachyon

said

that the proof, written in the Lean programming language, comprises over 2,700 theorems and took three teams of researchers and cryptographers over a month to complete. The work establishes a security property known as balance integrity, designed to ensure the shielded pool cannot pay out more value than has publicly entered it.

The researchers said the proof covers the components needed for that property, including Ironwood’s zero-knowledge proof system, circuit rules and ledger-level accounting. It does not cover Ironwood’s separate privacy guarantees.

Ironwood was

introduced through Zcash’s NU6.3 upgrade

in response to a vulnerability discovered in its Orchard shielded pool that could theoretically have

enabled undetectable ZEC counterfeiting

. Zcash developers said they found no evidence that the flaw had been exploited. The new pool was designed to restore confidence in Zcash’s supply integrity.

Funds migrating from Orchard must pass through a public accounting checkpoint known as a turnstile, which is designed to prevent any hypothetical excess coins from entering Ironwood. As funds leave Orchard, the process could also provide growing evidence about whether the old pool was exploited.

Related:

Why ZEC fell 40% even after Zcash patched a shielded pool bug

Subscribe to daily byte-sized crypto news from Cointelegraph

Subscribe

Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s

Editorial Policy

and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.

Zcash

Privacy

Cybersecurity

Blockchain

More on the subject

European financial institutions launch RL1 cooperative blockchain network

1 hour ago

Ezra Reguerra

News Brief

Ondo shifts from layer-1 blockchain plan to offchain execution network

16 hours ago

Bryan O'Shea

News Brief

Hong Kong prepares banks for quantum threats amid tokenization push

23 hours ago

Ezra Reguerra

European financial institutions launch RL1 cooperative blockchain network

1 hour ago

Ezra Reguerra

News Brief

Ondo shifts from layer-1 blockchain plan to offchain execution network

16 hours ago

Bryan O'Shea

News Brief

Hong Kong prepares banks for quantum threats amid tokenization push

23 hours ago

Ezra Reguerra