Protocol Study #10: What Zcash Changed from Bitcoin

​Session 10 of the Zcash Protocol Study Series, a guided reading of the Zcash Protocol Specification, run as a sub-series of Zcash Engineering Office Hours.

​Topic: §7, Consensus Changes from Bitcoin.

​Zcash began as a fork of Bitcoin. §7 lists what Zcash changed at the consensus layer: the transaction and block header formats, Equihash proof of work, a difficulty adjustment that runs every block (Bitcoin's runs every 2,016), and the block subsidy, from the Founders' Reward to funding streams and the lockbox. Plus the short list of Bitcoin BIPs that apply.

​NU7 activated on November 6 and changed §7 again: blocks now arrive every 25 seconds, and v4 transactions are retired. The current spec release still describes 75-second blocks. We read §7 as published and mark each line where mainnet has moved ahead.

​Live on the Zcash Global Discord stage. Recorded by Zcash Brazil with Portuguese translation.

​PDF: https://zips.z.cash/protocol/protocol.pdf, we're reading §7. Catch up on #9.2 (Hashes, Curves, and PRFs, Part 2): [FILL: #9.2 recording] Full arc and canonical thread: https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/protocol-study-series-12-session-guided-reading-of-the-zcash-protocol-specification-starting-april-21/55350

​Hosted by Mark Henderson (@shieldedmark), Shielded Labs.