Zakura releases Zcash cryptography libraries built to slash shielded transaction wait times

@ZakuraZcash, the team behind the @Zcash full node client that launched in July, has published an open-source cryptographic toolkit called Zakura Common that it says can dramatically reduce the time users wait when sending a private transaction on the Zcash network.

From three seconds to under 200 milliseconds

Sending a shielded $ZEC transaction requires a wallet to generate a zero-knowledge proof on the user's own device before the payment can even be broadcast to the network. Zcash shielded transactions conceal the sender, recipient, and transferred amount. A wallet must create a zero-knowledge proof showing that the hidden transaction follows the network's rules before broadcasting it. That computation happens on the user's device, meaning slow proof generation can delay a payment before validators or nodes begin processing it.

Zakura Common reduces the time needed to create a private transaction from more than three seconds to under 200 milliseconds in some cases, making transaction creation more than 14 times faster on mobile devices and more than five times faster on desktops, while also accelerating wallet syncing and transaction verification. The under-200-millisecond figure reflects benchmark conditions, and actual results may vary depending on hardware, operating systems, transaction complexity, and wallet implementations.

The performance improvements extend beyond proof generation. The library brings a 21x speedup for Sinsemilla hashing, integral to the Orchard protocol, and a 4 to 8x increase in zk-SNARK proof verification speeds compared to legacy implementations. Trial decryption, the process wallets use while scanning blockchain data to identify incoming shielded payments, also improved by more than 1.5 times.

"Shielded wallets that use Zakura Common, and full nodes like Zakura itself, all benefit," Zcash co-founder Sean Bowe said.

No network upgrade needed, adoption already under way

The upgrade does not require a hard fork, a consensus change, or anything that would force the Zcash network to coordinate a synchronized update. Compatible wallets can simply integrate the new library and start serving faster transactions immediately. Zakura released the software under dual MIT and Apache 2.0 licenses.

Zakura has moved to the new stack in version 1.3.0, the Tachyon scaling effort has followed, and Vizor Wallet is among the first to integrate it. The release fits into a larger roadmap: Zakura has been building toward high-throughput private payments through its node software, and the broader Tachyon initiative aims to improve scalability across the Zcash network, wallets, and verification processes. The release extends the scaling goal outlined when Zakura first launched, which set a target of more than 50,000 private transactions per second.

Sources:
CoinDesk: Zcash private transactions could go from three-second waits to under 200 milliseconds
Crypto.news: Zcash private transactions could fall below 200ms
Crypto Briefing: Zcash private transactions set to drop wait times to under 200 milliseconds