Zcash miners are leaving zcashd behind for the Zallet wallet

Zcash miners are moving on from zcashd in growing numbers, turning instead to Zallet, the wallet designed to replace the decades-old node software. Developers reported on Thursday's Arborist Call, hosted by @ZcashFoundation, that a number of miners have switched over completely and that the migration is working well.

zcashd Reaches End of Life

The shift is not voluntary for much longer. zcashd reached its final End-of-Support halt on July 18, 2026, at block height 3,417,100, and every unmodified zcashd 6.20.0 node shut down automatically at that point. The software does not support the NU6.3 network upgrade that followed shortly after. Users who have not yet moved are now being directed to either Zebra, the Rust-based consensus node developed by @ZcashFoundation, or to Zallet if they rely on the embedded wallet functionality.

Zallet is a full-node Zcash wallet written in Rust, built specifically as a replacement for the zcashd wallet. The software is still in beta, and developers have warned that breaking changes can occur at any time. Users were asked to back up old wallet.dat files before importing them into Zallet.

Beta 3 Fixes and Security Review Progress

Beta 3 shipped with fixes for problems miners had reported during earlier testing. The security review by Least Authority, a firm with a long track record of auditing Zcash components, has now reached its second round, where auditors verify that previously identified issues have been properly addressed. Least Authority recently completed a broader AI-assisted security audit across several critical repositories in the Zcash ecosystem, commissioned by Zcash Community Grants, with final reports delivered in May 2026.

The Arborist Call also noted that the migration tooling has matured. The migrate-zcashd-wallet command converts a legacy wallet.dat file into a Zallet wallet.db, and the team has been encouraging community testing on both mainnet and testnet to validate wallet balances and migration flows ahead of broader adoption.

While Zallet remains under active development, the combination of a hard zcashd shutdown deadline, improving tooling, and a security review nearing completion suggests the ecosystem is moving quickly toward a full transition.

Sources:
zcashd End of Life Timeline, The zcashd Book
Zallet GitHub Repository, zcash/zallet
AI-Assisted Security Auditing in the Zcash Ecosystem, Least Authority