Zcash Overwinter hard fork successful

The hard fork called Overwinter has been activated after Zcash block 347500 has been mined, which happened yesterday (June 26, 2018). First and foremost, this is not a type of hard fork that makes new altcoins, as it happened with Bitcoin’s SegWit. Instead, the protocol update improves performance and prepares the whole system for yet another major set of changes called Sapling which is planned to be introduced in October this year.

Zcash developers leave an impression that the main news is not the update itself, but rather, the manner of its introduction. Unlike major corporations introducing new rules or platform design without leaving any options, Zcash coder Josh Swihart tells that node operators are free to choose if they should install the update. Additionally and on behalf of the team he promises to educate node owners about the technology they are managing.

The price of Zcash has jumped up prior to the hard fork (from $169.22 on June 25 to $176.65 the next day), but one can clearly see the hype fading away on the three-day stats provided by Coinmarketcap:

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