Winklevoss-owned Gemini switches Zcash software ahead of faster 25-second blocks

Their investment firm led a $59 million financing of Cypherpunk Technologies, a publicly traded company that holds and mines ZEC. A Winklevoss affiliate sold Cypherpunk a Zcash mining fleet for $33 million in August, and Cypherpunk says Gemini handles trading and custody for its ZEC holdings.

Why it matters for traders

Every exchange that lists a cryptocurrency runs its own computer following that network. Sending ZEC to Gemini does not make it immediately tradable, because that computer first has to find the payment on Zcash and verify it before crediting the customer's account.

If the computer crashes or falls behind, the coins can arrive while the customer's balance stays empty, and exchanges typically pause deposits and withdrawals for that coin until it catches up. How long that pause lasts depends largely on how quickly a replacement can rebuild its copy of the network.

Zcash's coming upgrade, called NU7, would shorten the time between blocks from 75 seconds to 25, so computers following the network would have to receive and check new batches three times as often. Developers are targeting Nov. 5 for the change.

Gemini has not published a test of how the new setup performs under NU7's faster block schedule. NU7 is scheduled to reach Zcash's test network on Oct. 6, and developers plan to decide on the Nov. 5 mainnet activation after seeing the results.