How the 80/8/12 split works @Zcash does not pay its full block reward to miners. Since the NU6 network upgrade activated alongside the second halving in November 2024, 80% of the Zcash block
@Zcash does not pay its full block reward to miners. Since the NU6 network upgrade activated alongside the second halving in November 2024, 80% of the Zcash block reward is distributed to miners, 8% goes to the Zcash Community Grants Committee (ZCG) to fund independent teams in the Zcash ecosystem, and 12% is distributed to a "lockbox," a pool of issued funds tracked by the protocol.
Every 75 seconds, a new block is mined to the Zcash blockchain and a block reward of 1.5625 ZEC comes into circulation. That means miners receive 1.25 ZEC per block, ZCG receives 0.125 ZEC, and the coinholder-controlled lockbox accrues 0.1875 ZEC per block.
Zcash funding has undergone a structural shift. For its first eight years, the network operated under a direct funding model where 20% of block rewards were automatically distributed to specific organizations. As of Network Upgrade 6 (NU6) in November 2024, that model ended. The earlier Deferred Dev Fund Lockbox seeded the coinholder-controlled fund that replaced it.
Zcash now runs coin-weighted "Coinholder" polls that let ZEC holders vote on funding and roadmap choices using shielded ZEC.The working design is that coinholder votes set how deferred development funds are allocated, with a defined quorum and simple-majority rules, via a transparent multisig that disburses grants per the vote. In practice, holders can direct that money toward ecosystem teams or leave it to accumulate in the fund.
The Coinholder Grants Program, seeded by the existing lockbox, is set to receive 12% of block rewards through the third halving in 2028. Zcash has indicated the current model will be reassessed at that point rather than renewed automatically. It is also possible that before the third halving, Zcash will switch to a smoothed issuance schedule as proposed by ZIP 234, which would remove further halvings as discrete steps.
Sources:Zcash: What are the economics of Zcash?ZIP 1016: Community and Coinholder Funding ModelMessari: Understanding Zcash, a Comprehensive Overview
