Zcash releases 3.1.0, paving way for its upcoming Network Upgrade 4, Canopy

Today the Electric Coin Company (ECC) released 3.1.0, which includes the code preparations for its upcoming Network Upgrade 4 (Canopy). The release will deploy:

ZIP 207: Funding Streams (Zcash Developement Fund)

ZIP 211: Disabling Addition of New Value to the Sprout Value Pool

ZIP 212: Allow Recipient to Derive Sapling Ephemeral Secret from Note Plaintext

ZIP 214: Consensus rules for a Zcash Development Fund

ZIP 215: Explicitly Defining and Modifying Ed25519 Validation Rules

Canopy will activate on testnet at height 1028500 (around August 5), and will activate on mainnet at height 1046400 (around mid-November).

Why it matters:

• In January, The Zcash community reached consensus over the Zcash developer reward for the next four years, clearing up a major overhang on the project, and providing clarity for its also upcoming Network Upgrade 4 now called Canopy.
• Just a couple weeks ago Zcash's third network upgrade, Heartwood activated on mainnet at block height 903,000. The release deployed ZIP 221 and ZIP 213, which improve interoperability through Flyclient support and give miners the option to immediately shield mining rewards in coinbase transactions, respectively.