How to create a Zcash wallet (2026)

Quick steps

1. Pick an Ironwood-ready wallet. Choose a shielded wallet such as Zodl, Zingo!, Zkool or Cake Wallet that ZecHub lists as Ironwood-ready.
2. Install from the official source. Type the official address yourself or check the developer name in the app store. Never use a web page that asks for a seed.
3. Create the wallet. Tap Create new wallet (Zodl) or New Account (Zkool) and set an app lock.
4. Write down the recovery phrase. Copy all 24 words in order on paper, plus the birthday height. No screenshots or cloud storage.
5. Receive a test amount. Copy your shielded u1 address from Receive and send a small amount to it first.
6. Keep the app updated. Install updates promptly, especially before the NU7 upgrade planned for around 5 November 2026.

Creating a Zcash wallet takes about five minutes. The part that matters is not the app install but the backup: whoever holds your 24 words holds your ZEC. This guide shows the safe order of steps as of October 2026, after the Ironwood upgrade changed which wallets are worth using.

Step 1: choose a wallet that supports Ironwood

On 28 July 2026 the NU6.3 upgrade launched a new shielded pool called Ironwood, after a flaw was found in the older Orchard pool. Orchard no longer accepts new funds (The Block, 28 Jul 2026). A new wallet should therefore be Ironwood-ready, otherwise it cannot receive shielded ZEC in the current pool.

Avoid creating a new wallet in apps that only handle transparent ZEC, such as Exodus, Trust Wallet or Trezor. They work, but every payment is public. See transparent-only wallets. YWallet is retired; use Zkool instead. For a full comparison, read the best Zcash wallets.

Step 2: install from the real source

Fake wallet apps are the most common way people lose crypto. In April 2026 Kaspersky reported 26 phishing wallet apps in Apple's App Store that stole recovery phrases. Fake "Zcash web wallet" sites have also asked visitors to import their seed (one, posing as Zodl, was flagged on 8 August 2026).

• Type the official address yourself or use a bookmark: zodl.com, zingolabs.org, cakewallet.com, edge.app, unstoppable.money. Zkool is published from the developer's GitHub project (hhanh00/zkool2) and in the app stores under the name "zkool".
• In the app store, check the developer name and the number of reviews before you install.
• Zodl has no web version. Any website offering "Zodl web wallet" is a scam.

Step 3: create the wallet

In Zodl

Open the app and tap Create new wallet. Zodl prompts you to back up the recovery phrase after you receive your first ZEC, but there is no reason to wait. You can view the phrase at any time from the ... menu, then More, Advanced Settings, Zodl Recovery Phrase (Zodl support, checked October 2026).

In Zkool

On first launch, read the disclaimer, turn on the I Agree switch and tap Continue. In the empty Account Manager, tap + or New Account, enter a name (kept only on your device) and press save. Zkool then shows a 24-word seed phrase. Write it down exactly as shown and press Ok.

In other wallets

The flow is similar everywhere: choose the create or new wallet option, set a PIN or biometric lock, and the app shows your recovery phrase. Menu names change between versions, so follow the prompts on screen.

Step 4: back up the 24 words and the birthday height

Your recovery phrase is the wallet. The app on your phone is just a window onto it.

• Write the words on paper, in order, spelled exactly. A steel backup survives fire and water better.
• Also write the birthday height: the block height when the wallet was created. Zodl shows it on the recovery phrase screen. It lets a future restore skip older blocks and finish much faster. See how to restore a Zcash wallet.
• No screenshots, photos, cloud notes, email drafts or password-manager notes synced to a phone you might lose.
• Never type the words into a website, chat or form. No genuine wallet support team will ask for them.

Step 5: receive your first ZEC

Tap Receive. Most shielded wallets show two kinds of address:

• A shielded or unified address (starts with u1). Use it whenever the sender supports it. Amount, sender and memo stay private. See unified addresses.
• A transparent address (starts with t1). Use it only when the sender, often an exchange, cannot send to a shielded address. Then shield the funds. See how to shield Zcash.

In Zodl the shielded address changes each time you open the Receive screen. This is deliberate: old addresses stay valid and all belong to the same wallet, but giving each service a different address stops them being linked.

Send a small test amount first. In Zodl, incoming ZEC becomes spendable after 10 confirmations, about 12.5 minutes at the 75-second block time that applies until NU7.

Step 6: lock it down and keep it updated

• Turn on the app lock (PIN or biometrics).
• Turn on Tor if the wallet offers it (Zodl, Zkool). It hides your IP address from the light-wallet server, at the cost of slower syncing.
• Keep the app updated. Zodl versions before 3.8.0 stopped syncing after Ironwood.

NU7: update before early November 2026

The next network upgrade, NU7, is planned for block 3,543,405, expected around 5 November 2026 (height agreed 21 October 2026, Cointelegraph). It cuts the block time target from 75 to 25 seconds and disables old v4 transactions, which makes any remaining Sprout funds unspendable. Reports differ on how much wallets are affected: one says it "should not affect wallets in any significant way" (KuCoin, 18 Sep 2026), another that wallets will need updates through their normal release channels (CoinGabbar, 13 Oct 2026). Install your wallet's latest update before activation either way. As of 24 October 2026 NU7 had not activated and a delay was still possible.

Frequently asked questions