Orchard to Ironwood: how to migrate your shielded ZEC

Quick steps

1. Check your pools. Open your wallet and see whether any balance is in Orchard. Sapling, transparent and exchange balances need no migration.
2. Update your wallet. Install the latest Ironwood-ready version, for example Zodl 3.9.0 or later or Cake Wallet 6.4.1 or later.
3. Turn on Tor. Enable Tor or use a trusted VPN so your IP address is not linked to the public migration amounts.
4. Start the private migration. In Zodl tap Migrate, choose Migrate with privacy and Start migration. In Cake, keep the app open and synced.
5. Keep the app available. On iOS keep the app open; on Android allow background activity. Track progress on the main screen.
6. Check the result. Confirm the Orchard balance is zero or near zero and decide whether to sweep or lock any remainder.

On 28 July 2026 the Zcash network activated NU6.3 at block 3,428,143 and opened a new shielded pool, Ironwood. The old Orchard pool became withdraw-only (The Block, 28 Jul 2026). If you hold shielded ZEC from before that date, this guide tells you whether you need to do anything and how to do it without giving away more than necessary.

Why the migration exists

On 29 May 2026 a researcher found an under-constrained check in the Orchard circuit that in theory allowed counterfeit ZEC. An emergency soft fork halted Orchard in early June, a hard fork (NU6.2) fixed the circuit on 3 June 2026, and no evidence of exploitation was found (Decrypt, June 2026). To prove total supply was never inflated, developers moved new shielded activity to Ironwood and put a turnstile on Orchard: the pool can never release more ZEC than entered it, and nodes reject any transaction that breaks this rule. Any counterfeit coins would be stranded. Details: the Orchard vulnerability and what Ironwood is.

Do you need to act?

Not sure which pool your funds are in? In Zodl, tap your balance on the main screen to see a breakdown by pool.

What happens to your u1 address

Nothing changes. Ironwood uses the same receiver structure as Orchard, so existing unified addresses keep working and wallets route new funds sent to them into Ironwood (Zodl, 28 Jul 2026). You do not need a new wallet or a new seed. Cake Wallet's receive screen simply changed its label from "Default (Orchard)" to "Default (Ironwood)". Addresses you shared before July 2026 can still receive.

Is there a deadline?

No. The protocol sets no fixed deadline, and Orchard funds do not expire (KuCoin, 2 Aug 2026; Zodl support). Zodl expects the migration never to reach 100%, because some coins sit behind lost keys. By 10 September 2026 about 88% of the Orchard balance had moved (KuCoin, Sep 2026).

Waiting has costs, though. Many wallets treat unmigrated Orchard funds as not yet spendable, and you stay dependent on wallet developers continuing to support a retired pool. None of the NU7 coverage we reviewed mentions a change to Orchard withdrawals; the pool NU7 does affect is Sprout. That could change, so migrating when your wallet prompts you is the safer choice.

Which wallets migrate automatically?

Migrating in Zodl, step by step

1. Update to the latest Zodl from the official app store, GitHub or F-Droid.
2. When the prompt appears, tap Migrate. If you dismiss it, it returns next time you open the app.
3. Choose Migrate with privacy (recommended). The alternative moves everything in one transaction and shows your full balance on-chain.
4. Turn on Tor when asked. Zodl strongly recommends it; without it the server sees your IP address next to the public amounts.
5. Android: allow background activity and notifications. iOS: keep Zodl open and active; if it closes, a notification tells you when the next transfer is ready.
6. Review the transfer plan and timing, tap Start migration and authenticate.
7. Zodl first sends a transaction to yourself that splits your balance into standard pieces, then sends them over time. A widget on the main screen shows progress; tap More for each transfer.
8. When finished, a small Orchard remainder may be left because amounts are standardised. You can sweep it (the odd amount may be identifiable) or lock it in the app to avoid spending it by accident. The lock does not carry over to another device.

Smaller balances can finish in a couple of hours; larger ones are spread out on purpose (Zodl support, checked October 2026). If a transfer shows "delayed", tap Send now or let Zodl retry. If one "couldn't be sent", reopen the app and follow the prompt to rebuild the plan.

Keystone users follow the same flow, then scan a QR code with the Keystone, approve on the device and tap Get Signature in Zodl for each batch.

Migrating in Cake Wallet

Open your Zcash wallet, let it sync fully and keep the app open. Cake splits the Orchard balance into round amounts such as 10, 1 and 0.1 ZEC and sends each to yourself as a "Migration" transaction. A "migrating to Ironwood" row under your balance disappears when it is done. Closing the app pauses migration; it resumes where it stopped (Cake Wallet docs).

What it costs

Each transfer pays an ordinary Zcash network fee under ZIP-317 (minimum 0.0001 ZEC). Cake estimates about 0.0002 ZEC per migrated amount. A private, multi-step migration costs more in total than one immediate transfer, which matters most for small balances. No wallet we checked charges a separate migration fee. Estimate it with the fee calculator.

Privacy: what the turnstile reveals

When ZEC crosses from Orchard to Ironwood, the amount becomes public. Sender and receiver stay shielded. A single transfer of an unusual amount, for example one matching an exchange withdrawal, can be linked to you.

• Prefer your wallet's privacy option, which uses standard amounts and spacing shared by many users.
• If migrating manually, use round amounts, spread transfers over days, and in Zodl make each one larger than your current Ironwood balance, because Zodl spends Ironwood funds first.
• Use Tor or a trusted VPN so your IP address is not linked to the amounts.

Migration scams

No one needs your seed to migrate. Ignore messages, memos or websites offering to "migrate your ZEC for you", "claim Ironwood tokens" or "verify your wallet". Migration happens inside your own wallet app. See Zcash scams.

After migrating: get ready for NU7

The next upgrade, NU7, is planned for block 3,543,405, around 5 November 2026 (height agreed 21 Oct 2026, Cointelegraph). It brings 25-second blocks and disables v4 transactions. As of 24 October 2026 it had not activated and a delay was possible. Keep your wallet updated before then.

Frequently asked questions