Zcash developers plan to add support for hash-based, post-quantum signature instructions in January, creating a path for transactions that do not depend on the elliptic-curve assumptions used by current wallets.
The target appears in an engineering update from Zakura, one of the software implementations used to run Zcash. No mainnet activation date has been confirmed, and the work is still a planned software milestone rather than an active network protection.
The first stage would focus on transparent payments, where approximately 70% of issued ZEC currently sits, CoinDesk reported. Shielded balances require a separate protection design because their privacy system uses different cryptographic components.
Zakura has also developed a private balance-query tool intended to let wallets check transparent addresses without telling a server which addresses belong to the same user. An experimental version is available in the Vizor wallet.
TOKEN RECON ASSESSMENT
Zcash has set a concrete software target, not a completed quantum migration. The initiative becomes operationally meaningful when code lands, independent reviewers analyze it, wallet tooling supports migration and the network establishes an activation path for both transparent and shielded funds.
Sources
CoinDesk: Zcash targets January for post-quantum payment support
