Zcash core developer Sean Bowe has provided an update on the progress of the Ironwood upgrade, saying that protocol developers from multiple organizations held two meetings within the past 48 hours. According to his update, the participating teams reached agreement on several specifications and implementation details related to Ironwood, moving the work into a more concrete phase involving specification handling, implementation changes, testnet preparation, formal verification and security review.
Developers align on Ironwood specification details
The points agreed upon include disabling Orchard pool bundles in Coinbase transactions, using anchors as authentication data for hardware wallet migration, and determining the processing order for ZIPs and specifications. These items cover different parts of the upgrade process: transaction handling, hardware wallet migration authentication, and the ordering of documentation and specification work. Sean Bowe’s update framed them as key details that required coordination among protocol developers across organizations.
At the same time, the Ironwood circuits and the ZIP 2005 integration draft are currently under review. The review process follows the coordination on specifications and implementation choices, and focuses on the circuit-related work as well as the proposed integration of ZIP 2005. The update did not provide a completion date for these reviews, but it confirmed that both items have already entered the review stage.
Testnet, formal verification and Orchard audits progress in parallel
On the implementation side, Valar Group has completed the setup of a testnet and has implemented some wallet-side changes. With the testnet in place, part of the wallet work has also moved into execution, giving developers an environment for further coordination around Ironwood. In parallel, formal verification work continues, and the development team plans to hold a meeting tomorrow to determine the final verification strategy.
Security review is also underway. Sean Bowe said that at least three major audit firms are conducting security audits of Orchard, while multiple AI audit tools have also been put into use at the same time. This means the Orchard review is proceeding through both external audit firms and AI-based audit tooling. In his update, Sean Bowe said the overall development progress is going smoothly.