Zakura has launched Zakura Common, an open-source cryptography toolkit aimed at speeding up shielded Zcash transactions without requiring changes to the underlying network.
Released on August 31, the toolkit can cut shielded transaction-generation time from more than three seconds to below 200 milliseconds in some cases, according to Zakura. The team said mobile proof generation is now more than 14 times faster, targeting a major source of friction for users sending private ZEC.
The improvements also extend to desktop systems, where transaction creation is reportedly more than five times faster. Zakura said Sinsemilla hashing is over 21 times faster, trial decryption has improved by more than 1.5 times, and zk-SNARK verification now runs four to eight times faster.
Wallet developers can integrate Zakura Common without waiting for a Zcash protocol upgrade or modifying consensus rules. Zakura plans to incorporate the stack into its upcoming 1.3.0 node software, while Vizor Wallet is among the first projects to use the technology.
Tackling the Wallet-Side Bottleneck
Shielded Zcash transactions protect the identities of the sender and recipient as well as the amount being transferred. To create such a transaction, the wallet must perform extensive cryptographic calculations locally before the payment can be submitted to the blockchain.
That local computation can create noticeable delays even when the Zcash network itself is operating normally. Zakura Common is designed to reduce this wallet-side workload rather than improve block production or change consensus mechanisms.
Zakura said wallets using its libraries should also be able to synchronize more quickly. Its node software is expected to provide faster transaction verification, lower orphan rates and quicker transaction propagation. The reported performance gains are based on Zakura’s own testing.
Scaling Beyond Faster Blocks
Zakura is an independent Zcash node implementation led by co-founder Sean Bowe with Dev Ojha. Its software is separate from the node implementation maintained by the Zcash Foundation.
The project forms part of a broader scaling effort, with Project Tachyon also moving to the new software stack. Zakura’s work focuses on several performance constraints rather than block production alone.
Other bottlenecks include the time nodes need to verify transactions, the amount of blockchain data wallets must download and the processing power required to generate privacy proofs on individual devices.
Zakura’s longer-term objective is to support more than 50,000 private transactions per second, a level comparable with major card-payment networks. The project contrasts that target with a current wallet-software ceiling of roughly one transaction per second.
The team also said its software can already support the 25-second block intervals proposed for NU7, the next major Zcash upgrade.
ZEC initially gained about 5% following the launch, trading near $839, before moving lower alongside a broader market pullback on Monday. Zakura is now encouraging wallet developers to integrate its publicly available cryptography libraries, which work with the existing Zcash network.
