Zcash Glossary
Short, plain-English definitions for the terms you'll run into around Zcash and shielded transactions — from zk-SNARKs to viewing keys.
Circulating Supply
The amount of ZEC that has been mined and is publicly available, out of the 21 million max supply.
Coinbase Transaction
The special first transaction in a block that creates new ZEC and pays it to the miner as the block reward.
Coinholder Voting
A process in which ZEC holders vote, weighted by the ZEC they hold, on whether completed ecosystem work is paid from the Coinholder-Controlled Fund. It directs a funding program; it does not change Zcash's consensus rules.
Light Wallet / Light Client
A wallet that doesn't store the full blockchain, instead syncing balance data from a remote server.
lightwalletd
A backend service that gives light wallets a bandwidth-efficient interface to the Zcash blockchain, so they do not have to download the whole chain.
Lockbox (Deferred Development Lockbox)
A pool of ZEC tracked by the protocol itself — funds set aside from the block subsidy that cannot be spent until a disbursement rule exists.
Network Upgrade (NU)
A coordinated, scheduled protocol change to the Zcash network, numbered sequentially since NU5 (NU5, NU6...).
Note Commitment
A cryptographic commitment added to the blockchain whenever a new shielded note is created, without revealing what the note actually contains.
Nullifier
A one-time cryptographic value published when a shielded note is spent, so the network can reject any attempt to spend the same note twice.
Sapling
A 2018 Zcash network upgrade that made shielded transactions dramatically faster and cheaper to compute.
Seed Phrase
A sequence of words that can regenerate every key and address in a wallet.
Shielded Address (z-address)
A Zcash address that uses zero-knowledge proofs to keep the sender, receiver and amount private.
Shielded Pool
The shared pool of ZEC held in shielded (private) addresses, where balances and transaction details are encrypted.
Shielding / Deshielding
Moving funds from a transparent address into the shielded pool (shielding), or back out (deshielding).
Transaction Fee
The small amount of ZEC paid, on top of any amount sent, to have a transaction included in a block.
Transaction ID (TXID)
The unique identifier for a single Zcash transaction, derived from its own contents.
Transparent Address (t-address)
A Zcash address that behaves like a Bitcoin address — balances and transactions are publicly visible.
Zallet
A full-node Zcash wallet written in Rust, built to replace the wallet that was embedded in zcashd. It is still pre-release software.
Zcash Community Grants (ZCG)
A grants program funded by 8% of the block subsidy, with awards decided by an elected five-seat committee — separate from coinholder-directed grants.
Zebra
A Zcash full node written in Rust, maintained by the Zcash Foundation. It is the node the zcashd end-of-life notice points operators to.
Zero-Knowledge Proof
A cryptographic method for proving a statement is true without revealing why it's true.
ZIP (Zcash Improvement Proposal)
A public, numbered document that proposes or specifies a change to Zcash's protocol, a process, or a funding rule — the project's equivalent of Bitcoin's BIPs.
ZIP 317
The Zcash Improvement Proposal that defines the conventional transaction fee: 5,000 zatoshis per logical action, with a minimum of two actions.
zk-SNARK
A zero-knowledge proof that lets someone prove a statement is true without revealing the underlying data.
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