Zcash Introduces Flexible Fee System to Prevent Users from Being Priced Out.

Zcash Developer Unveils Dynamic Fee Proposal Amid Rising Network Activity

A key Zcash developer has released the first detailed plan for a dynamic fee market, sparking community debate on how the network should price transactions as ZEC’s price, user activity, and institutional interest climb.

The Monday proposal from Shielded Labs moves away from Zcash’s long-standing static fee model—initially 10,000 zatoshi, later reduced to 1,000—which, while adequate during low demand, eventually contributed to “sandblasting” spam that congested wallets and the blockchain.

ZIP-317’s action-based accounting addressed the spam problem by treating each transaction component—spends, outputs, JoinSplits, and Orchard actions—as a single “action,” letting fees scale with activity rather than transaction size. However, fees remained predictable and low, failing to adjust for growing network usage or rising token prices.

Developers note that recent trends—ZEC’s price surge, onboarding of new retail users, and the rise of digital-asset treasuries—highlight the limitations of the current model. Some users report rising transaction costs in ZEC terms, and shielding large numbers of small transactions can cost double-digit ZEC.

The proposed system introduces a stateless dynamic fee design based on the median fee per action over the last 50 blocks, supplemented with synthetic transactions to simulate constant congestion. Fees are bucketed into powers of ten to protect privacy, with a temporary 10× priority lane during network stress.

Implementation would occur in phases: off-chain monitoring first, then wallet policies, and eventually, a consensus update with expiry-height limits. This approach preserves Zcash’s privacy while avoiding the complexity of Ethereum-style EIP-1559 mechanisms.

ZEC traded around $395 on Tuesday, up more than 12% in 24 hours following the release of the roadmap, the first concrete fee reform plan since ZIP-317.