Zcash developers are targeting Nov. 5 to switch on NU7, the network's next major upgrade. The biggest improvement is set to be block time, the gap between each confirmed batch of transactions, drops from 75 seconds to 25. That's a three-times speedup for a coin built around zero-knowledge proofs—math that lets someone prove a payment is valid without revealing who sent it, to whom, or how much. Shorter blocks mean shielded, private transactions confirm almost as fast as a card swipe.