New development builds upon the limitation of access to the shielded pool implemented earlier by ZenIP-42204 and is a response to the ever-increasing regulatory pressure on privacy-centric assets. Horizen reaffirms its commitment to building a secure and compliant ecosystem for users in various regions of the world.
Horizen disables shielded transactions amid regulatory hostility
According to the official statement by Horizen, the ZenIP 42207 voting period ended on Jan. 11, 2024, at 5:00 p.m. UTC and passed with 99.97% of votes “for,” with .03% of votes “against.” This means that the community approved the complete disabling of the opportunity to send money in a private mannet via shielded transactions.
Breaking News! 🚨
The Horizen Community has voted to pass ZenIP 42207, with 99.97% voting in favor of the proposal.
We would like to thank the community for their engagement on this ZenIP, marking a new step in the progress of the Horizen DAO and confirming the future removal… pic.twitter.com/I4GQ2RVs0o
— Horizen (@horizenglobal) January 11, 2024
All blockchain functionalities associated with the shielded transactions (z-addresses) will be completely deactivated; no transaction to a shielded pool will ever be allowed.
Remote procedure calls (RPCs) specifically related to shielded transactions, such as z_sendmany and z_mergetoaddress, will be removed from Horizen’s tooling.
As such, the community and ZEN holders should be prepared for the incoming hard fork of the blockchain. A migration path with the necessary tools and guides will be provided to users to move their assets out of the shielded pool before the hard fork.
The specific number of blocks for the hard fork is yet to be disclosed, the statement goes.
As covered by U.Today previously, the removal of privacy coin functions was the main announcement from Horizen in 2023.
ZEN 5.0.0 to go live in mainnet in February, 2024: What to expect?
In order to properly implement new functions, contributors to Horizen are going to release an updated sotware client. ZEN 5.0.0 is expected to be released in January and go live on Mainnet in February 2024.
Once active it will not be possible to send any shielded transactions, including transactions to de-shield coins from shielded to transparent addresses.
ZenIP 42207 goes further than the hard fork originally announced with ZEN 4.2.0-rc1; ZEN 5.0.0 will completely remove the shielded pool.
TheHorizen community is enthusiastic about upcoming events: the ZEN price added almost 15% in the last 24 hours and is changing hands near the $9.8 level.
