❯Protocol
Treasury
Every ZEC that did not go to a miner: the founders' reward of the first four years, the development fund that replaced it, and the on-chain lockbox that now accrues a share of each block. All figures are reconstructed from block subsidies at consensus-defined heights and marked at the day's price.
▍Founders' reward
Blocks 0 – 1,046,399 · 2016-10-28 → 2020-11-18 · 1,483 days
worth on the days it was paid
$329.90M
Each day's founders' coins marked at that day's close and summed — the cash a recipient selling on arrival would have banked. The same 2,099,999 ZEC is worth $2.50B at today's price, 7.59× more.
▍Coins issued to founders
2,099,999 ZEC
20% of every subsidy, four years
▍Average price received
$157.09
dollars ÷ coins
▍Same coins today
$2.50B
at $1,193
▍Share of ZEC in existence
1240.5%
what replacing it would mean buying
▍Development fund (ZIP-1014)
Blocks 1,046,400 – 2,726,399 · 2020-11-19 → 2024-11-23
▍Total routed to the fund
1,050,000 ZEC
20% of subsidy for four years
▍Worth when paid
$90.36M
marked daily
▍Same coins today
$1.25B
13.9× of paid value
▍Lockbox (NU6 onward)
Since 2024-11-23: 12% of each subsidy accrues on-chain and can only be released by a network upgrade; 8% funds grants directly.
▍Lockbox balance
61,461 ZEC
$73.30M
▍Accrued since NU6
141,943 ZEC
12% of subsidy
▍Disbursed
138,898 ZEC
78,750 ZEC on 2025-11-24
▍Grants stream
94,342 ZEC
8% paid directly
Development Fund
What has accrued to the on-chain lockbox and what has been disbursed.
ZECSCOPE
Block Reward Split
Who receives each block's subsidy: miners, the founders' reward, the dev fund, the lockbox.
ZECSCOPE
▍The arithmetic, fixed by consensus
| Era | Blocks | Dates | Block subsidy | Non-miner share | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Slow start | 0 – 19,999 | 2016-10-28 → 2016-12-01 | 0 → 12.5 ZEC (linear ramp) | 20% | Subsidy ramps from zero so early miners could not mint a large share while the network was tiny. |
| Full subsidy | 20,000 – 653,599 | 2016-12-01 → 2019-12-11 | 12.5 ZEC | 20% | 150-second blocks. The founders' reward is paid to a rotating set of transparent addresses hard-coded in consensus. |
| Blossom | 653,600 – 1,046,399 | 2019-12-11 → 2020-11-18 | 6.25 ZEC | 20% | Block time halves to 75 s and the per-block subsidy halves with it, so issuance per day is unchanged. |
| Canopy · Halving I | 1,046,400 – 2,726,399 | 2020-11-18 → 2024-11-23 | 3.125 ZEC | 0% (dev fund 20%) | The founders' reward ends by construction. ZIP-1014 routes 20% to ECC, ZF and Major Grants instead. |
| NU6 · Halving II | 2,726,400 – 4,406,399 | 2024-11-23 → ~2028 | 1.5625 ZEC | 0% (lockbox 12%, grants 8%) | Twelve percent accrues to an on-chain lockbox that only a later upgrade can spend; eight percent funds grants directly. |
▍How the money got decided
A timeline of the funding decisions, because each one is a consensus rule someone had to argue for.
28 October 2016#0upgrade
Genesis with a 20% founders' reward
From the first block, a fifth of every subsidy goes to founders, early investors and the company building the protocol, for the first four years only.
1 November 2019vote
The community debates what comes after
With the founders' reward set to expire, a dozen proposals compete: from no funding at all to a renewed 20% split; sentiment polling of miners, forum members and the advisory panel narrows the field.
30 January 2020vote
ZIP-1014 is selected
A four-year 20% development fund is chosen: 7% to the Electric Coin Company, 5% to the Zcash Foundation, 8% to a Major Grants programme administered at arm's length.
18 November 2020#1,046,400upgrade
Canopy activates; the founders' reward ends
The first halving and the dev fund start at the same block. Payments become consensus rules rather than promises.
1 June 2024vote
Deciding the second dev fund
As ZIP-1014 nears expiry, the choice is between another direct split and parking funds on-chain until governance matures. The lockbox model wins on the argument that the chain should hold its own reserve.
23 November 2024#2,726,400upgrade
NU6 and the second halving
Twelve percent of each subsidy accrues to a consensus-enforced lockbox no one can spend yet; eight percent pays grants through the Foundation.
24 November 2025#3,146,400upgrade
NU6.1 disburses the lockbox
The first release moves 78,750 ZEC from the lockbox to the grant programme under a disbursement rule adopted by upgrade, and accrual continues.
9 January 2026vote
The wallet team leaves the Electric Coin Company
The engineers behind the flagship wallet depart ECC to form the Zcash Open Development Lab, explicitly to build without depending on the development fund. Zashi is rebranded Zodl the following month. Nothing in consensus changes — but the largest recipient of past dev-fund money is no longer where the wallet work happens.
28 July 2026#3,428,143upgrade
NU6.3 keeps the split unchanged
Ironwood is a shielded-pool upgrade; it does not touch the reward split, which remains 80 / 12 / 8.
Upcomingplanned
Next decision: the lockbox mechanism
The rules for spending the lockbox at scale are still to be written. Whatever is chosen has to be an upgrade, which is the point.
Method: subsidies per height from the consensus schedule; day boundaries pro-rated by blocks; prices are our daily closes. Nothing here uses the recipients' own accounting. JSON at
GET /api/v1/treasury; issuance context on the emission chart.