❯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 amounts are coins — reconstructed from the consensus subsidy schedule at fixed block heights, with the lockbox balance read from the node. No dollar valuations, because the node does not measure historical market price.
▍Founders' reward
Blocks 0 – 1,046,399 · 2016-10-28 → 2020-11-18 · 1,483 days
▍Coins issued to founders
2,099,999 ZEC
20% of every subsidy, four years
▍Share of ZEC in existence
12.4%
of today's issued supply
▍Reward share
20%
of each block subsidy
▍Ended at block
1,046,400
Canopy · first halving
▍Development fund (ZIP-1014)
Blocks 1,046,400 – 2,726,399 · 2020-11-19 → 2024-11-23
▍Total routed to the fund
1,050,002 ZEC
20% of subsidy for four years
▍Recipients
3
ECC · Foundation · Major Grants
▍Reward share
20%
7% / 5% / 8%
▍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
0.4% of supply · measured
▍Accrued since NU6
149,719 ZEC
12% of subsidy
▍Disbursed
146,350 ZEC
78,750 ZEC on 2025-11-24
▍Grants stream
99,525 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.
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; the lockbox balance is read from the node's value pools. Coin amounts are exact. Nothing here is valued in dollars, and nothing uses the recipients' own accounting. JSON at
GET /api/v1/treasury; issuance context on the emission chart.