# Grant Application - Independent Recomputation of the Zcash Supply Ledger, including the NU7 NSM Reserve **URL:** \ **Category:** Community Grants\ **Created:** [September 25, 2026, 2:36am UTC](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/grant-application-independent-recomputation-of-the-zcash-supply-ledger-including-the-nu7-nsm-reserve/57799 "2026-09-25T02:36:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 1
**Author:** ![robustfengbin](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/zcash/user_avatar/forum.zcashcommunity.com/robustfengbin/32/42095_2.png) [@robustfengbin](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/u/robustfengbin)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2026, 2:36am UTC](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/grant-application-independent-recomputation-of-the-zcash-supply-ledger-including-the-nu7-nsm-reserve/57799/1 "2026-09-25T02:36:55Z")
Hello everyone — I’m submitting a proposal to Zcash Community Grants for an **independent accounting of Zcash’s supply** : every value pool, and the new NU7 NSM reserve, recomputed from block data outside any node. Application: [Grant Application - Independent Recomputation of the Zcash Supply Ledger, including the NU7 NSM Reserve · Issue #444 · ZcashCommunityGrants/zcashcommunitygrants · GitHub](https://github.com/ZcashCommunityGrants/zcashcommunitygrants/issues/444). ## Why now NU7 adds a term to Zcash’s supply. ZIP 259 defines the NSM reserve as _“a consensus-tracked balance of ZEC/TAZ removed from circulation … not a spendable chain value pool and … not included in Issued Supply”_. Zebra (ZcashFoundation/zebra#11487, #11454, #11490) and Zakura (zakura-core/zakura#1082) are each implementing it, and ZIP 259’s open issues list _“Add reference implementations and test vectors for the NSM reserve”_. I’ve asked the ZIP’s authors how independent vectors would fit: zcash/zips#1371. The wider gap predates NU7: a node’s reported supply is the sum of its own pool balances, and those balances have only ever been maintained by the node that reports them. Nothing lets a third party recompute them and get the same answer byte for byte. ## What’s independent, and what isn’t - **Not independent:** transaction parsing (Zebra since 6.4.0, Zakura and this project all use `zcash_primitives`), and the ZIPs themselves. - **Independent:** the accounting — which pool each value moves through, the issuance rules at each height, the NU7 fee removal, the reserve, and reissuance — written from the ZIPs in code shared with neither node. The transparent pool comes from its own set of unspent outputs. - **Out of scope:** this does **not** detect counterfeit shielded funds. Spending a forged note is indistinguishable from spending a real one. ## Milestones (~5 months) - **M1** — The NU7 window: NSM reserve reference model and test vectors (in the form agreed with the ZIP authors, or checking both implementations against theirs); the ledger core; block-by-block reconciliation of the reserve on Testnet (replayed from activation) and live across Mainnet activation, against each implementation that exposes it - **M2** — Full-history recomputation, from Sprout to NU7; byte-identical across two machines and two nodes - **M3** — Public report with reproduction instructions and checksums; daily verification; a proposed reconciliation step after Zebra’s own weekly Mainnet sync, which, if adopted, would keep it running without us ## Budget - Startup funding: $3,000 (node infrastructure — raw blocks are the only input) - Milestones 1–3: $47,000 ($17,000 / $15,000 / $15,000) - Total: $50,000 ## Prior work ZCG #234 (Zebra fuzzing — harnesses merged upstream, Zebra enrolled in OSS-Fuzz) and ZCG #332 (batch-vs-single verification equivalence, delivered this week). Questions and criticism welcome — especially from anyone working on the NU7 reserve in Zebra or Zakura. --- _[View the full topic](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/grant-application-independent-recomputation-of-the-zcash-supply-ledger-including-the-nu7-nsm-reserve/57799)._