# ZF Engineering Update - 15th June to 28th June 2026 **URL:** \ **Category:** Zcash Foundation\ **Created:** [June 30, 2026, 5:09pm UTC](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/zf-engineering-update-15th-june-to-28th-june-2026/56472 "2026-06-30T17:09:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ZcashFoundation](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/zcash/user_avatar/forum.zcashcommunity.com/zcashfoundation/32/21548_2.png) [@ZcashFoundation](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/u/ZcashFoundation)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2026, 5:09pm UTC](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/zf-engineering-update-15th-june-to-28th-june-2026/56472/1 "2026-06-30T17:09:38Z")
Over the last two weeks most of our attention went into making Zebra’s releases easier to trust and install: a new reviewed release process, downloadable signed binaries, and signed Docker images that anyone can rebuild and verify came from us. Alongside that we fixed a couple of node stability problems (including a sync stall near the chain tip), shipped [Zebra v5.2.0](https://zfnd.org/zebra-5-2-0-wider-rollback-window/), and started work on support for the future NU6.3 “Ironwood” network upgrade. ## Security The headline security work was making Zebra’s releases [reproducible and signed](https://github.com/ZcashFoundation/zebra/pull/10798), so anyone can rebuild a release and confirm the binary they downloaded genuinely came from our release pipeline. Before this shipped, we reviewed the new pipeline and [fixed a few issues it turned up](https://github.com/ZcashFoundation/zebra/pull/10804). The linked pull requests and our [release blog posts](https://zfnd.org/blog/) have the full details. ## CI / DevOps Most of our DevOps effort went into a new, reviewed [release process](https://github.com/ZcashFoundation/zebra/pull/10457) for Zebra, with a human check before each release goes out. On top of that, each release now ships [pre-built, signed zebrad binaries](https://github.com/ZcashFoundation/zebra/pull/10799) for Linux that can be installed with `cargo binstall`. We also did some test infrastructure work, including [reorganising the zebrad tests into a clearer layout](https://github.com/ZcashFoundation/zebra/pull/10454) and [letting maintainers run integration tests on demand for pull requests from forks](https://github.com/ZcashFoundation/zebra/pull/10714). ## Other Zebra work We shipped [Zebra v5.2.0](https://zfnd.org/zebra-5-2-0-wider-rollback-window/), which widens the rollback window to 1000 blocks together with a [related checkpoint fix](https://github.com/ZcashFoundation/zebra/pull/10719). We also tracked down and fixed a [sync stall near the chain tip](https://github.com/ZcashFoundation/zebra/pull/10810) that could leave a node stuck restarting. We also started on support for NU6.3 “Ironwood”, a future Zcash network upgrade that adds a new shielded pool and transaction format. This is early, experimental work, and we’ve opened an [initial draft](https://github.com/ZcashFoundation/zebra/pull/10762) so the team and collaborators can review the approach as it develops. ## Work on other repositories On Zcash’s wallet daemon [Zallet](https://github.com/zcash/zallet), we added a [generate-identity subcommand](https://github.com/zcash/zallet/pull/488) so users can create an encryption identity without needing a separate tool, and we [added z\_importkey and z\_exportkey for Sapling keys](https://github.com/zcash/zallet/pull/400). We also did some maintenance on the infrastructure behind our public status page ([status.zfnd.org](http://status.zfnd.org)) and the DNS seeder. ## Thanks to external contributors We had a lot of help from outside the team this period. [@nuttycom](https://github.com/nuttycom) landed a [line of work](https://github.com/ZcashFoundation/zebra/pull/10776) — building on our own earlier groundwork — to make Zebra’s state safe to open read-only as a secondary database and to stream non-finalized blocks to other tools such as wallets. [@zmanian](https://github.com/zmanian) fixed [several invalidateblock/reconsiderblock cases that could crash the node](https://github.com/ZcashFoundation/zebra/pull/10592), and [@evan-forbes](https://github.com/evan-forbes) [raised the local rollback window from 99 to 1000 blocks](https://github.com/ZcashFoundation/zebra/pull/10650) as a defence against sustained chain splits. [@emersonian](https://github.com/emersonian) [made a disk-write crash report the underlying error](https://github.com/ZcashFoundation/zebra/pull/10722) so operators can quickly spot a full disk. [@dannywillems](https://github.com/dannywillems) added [Dockerfile linting with hadolint](https://github.com/ZcashFoundation/zebra/pull/10662) and a [shellcheck workflow](https://github.com/ZcashFoundation/zebra/pull/10661), and [@dmidem](https://github.com/dmidem) [fixed CI for the ZSA integration branches](https://github.com/ZcashFoundation/zebra/pull/10735).