The privacy-focused Zcash network stopped creating new blocks for more than four hours on Wednesday, a rare and worrying pause for the system.
Think of blockchain as a ledger that continues to grow as new transactions are added. Each “block” is a new entry in the ledger. So when the network stops creating new blocks, new transactions cannot be confirmed. This is as if the entire payment system freezes for several hours.
According to Zcash block explorers, the most recent block was number 3,364,601, created at 5:27 am UTC on June 3. After that, no new blocks appeared for more than four hours. Typically, Zcash adds a new block approximately every 75 seconds (just over a minute).
Zcash’s native token ZEC has risen 8% over the past week, according to data from CoinDesk, offsetting overall market weakness. The token has gained 46% in the last month.
For cryptocurrency investors, this event is a reminder that even the most well-known cryptocurrencies can have technical problems. Zcash has not made a public statement on the issue.
