July 2026 Work Progress: Ethereum Classic Cuts Block Reward by 20%

August 3, 2026

July was a month of shrinking block rewards. Ethereum Classic cut its block reward by 20% under ECIP-1017, Kaspa went through another scheduled reduction, and Zcash activated the Ironwood upgrade that closes the Orchard flaw we reported last month. We also refreshed our Zcash, Nervos, and Pearl nodes and rotated the SSL certificates on all pools.