Zcash Fault Triggers About 140 RUNE in THORChain Bond Deductions

A fault matching outgoing Zcash (ZEC) transactions triggered deductions totaling about 140 RUNE, THORChain’s native token, from bonds tied to 18 node accounts despite no loss of user or vault funds.

Node operators bond RUNE as collateral to help secure THORChain’s vaults, which hold assets used in swaps across blockchains. The matching error imposed a vault penalty even though the vault had not lost funds. The deductions are a newly quantified consequence of the ZEC swap fault covered on Oct. 19.

The protocol paused native ZEC swaps after the fault, interrupting a route for exchanging ZEC with assets on other blockchains. The bond deductions fell on node accounts rather than funds held for users.

THORChain’s proposed v3.21.0 upgrade would treat a Zcash TEX address and its corresponding transparent address as the same destination when checking outgoing transactions. The change is proposed for block 28,366,100, with activation estimated for Oct. 23. Native ZEC swaps can resume only after the trading halt is lifted.