Pirate Chain activates its Ironwood shielded pool

Pirate Chain activated Ironwood, a new shielded pool based on the Halo2 proving system, after a countdown beginning at 19:00 UTC. The network skipped Orchard and moved directly from its existing Sapling-era design to the newer construction.

Ironwood removes the older trusted-setup model for new transactions in the pool and incorporates a circuit design backed by machine-checked formal verification. Existing Sapling addresses remain supported, while newly generated addresses move to Ironwood and users can transfer funds between the pools.

The upgrade changes the cryptographic system used for new private transactions without invalidating the balances already held in Sapling. Wallet compatibility remains part of the transition, which is why full-node users were required to update before activation.